University of North Texas receives $10M for Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing
The University of North Texas’ Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing has been granted $10 million in funding from the 86th Texas Legislature. The center, which will be supported by the university’s existing Additive Manufacturing Laboratory, will be used to develop market-based solutions for a range of Texas industries.
The Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing (CAAAM) was launched in 2018 by UNT through its existing Materials Research Facility, which is co-sponsored by the Office of Research and Innovation and the College of Engineering. The Materials Research Facility, one of the most advanced university research facilities in the United States for materials analysis, was established to provide students with hands-on education opportunities as well as to be used for research purposes.
With the $10 million in funding from the 86th Texas Legislature, the Center for Agile and Adaptive Additive Manufacturing at UNT will be able to expand its scope significantly and continue to advance its various research projects. Notably, the funding will enable UNT to establish a Texas-based prototype center that could “globally transform the future of advanced manufacturing.”
The center will primarily be used to conduct research in the field of smart materials and environmentally friendly technologies for a number of sectors, including healthcare and oil and gas. In doing so, the center will also help to create a highly skilled workforce of engineers within Texas that can benefit the state’s industries.
“We are grateful to the Legislature for funding our new center and especially appreciative of the unwavering support we received from Texas Senator Pat Fallon and Representative Lynn Stucky,” said UNT President Neal Smatresk. “Through CAAAM, UNT will advance its research and expand its role as a leader in this exciting new technology.”
UNT’s Additive Manufacturing Laboratory, for its part, opened its doors in November 2018 and hosts a range of state-of-the-art metal 3D printing technologies, including laser powder bed fusion and laser-based directed energy deposition processes. According to UNT, the Additive Manufacturing Laboratory will be one of the assets to support CAAAM.
