Focus Areas
High-Performance Materials
Novel materials have improved properties, such as high strength, high-temperature performance, and/or enhanced conductivity, that improve the functionality or extend the lifetime of products that use them, increase their life cycle energy efficiency and material efficiency, and/or expand their range of use environments.
Strong, lightweight composites deliver a variety of energy efficiency benefits and enable high-performance energy applications. For example, lighter, stronger composites can reduce the weight of vehicles and airplanes, leading to greater fuel efficiency and lower emissions. Similarly, advanced composites can lead to longer, more efficient wind blades and more capable hydrogen storage systems. AMMTO supports research, development and demonstrations (RD&D) of composite manufacturing, connects industry with resources at national labs, and facilitates broader public-private collaboration through its network of Manufacturing USA institutes and hubs.
Harsh service conditions such as high temperatures and pressures are common at industrial facilities and in operating environments for advanced energy technologies, including geothermal and solar thermal electricity generation, nuclear reactors, fusion energy, hydrogen storage, and thermal storage. Having materials that can withstand higher temperatures and pressures can support operating conditions that are more energy efficient. AMMTO supports RD&D of these novel materials.
Energy losses in grid applications drive reduced energy system resiliency and increase energy costs. To address this need, AMMTO supports RD&D of conductivity-enhanced materials. Enhanced electrical and thermal conductivity reduces energy loss and therefore increases the energy efficiency of electrical devices from industrial heat pumps to electric vehicles.
Advanced Manufacturing Processes
Manufacturing process innovations improve manufacturing competitiveness by enabling new materials and technologies to be produced with precision, quality, flexibility, and controllability, as well as material and energy efficiency. Materials and manufacturing processes must often be co-optimized when developing new materials and processes. As a result, the advanced manufacturing processes and high-performance materials RD&D are well integrated.
Advanced manufacturing processes, such as additive manufacturing, near net shape manufacturing, and roll-to-roll manufacturing, are critical to manufacturing for advanced energy technologies and improving domestic manufacturing competitiveness. AMMTO supports innovations in manufacturing processes to deliver materials and material systems with the properties required for next generation energy technologies. AMMTO also focuses on material and energy efficiency of these advanced manufacturing processes. To support advanced manufacturing processes, AMMTO invests in RD&D, connects industry with resources at national labs, and facilitates public-private RD&D collaboration.
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Digital Manufacturing
The collection and use of manufacturing data has the potential to provide insight and drive optimization at multiple scales, including for real-time process control, product design, and supply chain management for resilience. RD&D is needed not only to realize this potential, but to ensure that U.S. manufacturing is secure against cyberattacks that are increasingly becoming threats to the manufacturing base.
Complex computational models yield valuable insights, which can lower energy costs and emissions and improve process yields and quality across the advanced energy manufacturing economy. AMMTO connects industry with supercomputing resources at national labs to expedite innovation across manufacturing processes important to manufacturing of energy technologies.
AMMTO supports RD&D for smart manufacturing technologies and for hardening smart and automated systems against cyber threats to increase the resilience of manufacturing supply chains. Smart manufacturing, which includes the use of enhanced sensors and controls to monitor and adjust manufacturing processes in real-time can increase throughput, improve product quality, and increase energy efficiency. Education and workforce development is a critical piece of both of these areas and is being advanced through AMMTO-led public-private partnerships.
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