Sandia National Laboratories

Advanced Manufacturing

In today's competitive manufacturing environment, industries are seeking ways to better meet customers' needs quickly and cost effectively. Increasingly, this requires an ability to accommodate rapid changes in design and to produce smaller lot sizes. Many companies are searching for and implementing advanced manufacturing techniques and processes that will give them the "agility" to respond to continuously changing market demands.

Sandia has much to offer industry in this area as a consequence of its responsibilities in systems and design engineering, production process development, intelligent machine research and development, and oversight of the performance and reliability of most U.S. nuclear weapon components for the past 40 years. The Department of Energy has established the Center for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies at Sandia to give industry improved access to Sandia's technology base.

Some of the important steps that have taken place at the center in the past year are:

Sandia's Process Development Laboratory has become more accessible to industrial partners and visitors. Most of the PDL is now outside the security perimeter fence.

The Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Laboratory (also outside the fence) opened at Sandia's California site.

The National Center for Advanced Information Components Manufacturing opened its doors.

The center will help transfer and apply technologies developed through Sandia's defense programs to commercial manufacturing, helping to strengthen U.S. industry's competitiveness. Much of this technology transfer is already taking place through cooperative research and development agreements (CRADAs). Some of the CRADAs currently underway are:

A CRADA between Sandia and Babcock & Wilcox to develop weld-simulation software for use in making trusses and water-cooled fossil-fuel boilers. The design of the structures can vary significantly from one manufacturing run to the next, making production flexibility a major concern.
A CRADA with Pratt & Whitney that has developed a flexible machining system for grinding excess nickel alloy from turbine blades. The system is able to finish-grind the blades with an accuracy and consistency not available using conventional techniques.

There are many other projects underway at Sandia in the area of advanced manufacturing technology. This work involves laboratories and centers in areas ranging from microelectronics and materials to computer modeling and information sciences.

Some of Sandia's many specialized labs and facilities participating in the Center for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies are described below.

Process Development Laboratory
In operation since 1989, the 75,000-square-foot Process Development Laboratory is specifically designed for environmentally conscious manufacturing and control of process chemicals and contaminants. Work is conducted on:

thick and thin film hybrid microcircuits;
printed circuits;
electronic equipment design and fabrication for a wide variety of applications;
processing options for many types and compositions of prototype ceramic components;
electron beam evaporation, sputtering, and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition;
materials for and processing of a wide variety of polymer applications;
software for computer-aided manufacturing;
stereolithography.

Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Laboratory
Located in Livermore, Calif., the Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Laboratory is a test bed for fiber optic communication networks, process simulation, computer analysis, and advanced sensors in manufacturing. The IMTL features a fiber optic network connecting the entire lab to allow civilian and defense industry researchers to explore novel uses of high bandwidth communications for manufacturing. The fiber network is also linked to Sandia's New Mexico facility, the Department of Energy, and manufacturers throughout the country. One link, Interactive Concurrent Engineering, eventually will allow researchers at different locations to see and talk to one another while viewing and manipulating shared computer files.

Microelectronics Development Laboratory
Opened in 1988, the Microelectronics Development Laboratory contains laboratory and office space, more than 30,000 square feet of clean room space with state-of-the-art wafer processing equipment, and modern semiconductor research and development equipment. The professional staff works on a wide range of microtechnologies including:

advanced packaging and interconnection development
hardened microprocessors
microsensor research
advanced nonvolatile memory research and development
micromachining
advanced processing equipment development
advanced materials and process development

Sandia is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the United States Department of Energy.

Media Contact
Chris Miller
cmiller@sandia.gov

Last modified: August 6, 1997

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