The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced $1.87 million for seven projects to advance innovation in U.S. manufacturing through high-performance computing. Part of DOE’s High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) program, the seven new public/private partnerships are expected to enable greater collaboration between DOE national labs and the U.S. manufacturing industry.

Each of the seven projects will receive up to $300,000 to support modeling and simulation subject-matter experts at the national laboratories and provide the needed supercomputing power. Industry partners will provide 20-50% cost sharing, including the technical know-how and manufacturing data needed to tackle the project goals. The projects selected for awards will be led by:

  • PPG Industries
  • Vitro Flat Glass, LLC
  • Arconic, Inc. (co-funded by DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy)
  • Eaton Corp.
  • Vader Systems, LLC
  • Caterpillar (co-funded by DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office)
  • General Motors (co-funded by DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office)

The HPC4Mfg program, operated by DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), leverages technical expertise with high-performance computing to tackle manufacturing challenges uniquely solved by computer modeling. By applying modeling, simulation, and data analytics to key manufacturing problems, the program can aid in decision-making, optimize processes and design, improve quality, predict performance and failure, reduce or eliminate testing, and shorten the time to market.

The HPC4Mfg program has supported 47 projects and provided more than $15 million for these public-private partnerships. Led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the program includes projects with Argonne National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.

For more information, visit https://energy.gov or https://hpc4mfg.llnl.gov.