May 2023 Volume 5

AUTOMATION

While the Air Force program was performed by a major aerospace OEM and a Tier 1 supplier, the DPT approach described here also provides Tier 2 and below suppliers (i.e., most U.S. manufacturers) with similar capabilities. Rather than requiring a Ph.D. degree or years of experience to become useful, DPTs are specifically targeted at all levels of the manufacturing workforce. The processing windows determined with a DPT are presented as easy-to-read charts and figures, which help machine operators gain insight into the impact of process parameters on quality. Through model informed sensor selection, technicians and engineers can better analyze data obtained during production, while also implementing more efficient process monitoring and optimization strategies. At the design stage, DPTs may be leveraged to consider producibility factors, and cost/quality/throughput-focused DPTs likewise allow salespeople to provide more accurate quotes and insights into lead time requirements. Conclusions • Business as usual has become unsustainable and existing process development and modeling solutions are insufficient to address the looming challenges of the manufacturing skills gap and decreasing industrial capacity. • We see an urgent need for a paradigmshift to allow the domestic forging industry to remain competitive; Digital Process Twins take a ‘Goldilocks’ approach to model complexity, prioritizing rapid identification of viable process parameters and optimization for both cost and quality metrics over high fidelity simulation of complex process physics. • Digital Process Twins of cost and quality have already been validated for machining and additive processes, showing potential to increase productivity and throughput by 3-10x, while cutting time to the first article by more than half; forging is a logical next step. • Digital Process Twins can become partners that help digitally up-skill the existing and emerging forging industry workforce, addressing the manufacturing skills gap and increasing the capacity to surge production of forged components.

Julius Schoop, Ph.D. President and Founder, Integrated Materials and Processing Intelligence (IMPI) LLC Dr. Julius Schoop is Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky and President/ Founder, IMPI LLC in Lexington, KY where he serves various aerospace and defense manufacturers as a technical consultant and process expert, leveraging proprietary Digital Process Twins for efficient process design and optimization. Dr. Schoop holds a primary academic appointment as Assistant Professor in

the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kentucky (UKY), where his research team investigates the unique thermomechanical loads of manufacturing processes and their impact on the material properties and fatigue performance of manufactured components through state-of-the-art in-situ characterization techniques. Prior to joining UKY in 2018, and subsequently founding IMPI LLC in 2020, Dr. Schoop served as Principal Engineering and Program Manager at Techsolve Inc. in Cinncinati, OH. Email: julius.schoop@impi-llc.com, julius.schoop@uky.edu Phone: 812-470-6433 Rollie Dutton, Ph.D. Digital Engineering Capabilities Lead, ARCTOS Technology Solutions

Dr. Rollie Dutton is a Senior Technical Fellow at ARCTOS Technology Solutions, Dayton, OH where he advises a team of highly experienced program managers and senior engineers executing a portfolio of programs for various DOD customers. Prior to joining ARCTOS in 2018, Dr. Dutton held several supervisory and technical positions in the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Email: roland.dutton@arctos-us.com Phone: 937-956-9039

FIERF Funded Research Project: Simulation-basedDigital Twin Architecture for Enhancing Forging Part Quality and Control The overall objective of this study is to develop a digital twin as an integral part of a forging system, upon which the physical machine and virtual/cyber machine harmoniously communicate and deliberate the influence of “inherent disturbances” on the product forming quality and the underlying loading status of the machine. The digital twin would produce an output map for how to bring about optimal forging conditions. The specific objectives follow: I. Study the current state-of-the-art in warm forging processes across all subsystems constituting a production line. II. Carry out virtual simulations of a representative warm forging production line. III. Carry out simulations for study of Forging Press to study the effect of dynamics of Press frame on the Product quality and process efficiency. IV. From the simulation data, develop a digital twin architecture enabling communication between physical and virtual machines. View the full final report on FIA’s Website.

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