RAPID + TCT

The showcase focuses on manufacturing solutions for aerospace, mobility, and defense applications, with an emphasis on flexibility, speed, and adaptability. APEX Accelerators will host small-group Knowledge Bar sessions on conducting business safely and securely in the defense industry and other federal departments. The AeroDef Strategic Advisory Council curates the aerospace and defense tracks of the colocated RAPID + TCT Conference. Those tracks cover additive manufacturing applications and supporting technologies, including AI, automation, advanced materials, digital manufacturing, qualification, and inspection.

The Technical Review & Exchange presents ongoing America Makes projects and their additive manufacturing research and development. Project engineers, managers, and partners collaborate and update stakeholders on project progress. The event platform is intended to raise regional awareness and convene members, partners, and stakeholders from industry, academia, government, and economic development agencies. Members and nonmembers are welcome.

The conference brings together engineers, designers, managers, and educators to exchange expertise, best practices, challenges, and application developments in additive manufacturing. The program includes keynote presentations, technical sessions, panel discussions, training sessions, hands-on workshops, the Technical Competition, the Innovators Showcase, and AMUGexpo. Tracks cover aerospace and defense applications such as flight-certified parts, satellite components, qualification, repair, and sustainment; automotive, infrastructure, energy, and battery applications; business topics including capital equipment, return on investment, market research, and mergers and acquisitions; and design, metrology, scanning, and in-situ monitoring. Other track areas include additive manufacturing education and standards; emerging technologies and research-to-industry translation; healthcare and dental applications; industrial automation, tooling, hybrid manufacturing, robotics, and digital thread; materials, powder recycling, feedstock innovation, heat treatment, and post-processing; manufacturing safety and cybersecurity; and simulation, AI, digital twins, and process optimization. Attendance is limited to individuals from organizations that directly own commercially available additive manufacturing equipment used in a professional environment.

The showcase focuses on manufacturing solutions for aerospace, mobility, and defense applications, with an emphasis on flexibility, speed, and adaptability. APEX Accelerators will host small-group Knowledge Bar sessions on conducting business safely and securely in the defense industry and other federal departments. The AeroDef Strategic Advisory Council curates the aerospace and defense tracks of the colocated RAPID + TCT Conference. Those tracks cover additive manufacturing applications and supporting technologies, including AI, automation, advanced materials, digital manufacturing, qualification, and inspection.

Technical programming covers aerospace materials and applications, including additive manufacturing; advanced forming and thermomechanical processing; aerospace coatings; AI and integrated computational materials engineering; composite materials and structures; emerging materials and processes; extreme-environment and gas-turbine materials; light alloy technology; low-cost manufacturing and affordable structures; materials characterization and failure analysis; modeling and simulation of manufacturing processes; multifunctional materials; residual stress for aerospace components; space and cryogenic applications; sustainable and enabling materials and processes; titanium alloys and manufacturing technologies; tribology and wear of aerospace materials; and welding and joining. The conference also includes keynote presentations, panel discussions, an exposition, and professional development opportunities. The detailed schedule and keynote lineup have not yet been published.

The technical program is planned to include keynote presentations, technical sessions, panel discussions, special-topic sessions, and hands-on workshops. Topics include heat-treating technologies, process control, materials performance, emerging innovations, applied research, case studies, process improvements, and practical solutions to manufacturing and operational challenges. Heat Treat is co-located with IMAT, the Residual Stress Technology Conference (RSTC), and the North American Cold Spray Conference (NACSC).

The program brings together energy, industrial transformation, and advanced manufacturing, with cross-cutting themes of workforce development, standards, finance, AI and digital transformation, policy, and resilience planning. Roundtables, workshops, and demos are designed to address tradeoffs involving affordability, risk, standardization, and deployment speed. Program tracks include Powering Growth, with sample sessions on data-center power and cooling, new nuclear deployment, solar cost reduction, and scaling geothermal; Industry Reimagined, covering industrial heat electrification, next-generation steel, and EPC project-delivery costs and risks; Next-Gen Manufacturing, addressing hardware investment and bankability, additive manufacturing, and sustainability tradeoffs in product design; and Future Workforce, on nuclear workforce readiness, apprenticeships, and aligning training programs with real projects. Additional sessions are in development in areas including energy storage, fusion, industrial efficiency, critical minerals, and sustainability tradeoffs. The listed sessions are samples and subject to change.

Advanced manufacturing technology is presented across aerospace, automotive, industrial equipment, medical device equipment, and defense, spanning high-end manufacturing equipment, smart manufacturing, and robotic automation. Featured technologies include additive manufacturing; CAD, CAE, and CAM; industrial IoT and Industry 4.0; cybersecurity and digital transformation; materials and metallurgy; tooling and machining; factory automation, robotics, inspection, and machine vision; energy and environmental efficiency; and machine tools and fabrication. SME Mission Critical: Workforce 2030 is a featured experience focused on manufacturers’ workforce challenges and solutions intended to unlock human potential.

The first program day examines the move from automated processes toward intelligent, connected systems capable of decision-making, optimization, and adaptive control. Sessions cover programmable cloud laboratory nodes for AI materials and manufacturing, Sandia’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation, the Alabama Materials Institute, and an autonomous robotic metallurgist materials innovation platform. The program also connects self-driving and autonomous laboratory efforts associated with the Genesis Mission and Programmable Cloud Laboratories agendas to real-world applications, collaboration, and the future of autonomous manufacturing systems. An industry technology exhibition and demonstrations are included. The second program day explores Internet of Things for Manufacturing (IoTfM) use cases, implementation lessons, standards for connectivity and interoperability, and the future direction of IoTfM. Sessions address OPC UA, digital technologies and digital twins, factory-floor digital transformation, automation and additive manufacturing, manufacturing data, practical industrial IoT, and technologies shaping future factories. The program also includes advanced manufacturing pilot facility tour stations and demonstrations.

The program covers medical-device design and development, next-generation technologies, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity, supply-chain resilience, quality, and manufacturing operations. Conference topics include market readiness and adoption of medical devices; scaling miniaturized devices from prototype to production; signal integrity and EMI for medical imaging and AI-driven devices; AI-based demand forecasting; changes to FDA inspections and the Quality Management System Regulation (QMSR); 3D printing of bioabsorbable implants; and robotics and AI in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Show-floor education also addresses digital transformation, AI adoption, workforce transformation, smart manufacturing, automation, packaging, additive manufacturing, and sustainable operations. Workshops address digital lean manufacturing using automation, AI, robotics, and data analytics; OT/IT integration and smart-manufacturing roadmaps; and sterilization technologies including supercritical carbon dioxide, vaporized hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, electron beam, and X-ray. Sterilization topics include validation, material compatibility, scalability, regulatory expectations, and lower-emission approaches. The leadership program covers mentorship, leadership credibility, difficult conversations, decision fatigue, and burnout.

The technical program includes a joint AeroMat symposium on advanced coatings for aerospace and industrial gas turbines, including thermal and environmental barrier coatings, turbine clearance control, load-bearing and tribological coatings, component repair, and cold spray for aerospace applications. Research and development topics include AI and machine learning for materials and process informatics; modeling and simulation; carbon neutrality, environmental impacts, and life-cycle analysis; characterization methods; cold-spray fundamentals and particle impact; aerosol deposition; novel coatings and feedstock materials; and hybrid, laser, and additive manufacturing processes. Application areas include automotive and medical uses; battery and sustainable-energy applications; electronics and semiconductor manufacturing equipment; thermal-spray additive manufacturing; equipment, powders, consumables, and economics; circular-economy repair and remanufacturing; and wear and corrosion protection across energy, oil and gas, marine, manufacturing, construction, and food processing. The conference also includes oral and poster presentations, panel discussions, keynote presentations, and an industrial forum. The co-located exposition features thermal-spray equipment, advanced surface solutions, additive manufacturing technologies, consumables, and applied research.