JANUARY 2018 Additive Manufacturing
FEATURE
/
Metal Additive Manufacturing
32
By Brent Donaldson
What GE's Machine
Learning Ecosystem
Will Mean for AM
That we have reached a stage in additive manufacturing (AM)
where machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are recog-
nized as critical functionalities reflects how far our understanding
of additive has evolved in the recent past. As you can read else-
where in this issue (see pages 22 and 28), the variables for achieving
the desired outcomes in additive manufacturing are potentially
too numerous and complex to master through trial-and-error
alone. However—and this became clear to me during a recent visit
to GE's Global Research Center in Niskayuna, New York—we are
reaching a nexus where computational power and AI frameworks
are robust enough to meet and overcome this complexity. And
with the recent announcement that GE is outfitting its Concept
Laser M2 additive machines with an industrial internet platform
that will enable machine learning at the machine, one of the
world's foremost leaders in AM is betting long on this technology.
At GE's Global Research Center in upstate New York,
engineers join forces to build a digital library of additive research
GE's Global Research Center (GRC) in Niskayuna is part of
a network of technology centers GE operates around the world.
Founded in 1900 as the first industrial research lab in the United
States, it is, by far, the oldest. The legacy of Thomas Edison looms
large here—so large that the Global Research Center was modeled
on Edison's famous laboratory complex in Menlo Park, New Jer-
sey. Today, the GRC houses roughly 2,000 employees on a campus
teeming with scientists and engineers with specialties that range
from materials and metallurgy, to laser physics, to additive manu-
facturing, to digital applications and computer programming, to
any technology that informs the industries in which GE competes.
During my visit, a number of GE scientists at the campus told me
that this was the core asset of the GRC. They can pick up a phone
and form "instant teams" with some of the world's foremost
experts across science and engineering disciplines.