The first few weeks of the new year is always a good time to review the past year and refresh your plan & goal for the coming 12 months.
What I have learned about additive manufacturing in the year 2017 is surprisingly more than my past years combined, even though I have already studied & researched for AM for several years. I learned detail about different AM systems and design optimization from Dr. Lin Cheng; I learned how material microstructure, performance, and process interact from Dr. Ming Tang; And every weekend the three of us sat together and had a “gathering for AM”, where we shared our passion for AM, asked sometimes naive questions, discussed hypothesis, and challenged each other’s ideas & assumptions. I enjoyed this so much and benefited significantly.
2018 I plan to bring our “gathering for AM” online, and start sharing & offering our knowledge and experience through this platform. Along with Dr. Lin Cheng and Dr. Ming Tang, I am launching an AM blog “Additive for Thoughts”, which discuss our insights and ideas based on our expertise for additive manufacturing for your thoughts. The blog will cover three topics: 1) Strategy & Impact, 2) Design & Optimization, and 3) Material & Performance, each of which falls into our doctoral research. For each topic we will launch three series of blogs: a) What is Happening?, b) Why or Why Not?, and c) How?, in which we will discuss current state and trend of AM, quantitative analysis/evidence/explanations, and data-driven insights. Each blog we will start with an open question to address and end with an open question for you to consider. Look forward to hearing your thoughts in the discussions.
Figure 1. Blog plan of “Additive for Thoughts” (AfT)
As the blog name suggests, I sincerely wish our AfT blog can be an additive to stimulate your thoughts for AM and take your thoughts back to the additive manufacturing community!
If you are interested, please follow us on our website and our LinkedIn profile, like & share our post, and even better, connect with us! Watch out for our first release of “Additive Disruption in Different Industries – How?” this week.
Thanks a lot!
Best,
Runze
Huang, Cheng, & Tang 