MIT launches additive manufacturing consortium, ADAPT

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MIT has recently launched ADAPT, an additive manufacturing consortium that identifies visionary research, scalable education platforms, actionable strategic insights, and academic-industry ecosystem as the foundation of its platform.

Referring to Additive and Digital Advanced Production Technologies, ADAPT is aiming to create a community of key, strategic AM players, in the hopes of leveraging unique resources to develop industry-specific research and projects.

Protolabs, a rapid manufacturer of low-volume 3D printed, injection-molded custom parts, joined ADAPT as one of the founding members, which includes Autodesk, General Motors, and Volkswagen.

“AM and the path toward a responsive, digital manufacturing infrastructure both within and between organizations — requires multidisciplinary expertise at the cutting edge of mechanical engineering, computer science, and materials,” said  MIT professor John Hart, who leads ADAPT and oversees MIT’s Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity and the design and manufacturing facilities in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “I am thrilled to launch ADAPT to accelerate MIT’s efforts toward enabling the next generation of production technologies, wherein AM is a cornerstone.”

Outside of the aforementioned companies, other founding members of the community include ArcelorMittal, Renishaw, Bosch, Formlabs and Mimaki amongst others. The membership fees will support research projects on various AM technologies and will perform strategic analyses of the present and future capabilities of additive manufacturing and of digitally-driven manufacturing systems to supplement its research.

Another key area of focus is connecting MIT’s students with industry players. More specifically, Among the initial efforts of ADAPT are seeding exploratory research projects with faculty and graduate students, accelerating the establishment of a new, advanced additive manufacturing laboratory at MIT. ADAPT activities also complement MIT’s  AM education programs like Additive Manufacturing for Innovative Design and Production, an online certificate program offered by MITxPRO with manufacturing and engineering support from Protolabs.

According to ADAPT’s program manager Haden Quinlan, there are no barriers to a company joining, stating “They should email us to express interest, and we will discuss their specific objectives in joining the consortium.”

www.adapt.mit.edu