A Call to Action: Manufacturing Architected Materials
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Josh Bishop-Moser, Christine Andres, Chris Spadaccini Introduction: Architected materials continue to redefine the boundaries of materials science, opening up a wealth of new opportunities for innovation and economic growth. By creating entirely new classes of materials with custom tailored properties, researchers have created prototypes demonstrating promising outcomes that could impact the health, national security, energy independence, and economic prosperity of the nation. The United States has invested heavily in architected materials through a wide range of federal science and technology agencies, and developed world-leading experts, research facilities, and intellectual property. However, widespread application of architected materials is often limited by the manufacturability of the complex geometries used to realize their novel performance. Traditional manufacturing processes do not readily provide high-throughput solutions to manufacture critical features from the nanoscale to the macroscale or allow precise alignment of structural unit cells in three dimensions across large volumes. Realization of the true benefits of architected materials relies on translating research lab prototypes and processes to products and devices that can be manufactured at scale. Recommendations: MForesight: Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight (MForesight.org) convened leading industry, research, and government experts to gather insights on the opportunities and challenges of manufacturing architected materials, and more broadly, metamaterials. The MForesight report, Manufacturing Metamaterials, highlights five actionable recommendations aimed at advancing U.S. manufacturing competitiveness in this space: 1. Establish a National Metamaterial Manufacturing Initiative (NMMI): a coordinated multi-agency federal research initiative focused on advancing metamaterial manufacturing to address critical barriers to commercial scale production. This includes scaling promising manufacturing processes relevant to metamaterials, developing manufacturing processes for multi-material systems, and developing metrology, simulation, and design tools for multi-scale, three-dimensional, and multi-material systems. 2. Ensure the availability, affordability, reliability, and quality of raw materials, substrates, and nanoparticles critical to metamaterials manufacturing. Government support of research and initial production, in conjunction with enhanced standards, certifications, and benchmarks will help ensure the availability of quality feedstock. 3. Increase access to existing federal facilities and expertise associated with advanced manufacturing methods, characterization tools, design codes, and computing power. 4. Create a National Center of Excellence to serve as a focal point and driving force for ensuring effective industry participation, fostering shared research efforts, developing and adapting manufacturing equipment, creating workforce training programs, test-piloting production, and facilitating prototype production. 5. Establish an in
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