Advanced Manufacturing
as a Strategic Initiative
Mike Mannis, CEcD, Centralina Economic Development Commission
Robert Wilhelm, Vice Chancellor for Research & Economic Development
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
The Future of Manufacturing
Opportunities to drive economic growth
A World Economic Forum Report
In collaboration with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited
April 2012
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Clean Energy Strategies
Accelerated Innovation
Talented Human Capital
Infrastructure to Enable Manufacturing
From the World Economic Forum Report
• Clean Energy Strategies
– Affordable clean energy strategies and effective
energy policies will be top priorities for
manufacturers and policy-makers, and serve as
important differentiators of highly competitive
countries and companies.
• Accelerated Innovation
– The ability to innovate, at an accelerated pace, will
be the most important capability differentiating
the success of countries and companies.
From the World Economic Forum Report
• Talented Human Capital
– Talented human capital will be the most critical
resource differentiating the prosperity of
countries and companies.
• Infrastructure to Enable Manufacturing
– The infrastructure necessary to enable
manufacturing to flourish and contribute to job
growth will grow in importance and sophistication
and be challenging for countries to develop and
maintain.
What do you think?
• Affordable clean energy strategies and effective
energy policies will be top priorities for
manufacturers and policy-makers, and serve as
important differentiators of highly competitive
countries and companies.
• Question 1:
• Rank the Charlotte Region's Standing (1-5;5 is
best) as a center for clean energy strategies
What’s Important?
• Question 2: Which is most important to the
growth of manufacturing in the Charlotte
Region? (choose 1)
a) Accelerated Innovation
b) Talented Human Capital
c) Infrastructure that enables manufacturing
Where Should We Focus?
• Question 3: What is the Charlotte Region best
at? (choose 1)
a) Accelerated Innovation
b) Talented Human Capital
c) Infrastructure that enables manufacturing
UNC Charlotte
• Over 26,000 students
• Over 80,000 alumni
• Over 5200 graduate
students
• Programs: 89
undergraduate, 61 MS, 19
Ph.D.
• Over $30 Million in yearly
expense of Research Dollars.
• UNC Charlotte is the
Research University for
the Charlotte Region.
UNC Charlotte
• Belk College of Business
• College of Arts + Architecture
• College of Computing and
Informatics
• College of Education
• College of Health and Human
Services
• College of Liberal Arts &
Sciences
• Graduate School
• Lee College of Engineering
Lee College of Engineering
• Civil and Environmental
Engineering
• Electrical and Computer
Engineering
• Engineering Technology
• Mechanical Engineering
and Engineering Science
• Systems Engineering and
Engineering Management
Charlotte Research Institute
• University Portal for
Science and Engineering
The Business Partner
• Created in 2000 – Strong Business Support
• Mission
– Connect Research to Business
– Market Results and Partnerships
– Access to Millennial Campus
– Grow UNC Charlotte Research
– Seed funding for Industry Partnerships
Long Partnership with EDA
• Construction project for
optoelectronics
– Supporting partner R&D
– New companies growing on CRI
campus
• Advanced Manufacturing Initiatives
– Regional resource guide
– Alignment with new manufacturing
opportunities
CRI Millennial Campus
• Over 100 acres
of land with 11
buildings
• 2 buildings in
planning, design,
and construction
• Commercial
development
sites now
marketed
Internationally Known Research Centers
• Optoelectronics
– Harnessing the Power of Light
• Informatics,Visual Analytics, & Information Security
– Rich Data, Efficient, Consumer-friendly, and Secure
• Precision Metrology
– Good Things Come in Small Packages
Newer Research Initiatives
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Energy Production and Infrastructure
Bioinformatics
Nanoscale Science
Biomedical Engineering Systems
Translational Medical Research, Cancer Research
Motorsports and Automotive Engineering
Infrastructure, Design, Environment and Sustainability
Initiative
EPIC:
Energy Production & Infrastructure Center
Driver: The energy industry
faces a workforce crisis as
retirements combine with
the need for additional
technical employees to build
new energy facilities.
Charlotte has emerged as
an energy engineering
stronghold, with more than
200 specific "power cluster"
firms.
• Mission:
– Produce Technical Workforce
– Advance Research and
Technology
– Create Strategic IndustryUniversity Collaboration for
Global Energy Industry
– Develop Carolinas’ Economic
& Energy Security
EPIC: Educational Initiatives
• Undergraduate Education
– Energy & Power Concentrations in all Degrees
– Industry Oriented Capstone Design Courses
• Industry Directed Graduate Education
– Graduate Certificate Programs
– Interdisciplinary PhD studies
• Continuing Education
– Licensing and Skills Update
EPIC has the solid backing
of an industry that wants a
higher education resource,
testing and research
services, and economic
development
EPIC: Focus Areas
• Power Systems Engineering
• Fundamentals of power generation and distribution,
Quality and reliability of energy systems, Alternative
energy
• Power System Infrastructure
• Specification, construction, operation, maintenance, and
improvement of power generation and distribution
infrastructure, Management of input fuel and wastes
streams.
• Power Plant Engineering
• Design, integration, operation, optimization, maintenance,
renovation and decommissioning of the components and
subsystems in a power plant
EPIC: Infrastructure
• North Carolina
has funded $73M
EPIC Building
• $5M Annual
Budget for
Faculty,
Research, and
Programs
• Integral Part of
Larger CRI
Campus
EPIC Faculty Recruitment
• Dr. Johan Enslin, EPIC Director
• Recruiting to fill 20 positions
• Current Strengths
– Distribution and Smart Grid
– Photovoltaic Materials
– Commissioning and Integration
– Large Scale Machinery for Generation
EPIC Partners
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Duke Energy
EPRI
Siemens
Westinghouse
Evonik
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AREVA
Shaw Group
URS/Washington
Metso
Tessera
Duke Energy, Siemens, and Westinghouse
have committed over $10M in support of
EPIC
EPIC Crosses Over With
Large-Scale Manufacturing
Large-scale manufacturing is characterized by:
• Products with largest critical feature size in the ~5 to 25+
meter range
• Annual production rates of ~10 to 100’s of units
• Complex systems with tight tolerance requirements on
components and assemblies
Why is Large-Scale Manufacturing
Important
• Enables energy, transportation, industrial, and
construction infrastructure of the USA
Industries & Companies Involved
in Large-Scale Manufacturing
• Energy
– Siemens, GE, Allstom, MHI
• Transportation/Aerospace
– GE, Boeing, General Dynamics,…
• Agricultural and Mining Equipment
– Caterpillar, Komatsu, …
• Industrial Equipment
Why is Charlotte Region the right place?
• US universities have systematically moved away
from manufacturing research and education
• UNC Charlotte has continuously strengthened
– largest and strongest group of faculty dedicated to
manufacturing research in the USA
– best equipped manufacturing laboratories
• Charlotte is positioned as “Energy Hub”
• Majority of power generation manufacturing
takes place within 100 miles of Charlotte
The Big Picture
• Innovation vital to our economic strength
• Startup companies disrupt…
– creative destruction
• Startup companies drive U.S. job growth
• Disruptive innovation increases productivity
and standard of living
Our Deliverables
• Higher Education for the Knowledge
Workforce of the 21st Century
• Applied Research in Key Economic Sectors
• Talent and Infrastructure for Partnerships
• The Right Platform for Innovation
National Ignition
FacilityParts with
micrometer tolerances
A novel germanium lens array was
manufactured on a 5-axis freeform machine
for use in credit-card thin thermal imaging
systems.
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Support: DoD/DARPA
Goal: Manufacture of a novel germanium
lens array for credit card thin multi-imaging
system.
Technical Challenges
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4 mm
Novel Germanium Lens Array
Machining parameters
Tolerances
Finish
Such lenses can be
miniaturized further of
structured with subwavelength patterns for
many thermal imaging
applications…”Fly’s Eye”
Thermal arrays.
Researchers worked with NAVSEA to enable the
high speed machining of Bronze C95800
Propulsors for the new Virginia Class Submarine.
Unconventional machine design proposed at
Charlotte
• Goal: To enable high-speed machining of
components for VA-class submarine
• Technical Challenges
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Machining parameters
Regenerative Vibrations (Chatter)
Machine Design
Thermal Control
Unclassified solid model
developed at Charlotte: 6
meters in diameter with a
finished mass of
approximately 55,000 kg.
Unclassified component being
conventionally machined
Rendering of Virginia class
submarine