Kazmer Research
Research Mission
To increase manufacturing competitiveness through creation of new design and processing technologies.
Research Strategy
Manufacturing embodies the creation of wealth: the materialization of concepts and drawings into functional hardware, the conversion of raw materials into finished products, the transformation of costly prototypes into commodity goods.
Polymer processing is a challenging domain due to coupling between the dynamic process behavior, complex material properties, and diverse product quality requirements. The objective of current research is to establish a structured method for manufacturing process design. Our philosophy is to formally extend the concepts of axiomatic design to non-linear systems, then apply principles of controllability to spatially and/or dynamically decouple multiple quality attributes via available or added control parameters.
A global view of integrated product and process design (IPPD) requires an extensive depth of knowledge. Research and contributions have been made in several complementary areas, including:
- cost estimation
- robust design optimization
- design for Six Sigma guidelines
- algorithms for establishing global feasibility
- design of new manufacturing processes
- multi-criterion optimization methods
- new sensor designs
- advanced process simulations
- real time, model-based closed loop controllers.
The vast majority of research has relied upon development of phenomenological modeling with numerical simulation to understand and determine the functional relations between decision variables and performance measures.
The development of advanced technologies is not an easy task, yet major commercial successes have been accomplished: 1) a method for controlling cavity melt flow and pressure at multiple places within an injection mold, commercialized by Dynisco; 2) a method for performing multi-objective process characterization and optimization, commercialized by GE Plastics; 3) a method for tuning and optimizing molding machines, commercialized by Moldflow; and 4) a non-isothermal, non-Newtonian process simulation for molded product design, commercialized by GE Plastics.
We are hopeful that new technologies will be commercialized within a five year time frame: 1) a comprehensive multi-objective decision analysis and quality control system; 2) a system for real time flow analysis in polymer processing; 3) a low cost method for dynamic control of flow rates and melt pressures in polymer processing; and 4) an effective method for establishing lights out injection molding.
About Funded Research
As University researchers, we seek to create and disseminate knowledge. Research entails risk, and interesting engineering research is typically high-risk. Typically, the development of a technology through the proof of concept stage requires a few man years and $x00,000 in direct costs. The funding of such projects is not trivial to receive, and generally requires pre-proposal research to provide a convincing approach and research plan. As such, we've utilized the following research development model:
- At an unfunded level, researchers provide pro-bona services to students, industry, and government. Such unfunded work tends to keep us current in engineering practice, but more importantly, aware of societal trends and evolving technologies. Another important unfunded activity is the development of proposals, which is a major activity. A solid $250,000 proposal typically requires a month or more to develop, which is a real opportunity cost relative to advising a master's thesis or authoring a journal article.
- At a small funding level, typically $25 to $50k, a master's student can be funded for one year with a few weeks of a faculty member's supervision. Typically, these projects are very well defined with a clear development and testing plan, and some expected outcomes. As such, these small projects don't involve exploratory research, and usually do not generate inventions. However, these projects do provide grounding for the engineering researcher, solutions for the sponsor, and opportunities for larger research projects.
- At a moderate funding level, typically $250 to $500k, 1 to 2 masters or doctoral students are funded for three to five years, typically with several months of a faculty member's supervision and direct contributions. These projects may involve the development of simulations, designs, fabrication of components, systems integration, and testing. Proof of concept as outlined in previous proposals is anticipated but not guaranteed. Generally, this level of funding is necessitated to create and validate knowledge with the ultimate goal of developing inventive engineering systems. As such, and intellectual property can be an issue.
- Very large funding projects, typically $2000k or more, frequently span organizations and perhaps even decades. Such funding typically requires multiple federal and industry sponsors, and is frequently justified with the expectation of enabling fundamental advances in an industry or field. It should also be noted that companies generally require such investment to commercialize a product based on a University-derived technology.
A Note to Prospective Research Sponsors
We welcome inquiries regarding possible funded and unfunded collaboration. As implied above, small projects can be performed on an as-needed basis, with a realistic budget matched to the requirements...typically intellectual property and non-disclosure agreements are not issues. For larger projects, in which funded University researchers are anticipated to create inventions, the University policy is to share joint ownership with sponsors on a non-exclusive basis, and will consider licensing intellectual property on an exclusive basis with reasonable royalty rates.