By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
At the end of a hall in the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative is the Point-of-Need Innovations Center. Inside the 5,000 square foot space is a team of researchers set on changing the way manufacturing happens, equipped with massive machines and tools made from moon soil.
Baylor’s Point-of-Need Innovations Center is a laboratory housed within the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative. The lab hosts researchers from various subfields within engineering. Unlike most labs, PONI works directly with companies to develop specific solutions to logistical challenges.
PONI began in 2022 when Dr. Brian Jordon and Dr. Paul Allison came to Baylor from the University of Alabama. Since it began, researchers from the undergraduate to doctorate level have worked on numerous projects such as repairing aircraft wings, creating portable runway surfaces and combining metal with lunar soil for in-space repairs.
Jordon, who is a director of PONI and the Kenneth and Celia Carlile Chair in Materials Science, said that one of PONI’s main purposes is to create solutions to supply chain logistics challenges. Much of their research focuses on finding ways to repair machinery rather than returning broken parts to a factory or making a new one altogether.
“We focus on problems at [PONI]. So we’re focusing on challenges that might be in austere locations. It might be manufacturing situations that suffer from supply chain logistics issues. It could be something on the moon.” Jordon said.
The technique that the lab uses is called additive friction stir deposition. Essentially, this process allows technicians to print or spread metal without melting it.
Jordon said that with typical welding, the metal melts. But metals like aluminum lose a lot of strength after melting.
“When you melt [metal] and it solidifies again, it creates cracks,” Jordon said.
The AFS-D process heats the metal by rapidly spinning rods called feedstocks. The friction created by the rotation softens the metal enough for it to be spread across a surface like butter. Importantly, metal doesn’t get hot enough to melt.
“You’re basically smearing the rods wherever they go. Wherever it goes, it leaves some [metal] behind. It’s almost like you’re water skiing — you’ve got your wake behind you,” Jordon said.
In the laboratory, AFS-D is used for manufacturing with a large BOND GL7 machine, one of the lab’s many pieces of equipment. While the machine is quite large, Jordon said it is scalable and can ultimately be used for projects of various sizes.
Fort Collins, Colo., graduate student and PONI researcher Andrew Ikeler explained one of the many implications of this method.
“Currently, if an F-35 wing gets damaged, you have to take off the whole panel and send the plane back and they replace the wing. But with [AFS-D], you can repair it on the wing instead of taking the whole thing apart,” Ikeler said.
Jordon and Allison have a $15 million contract with the Department of Defense to advance their studies of AFS-D and implement them into industry. The researchers have also been working alongside NASA and the National Science Foundation to explore AFS-D applications in outer space.
The researchers used ASF-D to essentially 3D print a wrench made of synthetic lunar soil. In space, access to pure metal rods wouldn’t be easy, so the researchers are trying to simulate the conditions that they hope their research would be applied in.
Wrenches are not the only thing made out of this soil. In fact, Allison said he was contacted by the retired surgeon general of the U.S. Space Force, who is now a Baylor professor.
“We just made some surgical instruments out of that same way,” Allison said. “Sparky Matthews, who’s the first surgeon general of the Space Force… he’s a professor at Baylor… he was like, ‘Can you make me a scalpel handle so that we could think about how to manufacture medical equipment in space?’”
Not only is the research unlimited to earth, it’s also not limited to engineering. Faculty across many disciplines help with research.
Aside from the numerous Ph.D. and master’s students in the lab, Jordon said that there are over 20 undergraduate students working at a given time.
The abundance of student work is because of a desire to help teach the next generation of researchers, Allison said.
“Our goal is to really help the students who are working to be able to contribute here as soon as they can to solve these challenging problems, and we expect their input,” Allison said.
For Ikeler, working closely with companies and government agencies has been great for his development. Because of this, Ikeler — among other students — said job opportunities have been as abundant as research.
“We’re working with the consumers,” Ikeler said. “Most labs publish a paper and don’t go anywhere near consumers.”
Provost Nancy Brickhouse said the new strategic plan for Baylor makes a specific reference to the program.
“We have a very small engineering program that we need to invest in,” Brickhouse said.
Some of these objectives have already come into effect, with a new cybersecurity major starting this fall, a new endowed chair in cybersecurity, an electrical and computer engineering chair and Jordon’s position, which began in 2022.
For Jordon, the growth has been obvious.
“We’re coming from a different university, so we have experience in academia. I think the rate of growth has been amazing. There’s a lot of change happening on the engineering side and it’s been exciting to see,” Jordon said.
