AM institute America Makes reports that the design research education of additive manufacturing systems (the DREAMS lab) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) has won the institute’s award for ‘smart structures’ using additive manufacturing (AM) methods.
A smart structure is any part with an integrated device, such as (but not limited to) embedded sensors or actuators that allow for data acquisition and/or smart manipulation.
America Makes awarded a silver-level membership in the Institute, worth US$15,000, to the Virginia Tech team for its submission titled, ‘Smart Wing Project,’ in which mechatronic devices intended for use in wings for remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA) were successfully AM fabricated in a single process without post-process assembly.
‘On behalf of everyone at America Makes, we extend our congratulations to the Virginia Tech team for their winning smart structures submission,’ said John Wilczynski, deputy director of technology development at America Makes. ‘Smart structures hold great significance to America Makes and to the AM community at large because each implementation moves us one step closer to realizing multi-material and multi-process integration. This new capability will also help us realize true DFAM, that is design for additive manufacturing, where we will be able to stop designing with conventional processes in mind and start fully realizing AM capabilities, which will have the potential to impact a wide variety of industries from the consumer space to automotive to healthcare and beyond.’
This story is reprinted from material from America Makes, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
