Imagine supply chains where retail conditions instantly trigger adjustments to production and stocking, factory floors where people work alongside robotic machines, and the ability to print specialized parts from unique metal alloys on demand. The most important technological developments of recent decades – artificial intelligence, broadband communications, the internet of things and additive manufacturing – are converging to bring the most significant changes to manufacturing since the introduction of computers. 

The manufacturing sector is linked to the health of the economy and employment from the level of individual communities to the state of Illinois to the entire country. Introducing the latest technological advancements is vital to ensure robustness, efficiency and sustainability.

In November 2024, The Grainger College of Engineering launched the Illinois Manufacturing Institute (IMI) to harness the ingenuity and expertise of its faculty and students, who work to make these and other visions the new reality of manufacturing. 

The institute will be directed by Bill King, a professor and Ralph A. Anderson Endowed Chair in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. He was the founding Chief Technology Officer at the Manufacturing USA Institute now known as MxD, which has partnered with more than 600 companies and impacted more than 250,000 workers across the United States. He was also co-founder and Chief Scientist at Fast Radius, which was designated a Lighthouse Factory by the World Economic Forum, announcing it as one of the world’s best digital factories.

King’s research group explores new concepts for advanced manufacturing using advanced sensing systems and computer vision combined with modeling and simulation, design methods and machine learning. He applies these technologies for a variety of applications, including additive manufacturing, factory inspection, material mechanics, heat transfer systems and cancer biology.

King believes that Grainger Engineering’s work in manufacturing is among the best and most important in the country, and that the IMI will be a point of entry for Grainger engineers to share their ideas and expertise with the world. 

“Grainger Engineering has over 50 faculty members working on different aspects of advanced manufacturing, such as additive manufacturing, industrial internet of things machine networks, human-robot interfaces, advanced materials, and supply chain management, and the IMI will bring them all together to better collaborate and present their expertise to the world,” he said. 

In addition to supporting new research and partnerships, the IMI will bring Grainger Engineering-led initiatives in advanced manufacturing together under one umbrella, including four major preexisting initiatives.

The Center for Autonomous Construction and Manufacturing at Scale aims to develop autonomous vehicles and systems for construction applications. The group uses multidisciplinary approaches and state-of-the-art technologies in systems engineering, machine learning, vision systems, mechatronics, controls, expert systems, dynamic modeling, industrial engineering, and sensor fusion.

The Center for Networked Intelligent Components and Environments works with Foxconn Interconnect Technologies on research related to the computing, communication and sensing infrastructure that constitutes the backbone of internet-of-things-enabled systems and environments. Additional forward-looking projects will explore advances for next-generation communications infrastructure, consumer electronics, and mobile devices for the intelligent, safe environments of the future.

The Center for Regenerative Energy-Efficient Manufacturing of Thermoset Polymeric Materials, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, is a collaboration among Grainger Engineering, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Utah to advance the science of thermochemical reaction-diffusion processes in additive and morphogenic manufacturing and accelerate a transformative, circular strategy for thermoset polymeric and composite materials with programmed end-of-life.

The Illinois Cryogenic Engineering Materials Center consolidates the efforts of eleven research teams from the departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Physics, Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Science and Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Civil and Environmental Engineering. Since materials for cryogenic environments are emerging as key enablers and will be transformational for the transportation, energy, and defense sectors, the center aims to meet the growing demand for high-performance materials that can function in cryogenic environments.

Beyond research and development, Grainger engineers believe in developing solutions that will have direct real-world impacts. In 2024, King led the formation of the University of Illinois System’s Quad Cities Manufacturing Institute (QCMI) to foster collaboration between the U.S. Army Arsenal at Rock Island, Illinois, and businesses in the Quad City region of western Illinois and eastern Iowa. The goal is to promote research and workforce development in advanced manufacturing and materials.

“The University of Illinois System’s mission is to serve the entire state of Illinois,” King said. “Rock Island Arsenal presents an opportunity to make a real-world impact in a critical but sometimes overlooked part of the state. The Quad Cities are home to the U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal and its Center of Excellence on Additive Manufacturing. Grainger Engineering has established itself as a leader in the area of additive manufacturing, and we’re excited to work with the arsenal and the surrounding community to build on and improve this manufacturing technology.” 

Additive manufacturing, also called 3D printing, is a paradigm shift from standard manufacturing methods. Unlike traditional mass production in advance of anticipated needs, products are made on demand in direct response to changing conditions. This is achieved through layering or synthesizing of materials for the structure as needed, instead of by carving structures out of bulk materials in large quantities. The approach therefore allows for greater flexibility and agility in production.

Several Grainger Engineering faculty members are lending IMI and QCMI their expertise in topics related to additive manufacturing. They include professors Marie Charpagne, who conducts foundational research into the chemistry and physics of metal alloys used in additive manufacturing; Iwona Jasiuk, who designs and additively manufactures architected materials for various industries; and Kathryn Matlack, an expert in waves and vibrations who develops tools for material characterization.

Rethinking metallurgy for additive methods

Additive manufacturing represents an entirely new mechanism for production, one to which metallurgy still needs to catch up. Most of the commercially available alloys in use today are poorly suited to printing because their solidification behavior is incompatible with additive manufacturing.

Marie Charpagne, an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is designing new metal alloys that have the right properties for additive manufacturing. A metallurgist, she studies the physics of melting and solidification to ensure that the printed alloys have the right structural properties.

“Modern metallurgy draws on a legacy dating back to the Bronze Age, but only a handful of metals and alloys commonly used today are ready to be 3D printed,” Charpagne said. “On the time scale of metallurgy, additive manufacturing is a new development with lots of interesting questions to answer. We need to understand what makes an alloy printable and design new ones that can be printed.”

Charpagne’s research group works with an additive method called direct energy deposition, in which molten metals are deposited in a layer-by-layer manner and then rapidly solidify. The researchers use tools from thermodynamics to study rapid solidification and find ways to design alloys that exhibit desirable properties. The additive approach even allows them to find and synthesize novel alloys with properties that would not be attainable with other methods.

One project is considering how to store liquid hydrogen at less than 20 degrees above absolute zero. Most metallic materials become brittle at such low temperatures, but Charpagne’s group is exploring how ferrous alloys can meet the requirements of malleability and resistance to crack propagation involved in storing cold liquids.

Another project is examining how the thermal properties of copper alloys can be used to manage heat in nuclear fusion applications. In this case, the challenge is to design an alloy with high thermal conductivity and high resistance to radiation.

Charpagne even believes that the additive approach can lead to more sustainable manufacturing, particularly with aluminum alloys.

“With traditional techniques, it’s almost impossible to recycle aluminum, but additive manufacturing offers an appealing alternative,” she said. “Aluminum is an example of a hard-to-print metal, but, with the right additives, it could be made printable, in which case scrap metal could be melted down and reused to print something else.”

What makes this line of research exciting for Charpagne is the wealth of opportunities available. Since additive manufacturing is relatively new, there are still many scientific discoveries to be made and applications to be found.

“This is still an emerging field, and there are more questions than answers at this point,” Charpagne said. “There are lots of new discoveries out there in terms of solidification science, metal alloy chemistry, and even mechanical behavior. If you’re creative enough, there’s a lot to explore.”

Additive material mechanics and structures

While traditional manufacturing processes involve pre-made materials with known properties, the additive approach involves changing the materials’ physical and chemical properties to form a new structure by melting and resolidifying or fusing mixtures. Additive manufacturing also allows the creation of lattices with intricate architectures that cannot be achieved by traditional manufacturing, leading to lighter designs. Ensuring the quality of additively manufactured products requires understanding of how the changes impact structural and mechanical properties. 

Iwona Jasiuk, a professor and Richard W. Kritzer Faculty Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, is an expert in the mechanics of materials. She regularly employs additive manufacturing to create lightweight lattice structures and experimentally measures different material properties. In addition, she has been collaborating on additive manufacturing research with the U.S. Army.

“My early training was in structural and civil engineering, but that brought me to material mechanics, which is used everywhere,” Jasiuk said. “I have worked with the automotive industry on polymer composites, studied the biomechanics of human bone, and even designed materials for protective structures in power and aerospace applications. That led me to additive manufacturing around 2014 because of the possibility for stronger and lighter materials.”

The U.S. Army was investigating laser powder bed fusion, in which a laser heats regions of powdered material to fuse the powder into a three-dimensional structure. Jasiuk contributed by studying the porosity of the resulting materials for applications in filtering. The team also considered the details of the manufacturing process itself, including the speed of the laser and the tensile properties of the materials. In addition, Jasiuk and her collaborators studied the use of additively manufactured lattices for impact-resistance applications.

“This work brought me into contact with the Rock Island Arsenal, and it’s a huge resource that should be further developed and used,” Jasiuk said. “The engineering and manufacturing experts there are great for creating materials and structures for both government and commercial purposes.”

Jasiuk’s current research projects on additive manufacturing span several distinct areas. 

Lattice structures formed from additively manufactured multi-metal architectures hold promise for impact resistance. One class draws inspiration primarily from conch shells, but also armadillos and fish, as the basis for structures resistant to supersonic impact. Another consists of hollow thin-walled structures. Machine learning is incorporated into the development of such designs.

Another project focuses on understanding the effects of irradiation on additively manufactured 316H stainless steel, a critical material for nuclear reactor components. By integrating experimental characterization and simulation, Jasiuk’s research group studies irradiation effects on 3D-printed porous stainless steel and how ion bombardment gives rise to defects such as vacancies, interstitials and Frenkel pairs. Their findings reveal how additive parameters, microstructural features and pore morphology influence irradiation responses, bridging the gap between manufacturing and material performance in nuclear settings and paving the way for resilient, adaptable and efficient solutions in the nuclear industry.

Jasiuk also addresses sustainability by investigating the use of additive manufacturing to repair polymeric parts. Different patch designs and their strengths are studied with the goal of extending the life of such parts. 

Jasiuk’s work on impact resistance through additive manufacturing is supported by the U.S. Army.

Noninvasive material characterization 

While the methods of additive manufacturing afford much more flexibility and customization than traditional methods, the same techniques can result in structural defects in the finished products. Additive processes involve either vertically layering molten materials that rapidly solidify or selectively binding particulate materials together into continuous structures, and both are prone to the formation of microscopic pores that adversely affect material properties.

The group of Kathryn Matlack, an associate professor and Richard W. Kritzer Faculty Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, is using its expertise in material waves and vibrations to approach the problem from two angles. They are developing tools to noninvasively probe additively manufactured structures, and they are considering how to use additive manufacturing to create complex parts that provide desirable mechanical properties.

“Our expertise is in material mechanics and wave propagation, so we approach the problem from that perspective,” Matlack said. “We look at things like microscopic structure and its impact on structural properties and mechanical waves. This gives us a lens through which to consider how structural defects can be mitigated and how materials can be better utilized in the context of additive manufacturing.”

The microstructures of additively manufactured products are traditionally measured using either sophisticated, costly imaging technology or destructive mechanical testing. Matlack’s research group uses ultrasound waves to probe material structure, using the impact of porosity on wave propagation to assess the structural properties. This line of work furnishes tools to noninvasively assess the quality and structural stability of finished products.

“Ultrasound gives us a way to ‘interrogate’ the material structure nondestructively,” Matlack said. “This allows us to efficiently examine additively manufactured materials manufactured under different conditions, even while materials are being printed, and study what results in the best microstructures, to understand the impact of things like porosity without breaking everything open.”

In addition, Matlack’s research group is performing fundamental studies on wave propagation in materials from binder jet additive manufacturing. Structures are created in this method through insertion of a “binder” metal into a powdered base metal, resulting in a two-phase metal composite. While less precise than laser powder bed fusion, it has the potential to be faster and more scalable.

“Binder jet manufacturing is rising in popularity, so we’re very interested in working with it,” Matlack said. “We can not only print out larger structures, but we can also control the microstructure by prescribing the amount of binder material injected at each location. We use this to test our ideas on the interactions between waves and microstructures.”

By controlling the binder material, the researchers can create spatially varying metal composites whose mechanical properties differ from those of uniform composites.

Matlack’s additive manufacturing research has been supported by the U.S. Army, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Ford Motor Company.

Illinois Grainger Engineering Affiliations

Bill King is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor of mechanical science and engineering in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Bioengineering and Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He is also director of the Illinois Manufacturing Institute. King is affiliated with the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Materials Research Lab, Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Lab, Information Trust Institute, and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. He holds the Ralph A. Andersen Endowed Chair in Mechanical Science & Engineering.

Marie Charpagne is an Illinois Grainger Engineering assistant professor of materials science and engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. She is also affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Iwona Jasiuk is an Illinois Grainger Engineering professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, the Department of Bioengineering, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the Department of Aerospace Engineering. She is also affiliated with the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. She holds a Richard W. Kritzer Faculty Scholar appointment.

Kathryn Matlack is an Illinois Grainger Engineering associate professor of mechanical science and engineering in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. She holds a Richard W. Kritzer Faculty Scholar appointment.