The Next Industrial Revolution | ASTM Standardization News

Today, the first step might be to go online and look for how-to videos. Each time you watch one, your brain registers the steps in the process and begins to understand how they fit together. Watch enough videos and you’ll internalize that data and be able to proceed on your own.

The underlying premise of Industry 4.0 is quite similar, only on an exponentially larger, and unimaginably faster, scale. Imagine, every hour, thousands of bakers making millions of cakes. Consider each step in each baker’s recipe as a data point. How would you manage such a huge accumulation of information, and more importantly, how would you use it to improve the process?

These questions are especially relevant in the world of additive manufacturing (AM). This extremely data-intensive process builds three-dimensional objects by joining successive layers of material, one atop the other, through direct conversion of  three-dimensional computer-aided design, or CAD, files that contain all the necessary design parameters. 

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