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DOE Announces Funding Award Winners in Manufacturing Initiative

The Department of Energy has awarded 12 companies $3.8 million in total funding as part of the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) initiative.

Mnet 195605 Solicitation

The Department of Energy has awarded 12 companies $3.8 million in total funding as part of the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) initiative.

These winners will gain support including supercomputing resources to optimize processes, leverage big data, model new processes, among other applications. The HPC4Mfg program, headquartered at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and run in conjunction with other national labs, was founded in 2015.

Each project will receive up to $300,000 individually, with the awardee required to provide 20 percent of the Advanced Manufacturing Office funding.

“We are pleased with the growing involvement by multiple national laboratories in this program,” said Robin Miles of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, interim director of the HPC4Mfg Program. “The world-class expertise in scientific and engineering computing available at our leading institutions can make a significant difference to enhancing the competitiveness and efficiencies of U.S. industry.”

HPC4Mfg will be announcing another solicitation targeted to steel and aluminum producers later this month.

The winning projects, as described by HPC4Mfg, are listed below.

  • Alliance for Pulp & Paper Technology Innovation (APPTI) (formerly Agenda 2020 Technology Alliance) will partner with NREL and ORNL to improve pulp yield during kraft pulping process in a project titled "Molecular Modeling to Increase Kraft Pulp Yield".
  • Dow Chemical Company will partner with SNL to reduce the thermal conductivity of insulating foam polyurethane products while using less polymer in its products in a project titled "Predictive Modeling of Polyurethane Foam Processes to Optimize Thermal Performance and Reduce Waste".
  • Seurat Technologies will partner with LLNL to optimize their innovative laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing printer in a project titled "Fluid and Particle Dynamics in Metal Area Printing".
  • SFP Works, LLC will partner with ORNL to understand phase transformations that occur during the flash processing of steels in a project titled "High Performance Computing to Quantify the Evolution of Microscopic Concentration Gradients During Flash Processing".
  • 3M will partner with SNL to enhance the design of emissive films on building windows for cooling in a project titled "Passive Cooling Film Optimization". Project will be co-funded by the Building Technologies Office and the Advanced Manufacturing Office.
  • VAST Power Systems, Inc. will partner with LLNL and ANL to increase the efficiency and reduce start-up times of gas turbine combustors in a project titled "Ultra-Clean Transient Turbine Combustor". Project will be co-funded by the Office of Fossil Energy and the Advanced Manufacturing Office.
  • KeraCel will partner with LLNL to optimize manufacturing of robust solid-state batteries in a project titled "A Commercially Viable Approach to Manufacturing All-Solid-State Lithium-Ion Battery". The project will be fully funded by the Vehicle Technologies Office.
  • Arconic Inc. will partner with ORNL to model rolling processes to observe the evolution of porosity in a project titled "Computational Modeling of Industrial Rolling Processes Incorporating Microstructure Evolution to Minimize Rework Energy Losses".
  • GE Global Research Center will partner with LANL to improve the Truchas code for single crystal casting in a project titled "Highly Parallel Modeling Tool to Drive Casting Development for Aerospace and Industry Gas Turbines (IGT) Industries".
  • 3M will partner with ANL to optimize its fiber spinning manufacturing process in a project titled "Next Generation Nonwovens Manufacturing based on Model-driven Simulation Machine Learning Approach".
  • United Technologies Research Center (UTRC) will partner with ORNL to understand microstructure evolution during heat treatment of additively manufactured parts in a project titled "Predictive Tools for Customizing Heat Treatment of Additively Manufactured Aerospace Components".
  • Steel Manufacturing Simulation and Visualization Consortium (SMSVC) and ArcelorMittal USA will partner with ANL to improve the efficiency of the reheat furnace process in steel manufacturing in a project titled "Application of High-Performance Computing (HPC) to Optimize Reheat Furnace Efficiency in Steel Manufacturing".
  • Transient Plasma Systems Inc. will partner with ANL to develop more efficient dilute-burn engines in a project titled "Modeling of Non-equilibrium Plasma for Automotive Applications". This project will be co-funded by the Vehicle Technologies Office and the Advanced Manufacturing Office.
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