The Fourth Industrial Revolution – the fusion of manufacturing design, process and production into one comprehensive whole – has spurred new technology for additive manufacturing, a process that builds 3D objects through the successive layering of metals, ceramic and metal-ceramic alloys. And the University of North Texas’s new state-of-art Additive Manufacturing Laboratory located within the university’s centralized Materials Research Facility, which opened its doors to the public Wednesday, Nov. 28 at a ribbon-cutting event, is helping to pave the way to this new future of manufacturing.

During the event, researchers and students in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering gave tours and demonstrations of the equipment in the lab that puts UNT at the forefront of this rapidly emerging area of technology. Additive manufacturing is capable of producing higher-strength and more energy-efficient materials while reducing the actual amount of materials needed, wear and tear on parts and use of natural resources.