The science and technology of making things are currently undergoing revolutionary changes and soon it may become unrecognizable. As a matter of fact the basic philosophy of fabrication techniques is under transformation because of the unforeseen challenges being faced in this area. As a matter of fact a completely new-look subject is emerging which may be loosely termed as "Futuristic Manufacturing". The challenges are primarily because of the current trend for miniaturization, development of new exotic nonmetallic materials and the lessons the scientists and engineers are learning from the living objects. Thus it may be necessary to coin an appropriate name for identifying this emerging new branch of technology.
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A number of suggestions were put forward in a recently concluded Indo-US Workshop on "Futuristic Shaping Technology at Meso, Micro and Nano Scales" at IIT Kanpur. The prominent ones were – "Fabrionics", "Fabricatics", "Ducrionics" etc. Perhaps more deliberations are required to emerge with an acceptable terminology correctly representing the branch of technology under our consideration.
From the dawn of civilization, one major human activity has been conversion of natural resource materials provided by the mother earth into usable products. The progress of human society has been critically dependent on this key feature of Manufacturing. From the prehistoric time till today the fundamental principles for shaping of objects have remained unchanged which follow a Top-Down approach, though the degree of complexity of the products and the process has increased to an unbelievably high level. It has become increasingly clear that following the nature is the best option in most spheres of activities, including manufacturing. The scientists and technologists have now begun to develop shaping technologies following what nature does for living objects, i.e. to grow shapes instead of imparting shapes to an existing piece for material which is called the Bottom-Up Approach. Fig.1 illustrates the two manufacturing approaches. Recently developed generating manufacturing techniques for rapid prototyping are examples of "Bottom-Up" Approach. |
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(a) Top-Down Approach |
(b) Bottom-Up Approach
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Fig.1 Fundamental Manufacturing Approaches
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When this is combined with techniques of self assembly, it may be possible to produce objects in a manner that mimics the growth of living objects, at least at micro level to start with. Self assembly or self generation is a process in which components, either separate or linked, spontaneously form ordered aggregates. It can occur with elements having sizes from molecular to macroscopic level. One such molecular level self assembly is shown in Fig.2. These self assemblies can again be classified as un-coded and coded self assemblies which works on minimization of potential energy and instruction built into the elements, respectively.
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Fig.2 Self assembly at molecular level
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A new industrial revolution calls for cheaper/faster manufacturing of micro/nano level devices and machines. The current micro fabrication working process-ranges are indicated in Fig.3.
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Fig.3 Current Microfabrication range
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This "Childhood's End" for manufacturing will need a grand synthesis of techniques for generative fabrication, micro fabrication and multi stage self assembly. It will necessitate coming together of experts from the fields of Chemistry, Physics, Material Science, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering.
For successfully converting a wide variety of materials into ever-decreasing and complex devices the Bottom-Up approach has to be used. The progress of Top-Down and Bottom-Up approaches are given in Fig.4.
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Fig.4 Progress of Top-Down and Bottom-Up approaches |
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Self Assembly is based on Generative Manufacturing principle except for the information about material manipulation, which is built in for Self Assembly whereas the processing information is fed from outside in case of common Generative Manufacturing. The progress of manufacturing activities towards its final destination is graphically indicated in Fig.5.
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Fig.5 Trend towards Futuristic Manufacturing |
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