NRC capabilities in advanced manufacturing

High-volume, high-performance thermoplastic composites

• Fibre reinforced thermoplastic systems with superior performance and good recyclability
• Thermoplastic composite process for high-speed, cost-effective manufacturing of lightweight parts
• Reduction of cycle times for stamping of thermoplastic composites for high volume market segment products
• Process mapping, manufacturing guidelines, process modeling and simulation
• Part integration/complex parts and efficient multi-material assembly
• Control of manufacturing cost with the development of metal or composite hybrids

Related success story:

• Leading the way to high-speed and cost-effective manufacturing of lightweight automotive parts

High-volume, high-performance thermoset composites

• Fibre reinforced thermoset systems with superior performance
• Reduction of cycle times for infusion and resin transfer moulding-based manufacturing technologies using rapid cure resin technology for medium volume market segment products
• Low-cost manufacturing of advanced thermoset composites: compression moulding and low-cost prepreg compression moulding
• Optimization of processing to maximize composite performance and quality
• Process mapping, manufacturing guidelines, process modeling and simulation
• Part integration/complex parts and efficient multi-material assembly
• Increase in geometry complexity and cost reduction in one moulding step with the use of discontinuous reinforcements
• Automation and part integration

Related success story:

• Reducing the carbon footprint of vehicles with the NRC's SNAP Composites industrial R&D group

Overmoulded smart parts

• New generation of structural electronics to replace complex assemblies using printable electronic technology
• Novel overmoulding technology combined with patented conductive molecular inks to create parts with increased complexity and design freedom
• Overmoulded smart parts with integrated LEDs, capacitive sensors, heaters, antennas and other features
• Smart component development from concept to prototype

Related success story:

• Making everyday objects smarter to improve our daily lives
• From ideation to commercialization: the NRC and E2IP collaborate to innovate

Biorefineries and sustainable manufacturing

• Transformation of non food grade biomass (wood, straw, industrial vegetable oils, etc) biomass residues and plastic waste into raw materials for the production of ecoresponsible resins, fibres and additives
• Formulation, efficient processing, performance evaluation and application development of bioplastics and biocomposites with positive end-of-life management
• Recycling of plastics and composites to minimize environmental impact and promote circularity

Sustainable Packaging:

• Maximization of the use of renewable resources and/or recycled content
• Development of alternatives for hard-to-recycle plastics
• Design packaging for recyclability or/and biodegradability while improving food safety and reducing food waste
• Minimization of plastic weight thus plastic waste via smart structure and materials design

Added-value polymeric products and processes

• Components lightweighting (plastic glazing, structural foams, compounds, nanocomposites)
• Cost-effective and recyclable polymer glazing in transportation by developing novel protective coatings with enhanced durability
• Cellular polymers (low density foams):
  • Evaluation of environmentally-friendly alternative blowing agents
  • Development of innovative polymer foams using the extrusion foaming process
  • Production of expandable polymer beads using direct extrusion technologies
• Additive manufacturing of polymers and composites: formulation, process optimization, numerical modeling, machine vision and robot 3D printing

Related success story:

• Shaping the world, one EPS bead at a time

High-performance, high-integrity product forming

• Die-less sheet forming, rapid/low-cost die manufacturing
• Reduce weight with new alloys
• Hot superplastic forming, thin and variable wall extrusion, casting of hollow-core components, etc.
• Hybrid manufacturing (extrusions, forgings, castings)
• Intelligent tooling to improve efficiency and life of tooling

Innovative machining, polishing and surface-finishing technologies

• Increasing material removal rates
• Reduced lead time for new and existing parts
• Zero-scrap generation
• Improved quality and increased tool life
• Reduced waste produced by processes

Assembling of complex multimaterial products

• Joining solutions for specific/complex applications
• Advanced joining techniques for high-integrity application
• Multi-material joining using adhesive bonding, friction stir welding and laser welding

Advanced surface engineering and corrosion protection

• Control of corrosion on multimaterial assembly
• Complex alloy microstructures and relation to corrosion
• Corrosion-assisted fatigue of multimaterials structures
• Design best practices and standards improvement
• Coatings to improve harsh environement durability

Flexible manufacturing cells and adaptive manufacturing

• Autonomous and semi-autonomous robots
• Collaborative and human-assisted robots
• Mobile and reconfigurable manufacturing systems

Robotics and mechatronic systems

• Future robotic platforms for assembly, finishing and joining
• Future robotic platforms for part manufacturing
• Adaptive robots

Additive manufacturing

• Cold spray
• Electron beam deposition system
• Laser deposition system
• Material characterization
• Formulation of high-performance polymers and composites for additive manufacturing

Design to manufacture and performance evaluation

• Crash worthiness
• Manufacturing data object
• Computer-aided design
• Computer-aided manufacturing
• Computer-aided engineering
• Finite element analysis
• Computational fluid dynamics
• Product lifecycle management
• Bills of materials

Machine vision

• 3D vision systems
• Imaging sensors
• Processing and analysis software
• Geometric modeling and dimensional inspection
• Big data analytics

Digital manufacturing and Internet of things

• Smart factories
• Industry 4.0
• Industrial Internet of things
• Artificial intelligence
• Sensor integration
• High-performance material formulations; nanocomposites

Modelling and process simulation

• Blow and injection molding
• Forming
• Machining
• Additive and surface treatment
• Composites manufacturing
• Assembly processes

Artificial intelligence

• Computer vision and image understanding
• Adaptive robots; future robotic platforms for part manufacturing
• Understanding human emotions from language
• Next generation information extraction using deep learning
• Speech recognition
• Artificial intelligence to optimize talent management for human resources

Big data analytics

• Predictive equipment maintenance
• Energy management
• Artificial intelligence for optimizing energy storage and distribution
• Understanding and tracking of hazardous chemical elements
• Process and design optimization

Printed electronics for Internet of Things

• Inks and materials
• Printing technologies
• Large area, flexible, stretchable, printed electronics components
• Applications: sensors for Internet of Things, wearables, antenna, radio-frequency identification tags, smart surfaces, packaging, security, signage