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LIFT technology project to research distortion reduction in welding lightweight sheets

Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT), Detroit, has launched a collaboration of research and industry partners to use complex computer models to reduce distortion while joining lightweight metal sheets. The technology development team expects to expand the ability of laboratory computer simulations to predict what will happen when large sheets of metal are welded in a production environment.

The companies participating are Huntington Ingalls Industries, Comau, and ESI NA. The research institutions are the American Bureau of Shipping, the University of Michigan, EWI, MIT, Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Surface Warfare Center, and The Ohio State University.

Dr. Pingsha Dong, University of Michigan professor of naval architecture and marine engineering, said, “We have computer models that tell us a lot about the way the newer steel alloys behave when welded in the laboratory. We will help manufacturers save a lot of time and money if we can scale up our computer models to guide the development of better techniques to control distortion during production.”

The collaboration team expects their work will help manufacturers control fitting, fixturing, and sequencing to reduce distortion as they build structural assemblies.

In the first year of the two-year project, the team will focus on developing computational distortion models and correlating the predictions and actual distortion for a single process. In the second year, the team will focus on validating and refining those methodologies to develop and verify distortion prevention strategies for each stage of production.

LIFT is a public-private partnership committed to the development and deployment of advanced lightweight metal manufacturing technologies and to implementing education and training initiatives to better prepare the workforce today and in the future. One of the founding institutes in the National Network of Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), LIFT is funded in part by the Department of Defense with management through the Office of Naval Research.