Table of contents

When research is undertaken with the aim of creating a product to address real-world problems, incorporating considerations for manufacturing early in the creative process is important to reduce the barriers to translation later in development. A general description of the product development process is provided within the context of design for manufacturing. Building technologies on existing infrastructure for manufacturing can dramatically reduce the cost and time to create a product. The trade off of such an approach is that the work may not be deemed novel and may, thus, be harder to publish. A brief overview of recent work by several groups to develop a point-of-care test for Zika virus illustrates the repercussions of different approaches to novelty versus manufacturability. Actionable guidance is given for both researchers and those that support the research endeavor, such as funders and editors of peer-reviewed journals, on how to incorporate manufacturing into early research.

Many see additive manufacturing (AM) and the internet of things (IoT) as two of the harbingers of the next Schumpeterian Cycle or Industry 4.0 (I 4.0). We use business cycle theory to demonstrate the technology basis for these technologies commercial interactions. We describe how AM techniques are poised to assist in overcoming hurdles in the IoT infrastructure technologies and how the IoT technologies are assisting AM based techniques. We discuss a model for AM application, and how international collaboration is speeding their co-development. We set the bases for the importance of emerging techniques in AM and the IoT that which are now helping to form the basis of I 4.0.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is an umbrella term for various layer-based manufacturing processes which are often portrayed as a new technological revolution. Despite impressive AM process developments the revenue of the AM industry is still a fraction of that of other manufacturing processes. This AM based revenue discrepancy raises many questions. They include: (1) What makes AM so special? and (2) How could the disruptive potential of AM be unlocked? We seek to add to the literature by providing an answer to elements of these questions through the development of a framework we call the 'Magic Cube'. We utilize the concept of vertical and horizontal innovation theory as one basis for this framework. Further we adopt a tension perspective on automation and individualisation drawn from operations research to develop a theoretical framework. The result is the 'Magic Cube', a tool that is designed to support researchers and practitioners in demonstrating the unique strengths of AM and its potential areas of application.

Nano-glues rely on surface chemistry to intimately bond two surfaces together. The bond can be removable, which means it has to weaken, usually with temperature, or it can be a permanent bond, valued for strength, with a covalent bond yielding the highest strength. A practical covalent nanoglue based upon self-assembled monolayers (SAM) with amine and carboxyl termination is demonstrated, and applicable to any surface that bonds these SAM layers. For bonding flat or deformable layers, the SAM layers on each surface bond directly to each other with a peptide or nylon-like bond. For a removable bond or longer covalent structure, nylon chains are grown between the layers to bridge the gap for non-flat and non-flexible substrates. Bond strength and reliability are measured for several preparation schemes for the intermediate layer. A crystallization process is developed to pre-align the intermediate layer precursors and drive off the solvent to improve bond reliability and insure covalent bonding from wafer to wafer (W2W). Both covalent and removable bonds are created. Temperature dependence of the removable bond strength is measured, while the covalent bonds are stronger than our measurement process. The nanoglue does not bond until activated by (modest) heating, so alignment is enabled, and it is directly compatible with a wafer level fluid-self-alignment (FSA) process described elsewhere.

Additive manufacturing (AM), commonly referred to as 3D printing, is an innovative manufacturing technology that has the potential of disrupting the manufacturing industry on a scale not seen since the industrial revolution. It has the potential to move the current manufacturing paradigm of mass production of a single product to mass customization of products to meet individual customer needs. The rapid growth of interest in the additive manufacturing technologies is prompting the question of how to finance such unprecedented potential growth and use of the AM technology especially at the consumer, entrepreneurial and small and medium (SME) sized business level. In this paper, the authors propose a financing alternative that matches the democratizing of manufacturing process by additive manufacturing technologies. It focuses on the heavy consumer, entrepreneurial and SME involvement in the co-creation process of manufacturing using AM technologies. We emphasize crowdfunding as a viable funding vehicle for AM due to its similarity in character to AM. We show how AM innovators are utilizing crowdfunding that is fast democratizing the financing of innovation and allows consumers to become financiers and provide input to development of a product or service. Innovative crowdfunding matches well with the needs and the mass customization nature of characteristics of additive manufacturing technologies.