Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing (UAM), a solid-state (no melting) metal 3D printing technology, enables integration of temperature sensitive components, such as fiber optic strain sensors, directly into metal structures. Sensor integration into metal components is of interest for enhanced control and monitoring purposes of cutting edge components. The technology has relevance in aerospace, nuclear, and oil & gas.

EWI and its affiliate Fabrisonic LLC have pioneered a unique system that utilizes ultrasonic additive manufacturing (a hybrid additive and subtractive manufacturing process) to inlay sensors into system parts as they are being built. The early success of the technology is prompting further study and shows great promise for advancements in the manufacture of sensing systems. Adam Hehr of Fabrisonic has written Building Fiber Optic Strain Sensor into Metal Components, which shares the fundamental work that has been done so far, and offers some of the key areas to be explored using the technology.

 To download the paper, click here.

To contact the author, email [email protected].

To learn more about EWI’s work in additive manufacturing, visit ewi.org/technologies/additive-manufacturing.

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In the next two months, several EWI Associates will be sharing their technology-specific expertise at professional meetings and conferences. We invite you to attend our technical presentations at these events, and to talk to our engineers about how EWI can help your company address its manufacturing challenges.

PMA Metal Stamping and Tool & Die Conference 
January 30 – 31, 2018
Hyunok Kim, EWI Forming Center Director,“Applications of Real-time and Nondestructive Evaluation Tools to Achieve the First-time Quality Stampings”

Resistance Welding Manufacturing Alliance (RWMA) 2018 Annual Meeting
February 28 – March 2, 2018
Jerry Gould, Senior Technology Advisor for Resistance and Solid-state Welding, Opening Speaker for RWMA 2018

SPIE SMART STRUCTURES+NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION 2018
March 4, 2018 – 8, 2018
Evgueni Todorov, Senior Technical Advisor for NDE, “Demonstration of Array Eddy Current Technology for Real-time Monitoring of Laser Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing Process”

America Makes Technical Review & Exchange (TRX)
March 14 – 15, 2018
Frank Medina, Senior Technical Advisor for Additive Manufacturing, “An Overview of the AMC Projects and Collaborations.”

AeroDef Manufacturing Conference 2018
March 26 – 29, 2018
Frank Medina, EWI Senior Technology Advisor for Additive Manufacturing, presents two half-day workshops on March 26: Fundamentals of Additive Manufacturing and Metal Part Fabrication Using Additive Manufacturing Technologies

For a full listing of EWI’s upcoming events, click here.
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We are pleased to welcome EWI’s newest member Manifold & Phalor, Inc. The company, based in Canal Winchester, OH, supplies OEM components large and small from raw stock, castings, forgings, and fabricated products. Its  repair services range from simple re-weld and machining to design and manufacture of complex replacement parts.

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The Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) closed on an up-to $509,895 grant to the Buchanan County Industrial Development Authority Thursday to implement a cybersecurity pilot program in Buchanan County designed to create jobs in the cybersecurity field. At the same time, the project will serve to mentor students to learn network monitoring skills through an on-the-job training cooperative aimed at assisting small and medium-sized manufacturers.

   The Buchanan County IDA will be working with EWI, an engineering and technology organization headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, which develops, tests and implements advanced manufacturing technologies for industry. EWI is partnering with some of America’s leading cybersecurity experts who will staff the cooperative, mentor students, and lead the small and medium-sized manufacturers solution development.  Buchanan County will be the first location in the United States to receive the pilot program which is geared towards rural areas.

   “The objective of this project is to develop and launch a scalable pilot test for a novel, non-profit, cooperative business model to simultaneously serve small to medium-sized manufacturing companies (SMMs) while developing a pool of talent in rural communities.  In addition to helping manufacturers, EWI seeks to help communities achieve their economic development goals, and that’s why we are so excited to be working with Buchanan County,” said Chris Conrardy, EWI’s Chief Technology Officer. The project calls for the co-op to share infrastructure costs across multiple small and medium manufacturing companies to put Department of Defense-level defense strategies in the hands of SMMs. To grow the talent pool necessary to implement the strategy, on-the-job training (OJT) will teach new hires of the co-op how to perform network monitoring, providing rural employment opportunities within the cooperative, while building recognized skills that can lead to other career opportunities. As trainees acquire skills, they may become mentors to others and expand the talent pipeline, according to EWI.

   The beginning phase of the pilot program involves the selection of the initial student mentees and small to medium-sized manufacturing companies. Students will go through a ninemonth training period during which they will be paid. The program will utilize distance learning capabilities. The companies selected to take part in the project will be assessed before and after the pilot program to determine the effectiveness of the cybersecurity services. The students’ attainment of cybersecurity skills will be assessed, including job readiness level and accreditation preparedness for the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) credential, and their readiness for the more advanced, SysAdmin, Audit, Network and Security (SANS) certification.

   According to EWI, in 2014 there were more than 250,000 firms in the U.S. manufacturing sector, with all but about 3,750 firms considered to be small (i.e., having fewer than 500 employees). In fact, three-quarters of these firms have fewer than 20 employees. In 2014, the Pentagon’s top-100 contractors had obligated contracts worth $177.6 billion. While the largest DoD contractors have their own cybersecurity teams, the many thousands of SMMs within their supply chains are potential early customers for the cooperative.

   Small and medium-sized manufacturers make up more than 90 percent of all U.S. manufacturers and constitute the backbone of U.S. supply chains. Large companies rely heavily on their networks of these suppliers, with value added by suppliers accounting for close to 60% of the final purchase price of goods sold.

With the increased connectivity between manufacturers and supply chains, the need to protect critical industrial systems and intellectual property is increasing dramatically, EWI spokesmen noted. At the same time, the cybersecurity threat landscape is in a constant state of flux as new vulnerabilities emerge and attackers adapt to defenses. Some insurers have begun to require adequate cybersecurity defenses to be eligible for insurance. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has begun to impose new cybersecurity requirements on defense suppliers and large companies are beginning to promulgate these requirements throughout their supply chains.

   “We look forward to working with Buchanan County and EWI as this project moves forward,” said Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA Executive Directory/General Counsel. “The grant to the Buchanan County IDA will help get the project started and is being provided from regional funds within VCEDA.  It is an investment by VCEDA in the future of Buchanan County and our region.”

   To learn more about the cybersecurity pilot program, contact Chis Conrardy at [email protected].

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EWI Forming Center has been leading the Aluminum Warm Forming Project with 12 industry partners for the past two years. The project aims to develop advanced and practical warm forming technology for high-strength aluminum automotive structures.

   In January 2018, the project team successfully implemented advanced and practical warm forming technology to produce high-strength and lightweight aluminum double doors at American Tooling Center in Grass Lake, Michigan. Warm forming technology enabled us to improve the quality of door inner parts with no defects such as wrinkling and necking compared to cold forming of same aluminum 6xxx alloy. With the production-like batch run of this new process, the cycle time of furnace heating, automated part transferring, and die stamping were found to be less than 90 seconds. There are more opportunities to further reduce cycle time of the warm forming like cold stamping by improving heating method and the automation program since the press time for each cycle is similar to the cold stamping.  More importantly, this technology can be practically executed using a conventional furnace, part handling equipment and hydraulic press.

   The project team conducted extensive work from characterizing of material properties and lubricant performance to tooling / process design using FEA through prototyping of industry example parts. In addition to the door inner parts, EWI Forming Center and industry partners successfully implemented the warm forming process to produce the sidebar crash parts with ultra-high-strength (UHS) 7xxx aluminum alloy at American Tooling Center in 2017. These prototype parts can bolster both confidence and knowledge of the industry partners on the manufacturing of aluminum warm formed structural parts for lightweighting of the next generation vehicles.

   To learn more about the Aluminum Warm Forming Project and other EWI Forming Center projects, contact Technical Director Hyunok Kim at [email protected].

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The AWS Sheet Metal Welding Conference (SMWC XVIII) has announced its call for papers on the topic of  “Welding Solutions for Lightweight Vehicle Production.” The conference, sponsored in partnership with EWI and  ALAW, will be held October 17-18, 2018, in Livonia, Michigan. According to Jerry Gould, EWI Senior Technical Advisor and SMWC Technical Co-chair, topics of interest include:

• Resistance Welding
• Fusion Welding
• Solid-state Joining
• Mechanical Fastening
• Hybrid Joining Methods
• Weld Inspection and Repair
• Vehicle Performance Simulation and Assessment
• Joining of Advanced Steels
• Dissimilar Materials Joining
• Materials and Weldability
• Welding Process Monitoring and Control
• Non-sheet Metal Joining

For full details on abstract submission, click here now.

Questions about SMWC XVIII? Contact Jerry Gould at [email protected].

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We are please to introduce new EWI member Hanon Systems Americas. Founded as a joint company of Ford Motor Company and Mando Corporation, Hanon Systems is dedicated to the development and production of high quality air conditioning and heating systems. The company, based in Michigan, has a worldwide network of 40 manufacturing facilities and four R&D centers.

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EWI is pleased to welcome Marmon Holdings, Inc., as a new member company.  The organization is part of Berkshire Hathaway, and is made up of four autonomous companies: Marmon Energy Services; Marmon Engineered Components; Marmon Food, Beverage & Water Technologies; and Marmon Retail & Highways Technologies. Marmon businesses operate more than 350 manufacturing, distribution, and service facilities, and employ about 20,000 people worldwide.

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