Additive Manufacturing

JAN 2018

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING is the magazine devoted to industrial applications of 3D printing and digital layering technology. We cover the promise and the challenges of this technology for making functional tooling and end-use production parts.

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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.

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