The Industrial Science Report: Additive manufacturing races toward factory-floor readiness
Key Highlights
- Researchers are developing multi-axis robotic systems capable of printing complex composite materials from multiple directions to improve part strength.
- Physics-based control models are being used to understand and improve the consistency of paste-based 3D printing methods like direct ink writing.
- Modular, data-connected production platforms are reducing cycle times by up to 68%, integrating additive, machining, and inspection processes into a single workflow.
- Cold-spray technology is advancing as a low-heat, in situ repair method for critical aerospace and industrial components, reducing downtime and supply chain reliance.
- Simulation and finite element analysis are helping optimize internal lattice structures in metal parts, significantly enhancing their mechanical strength and reliability.
Additive manufacturing has been promising a revolution on the factory floor, but so far, most plants still can’t rely on it for full-scale production. The science is getting closer, but major gaps remain. Materials that clog nozzles, printed alloys that fail under load, robotic printing cells that don’t yet behave like dependable production assets, and hybrid lines that lack the interoperability modern factories require.
This week’s report highlights how researchers are attacking those gaps head-on. From physics-based control models that finally explain why paste printing misbehaves, to multi-directional robotic deposition, to cold-spray repair tools, and modular production platforms that merge additive with machining and inspection, these five stories map the emerging foundations of industrial-scale additive manufacturing. Each project points toward the same horizon: closing the reliability, process-control, and integration gaps that stand between today’s promising prototypes and tomorrow’s fully deployable, factory-ready systems.
Virginia Tech earns NSF grant to advance robotics-driven additive manufacturing
Factories adopting additive manufacturing often hit the same wall: how do you scale complex printing processes without killing throughput or precision? The next breakthrough may come from robotics. Researchers are now pushing toward multi-axis, multi-material printing systems that behave less like lab prototypes and more like fully configurable production assets. Research like this could influence how future factories deploy robotics for complex composite builds, how they monitor process drift, and how they maintain uptime in increasingly hybrid manufacturing lines.
Virginia Tech’s Department of Mechanical Engineering has received a three-year, US $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation for research into multi-directional robotic 3D printing. The project will develop robotic-arm-based additive manufacturing systems capable of printing composite materials from multiple directions rather than traditional flat layers, aiming to create stronger, structurally optimized parts. The work brings together specialists in design optimization, materials science, robotics, and controls engineering to leverage the flexibility of robotic arms in additive manufacturing.
University of Hawaiʻi study maps physics behind direct ink writing to improve 3D printing reliability
Paste-based 3D printing is notoriously inconsistent, and this study explains why—and how physics-based control could finally make direct ink writing (DIW) reliable for industrial use. DIW is a bit like frosting a cake, where the material must flow smoothly through a nozzle and hold its shape without melting or collapsing. Currently, this type of 3D printing often has unpredictable flow behavior and weak layer bonding, making these processes difficult to standardize, automate, or troubleshoot. More predictable additive manufacturing could translate directly into fewer print failures, less wasted material, and easier troubleshooting for printing everything from structural parts to bio-tissues and large-scale construction.
A comprehensive review co-authored by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers (published in the Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics) synthesizes decades of work on paste-like 3D printing methods such as DIW and frames a physics-based roadmap for the field. The paper identifies three critical process phases (flow through the nozzle, shape stability on deposition, and interlayer bonding) and highlights challenges with particle/fiber-filled inks that can clog nozzles or fail to bond reliably. The review also notes promising advances for the future, such as stimuli-responsive materials and new nozzle designs.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory “Future Foundries” reimagines additive manufacturing as a fully integrated production line
Additive manufacturing has long been treated as a specialty process tucked into a corner of the plant. As industrial additive manufacturing matures from one-off builds to end-to-end digital production, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Future Foundries initiative sees the future of additive manufacturing embedded as a core process rather than a specialty cell. The ORNL project is also trying to understand how additive, machining, heat treatment, and inspection all operate as one connected production line. This research is pushing factories toward additive manufacturing-enabled workflows where uptime, part qualification, and automation readiness will be core responsibilities for reliability and operations professionals. The merging into a single data-connected workflow also raises the bar for equipment interoperability and data governance across many processes.
ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility announced the Future Foundries platform, a modular system that integrates wire-arc additive manufacturing, heat treatment, inspection, and machining with an autonomous pallet changer to move parts between processes. By running workflows concurrently on a single platform and using a central data backbone, the team reports production-cycle reductions of up to 68%. The platform is described as modular and adaptable, so manufacturers can use their own equipment and reconfigure modules as needs change; ORNL frames the initiative as supporting small and medium manufacturers and strengthening domestic supply chains. The project was led by an ORNL team and was funded by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) and the Department of Defense Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment Program.
UAH and Titomic partner to develop cold-spray gun for hardware repair
Every maintenance leader knows the feeling: a critical component fails, the replacement part is weeks out, and conventional repair methods risk damage to the asset. Cold-spray repair is emerging as a practical, low-heat method for restoring critical components in aerospace, defense, and heavy industrial equipment, and this technology could represent a potential step-change in repair practices. As reliability engineering increasingly focuses on extending asset life in the face of aging equipment and supply chain delays, cold spray may become a frontline tool for in situ repairs that reduce downtime and dependence on spare-part inventories. This research advances the underlying physics and hardware needed to bring cold spray closer to everyday industrial use.
University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) researchers (Professors Sarma Rani and Judith Schneider, with graduate student Aditya Iyer) received a Titomic grant to develop a cold-spray gun that repairs damaged hardware by depositing high-speed metallic particles without welding or external heating. Solid metallic particles, like metals, metal alloys and some ceramics or intermetallics, are sprayed onto the desired location. The project includes computational modeling of high-speed, particle-laden flows and fabrication of the improved spray gun. Cold spray accelerates solid particles with a converging-diverging nozzle to supersonic speeds, so particles plastically deform and form strong, solid-state bonds on impact. UAH frames the method as a safer, lower-cost repair approach especially relevant to aerospace and other engineering hardware.
Kennesaw State University researchers advance metal additive manufacturing for aerospace components
For industries where a single failure can ground an aircraft or shut down a turbine, inconsistency is a deal-breaker. Metal additive manufacturing still struggles with fatigue resistance, microstructural variability, and design complexity, all of which are barriers to its adoption in reliability-critical sectors such as aerospace and energy. For maintenance and reliability stakeholders, improved predictability in alloy performance directly translates to higher confidence in certifying printed parts for load-bearing service. Research that clarifies how internal lattices, build settings, and thermal profiles influence part integrity and helps move additive manufacturing from experimental builds to repeatable, qualifiable components.
Kennesaw State University (KSU) researchers led by Department of Engineering Technology Assistant Chair Aaron Adams and mechatronics engineering student Eric Miller used advanced simulations and finite element analysis to examine how internal lattice geometries and build settings affect mechanical strength in 3D-printed parts, particularly for the nuclear-energy industry. Their work, supported by KSU undergraduate research programs, shows that careful tuning of internal structural features can make printed components as much as nearly three times stronger. The project emphasizes simulation-driven design choices and identifies computational resources as a main challenge for detailed meshes and curved geometries. KSU will present the findings at an upcoming American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) conference.
About the Author
Anna Townshend
managing editor
Anna Townshend has been a journalist and editor for almost 20 years. She joined Control Design and Plant Services as managing editor in June 2020. Previously, for more than 10 years, she was the editor of Marina Dock Age and International Dredging Review. In addition to writing and editing thousands of articles in her career, she has been an active speaker on industry panels and presentations, as well as host for the Tool Belt and Control Intelligence podcasts. Email her at [email protected].