A message from the Chairman of the board
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One year ago, I was writing in the introduction to the annual report 2021 that we are facing “a number of crises simultaneously.” That statement is for sure still valid and we as a consortium has been able to develop even in these hard times – or perhaps we are developing due to the challenges?

The manufacturing industry has shown during 2022 that we are an integrated part of the national security and our ability to adapt to upcoming challenges is one of our key assets. This ability is based on long term investment in company internal skills and robust networks. In this sense the collaborative research activities of SFI Manufacturing have been a vital input. Building of robust networks is based on multiple levels of collaboration – on institution/company level, on individual engineer/researcher level etc.
 
In order to maintain the role of as an integrated part of national security it is also required that manufacturing is on the national political agenda. It is our intention that SFI Manufacturing, and the continuation of the centre, will contribute to this.

- Lars Stenerud

​Muhammad Zeeshan Khalid is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, NTNU Trondheim. Muhamad’s PhD was part of a large project working on Sustainable Innovation for Automated Manufacturing of Multi-Material Products-SFI Manufacturing. During his PhD, he worked on the Atomistic modelling of Fe-Al interfaces for joining aluminium and steel applications, primarily working on predicting the mechanical strengths of the Fe-Al compounds and interfaces observed at the joints of aluminium and steel using Density functional theory calculations.
 
This video, in short, summarises Muhammad's PhD thesis titled "Atomistic modeling of Fe-Al and α-AlFeSi intermetallic compound interfaces."
 
If you should have any inquiries, Muhammad Zeeshan Khalid can be reached at [email protected]

​Eirik Bådsvik Hamre Korsen is an Associate Professor / Head of Section IØT-G at the Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management at NTNU Gjøvik. During his PhD at SFI Manufacturing, he studied performance management systems in manufacturing organizations.
 
The project is titled "Who is Driving: How Digitalization effect performance measurement and Management", this video, in short, summarises his PhD.
 
If you have any inquiries, Eirik Bådsvik Hamre Korsen can be reached at [email protected]

Henrik Brynthe Lund is a Research Scientist working at SINTEF Digital's Department of Technology Management. Henrik was previously a PhD candidate at SFI Manufacturing. He can be reached at [email protected].

This video summarizes the findings of his thesis: Navigating emerging technologies and knowledge demands: system perspectives on knowledge development in Norwegian manufacturing industry.

​Our 14th newsletter from Research Area 1 and 3 is now available for you to read!

​Page 4: Workshop in Åndalsnes 04

Page 7: Research Area 1: Work package 1.1 

Page 11: Research Area 1: Work package 1.2 

Page 13: Research Area 1: Work package 1.3 

Page 15: Research Area 3: PhD and WP news 

We updated the white paper on May 25th, 2022. The primary sections that have been revised are the methods and additive manufacturing. The latter has been updated in collaboration with SINTEF Industry.

About the white paper
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Manufacturing in the 21st century has been characterized as a complex and dynamic sociotechnical system (ManuFUTURE, 2019). The industry is currently being challenged by accelerated technological change, pressures, and regulations regarding reduction of its environmental footprint, novel knowledge demands, a turbulent economic landscape, and a pandemic creating a demanding and unforeseen context.

For manufacturers to make sense of ongoing changes and how to position themselves within this changing landscape, it is useful to start with developing a knowledge basis on the most pertinent trends. This is the departure for this white paper, which aims to provide an overview of some of the key technological, environmental, social, and economic trends that are both challenging and providing opportunities for the Norwegian manufacturing industry.

Note that the paper does not provide an exhaustive analysis and discussion of the different trends. Rather, based on a review of existing reports and academic literature and experience from contemporary research on the development of the Norwegian manufacturing industry, we have identified a selection of trends. In section 2, we present and briefly reflect on these trends individually.

The trends are presented in the following sequence:

1. Environmental trends
2. Technological Trends
3. Social Trends
4. Economical Trends

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In section 3 we briefly discuss the interconnections between the trends and how recent challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic influence them, before providing some final remarks.

Page 1:
- About RA 2

Page 1-2:
- PhD news​

Page 2:
- Loading and unloading of hanging trolleys

Page 3:
- 3D vision-based CAD registration and burr detection
- Hapro, glue dispensing: SFI case

Page 4:
- Plastic 3D print (Robotized Additive Manufacturing)
- Kongsberg Maritime, mobile assembly – SFI case

Our society is facing a number of crises simultaneously: global warming, Covid19-pandemic, lack of food, lack of energy, war in Europe and geopolitical instability.

We are usually talking about how the manufacturing industry will handle external challenges, but perhaps we should rather focus on the role of the manufacturing industry in the society to be more robust for coping with such crisis on top of each other? The manufacturing industry is a key enabler for sustainable development with respect to environment, society and economy, and this industry is an important part of our common emergency preparedness.

Our best robustness for the future is a society that is prepared for facing a large variety of challenges. In this context, it is vital for Norway to maintain, and further develop, high quality in research, manufacturing and innovation. Governmental cofounding of R&D is one of the most effective efforts build national robustness for facing challenges to come.

Collaborative research, as all partners in SFI Manufacturing have joined in on, have contributed to our most powerful tool to build robustness for the future: knowledge. This annual report gives an overview of the contribution from the centre last year, and I hope you will read this report being motivated to seek possibilities to utilise this knowledge for a common sustainable development.
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- Lars Stenerud, CEO Plasto AS
Chair of the board, SFI Manufacturing

You can find the PDF here.

Page 1:
Disputation of Eirik B. H. Korsen

Page 1-2:
Our first physical workshop in two years

Page 3:
Trends influencing Norwegian manufacturing industry the next decade

Page 4:
Tentative workshop plan for 2022

Page 5:
New project: ALuGreen

Page 6-7:
Report from RA1: WP1.1 + WP1.2