Partnership for accelerated insertion of new technology: case study for thermal spray technology

Introduction: Materials and manufacturing innovation in complex engineering systems such as those in aerospace, energy, heavy machinery is extremely challenging as they typically involve lengthy and costly development cycles and generally follow stringent guidelines and defined road maps. Incorporating academic science and disruptive advances into this product development cycle is challenging. Effective partnerships via integrated academic-industry study groups and joint value proposition of scientific advances and models, can accelerate insertion of new knowledge/technologies in this class of materials and manufacturing ecosystems. Case Description: This paper describes such a partnership and integration framework through exemplary case studies in thermal spray materials processing. Thermal spray is a platform materials manufacturing technology enabling deposition of advanced coatings for wide range of materials applications in aerospace, energy, heavy machinery, electronics and biomedical devices. It is a complex process involving many facets of engineering sciences including thermo-fluids, heat transfer, materials science and mechanics, incorporating non-equilibrium phenomena and multi-scale structure/behavior. The required breadth and depth of process and materials knowledge for advancing the technology is very significant, resulting in lengthy, trial and error based developments. Specific case studies illustrate knowledge advancement through science and models, development of measurement tools and simulations, along with industrial demonstration studies, addressing the utility in the manufacturing enterprise. Together, they represent a framework for establishing integrated computational and experimental materials engineering concepts and serve as a model ecosystem for accelerating innovation in complex industrial manufacturing processes.