Opportunities and Challenges in Integrating Additive Manufacturing in the SEPT Learning Factory

The purpose of the paper is to identify the opportunities and tackle the challenges of integrating Additive Manufacturing (AM) in a Learning Factory (LF) by exploring the applied research and education activities that take place in the Cyber-Physical Systems Centre developed at McMaster University in the School of Engineering Practice and Technology. On the research aspect, the paper presents aspects related to 3D printing parts using a hybrid manufacturing environment that includes AM and traditional manufacturing processes. On the educational aspect, the paper addresses a question on how to educate the future specialists who will work in industry on AM technologies for the production of parts. The paper describes the LF environment that allows undergraduate to carry out capstone projects that include AM technologies; allows graduate students to carry out AM experiments for their graduate theses; and allows academic and industrial partners to carry out feasibility studies, manufacture parts, conduct quality control measurements, and tackle basic and industrial sponsored research projects.