NRC’s advanced manufacturing research facility powering innovation

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This article was published 26/09/2023 (836 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The robotic arm has a task: create a maple leaf.

Red polylactic acid — used in items like floor mats — flows from the robot’s spout, outlining and filling in the Canadian symbol with a hot glue gun-like precision.

Steps away, 10 similar maple leaves cover a table. The first has crevices in the middle. Some leaves are smooth; some are rugged.

“It’s a bit of a finicky process,” said Jasper Arthur, putting the latest leaf beside its siblings. “It’s trial and error.”

Arthur is surrounded by trial and error — his employer is the National Research Council of Canada.

He powered off the robot, one of several focal points inside the NRC’s $61.5-million advanced manufacturing research facility.

Canada’s national research branch officially opened the Winnipeg site in June 2022. On Tuesday, the NRC toured media.

“We do the pre-competitive research,” said Heather Smart, the facility’s director of research and development. “Companies don’t have to take on the risk and the investment.”

She walked the site, at 2690 Red Fife Rd., stopping in a biodegradability lab and a fabrication area with 3D printers.

“(Innovation) gives industry… the capability to push the limits of design,” she said.

The robot that produced maple leaves is being developed into “more adaptable technology,” Arthur explained.

Similar models are often used for car parts, repeatedly pumping out the same material.

“That’s not very useful here in Manitoba,” said Arthur, a research officer. “A lot of the manufacturing (here) is highly customizable and low volume.”

He listed fire trucks, buses, RVs: the manufacturers make fewer vehicles, but orders come with unique specifications. An adaptable robot will alter its process to the demands.

Thousands of settings are adjusted for the robot to make a product, Arthur said.

Researchers track every setting they use and the robot’s final result. The Winnipeg location will share data with NRC facilities across Canada, who are also tracking their automation. Eventually, the data pool might be big enough for robots to know what to make, and what tweaks are required, without human intervention.

That’s the goal, noted Éric Baril, the NRC’s director general of the automotive and surface transportation research centre.

“The full idea is to be able to minimize the loss of time on the shop floor,” he said.

Collecting data could also help artificial intelligence model scenarios before manufacturers begin new production, Baril added.

“What you see here is all building blocks to increase the agility, the capability of the manufacturing sector in Manitoba (and nationally),” he said.

Last year, manufacturing made up 9.8 per cent of Manitoba’s gross domestic product.

In 2021, it was Manitoba’s third largest employment sector, accounting for 10 per cent of the province’s employment.

New technology doesn’t mean less jobs, “it means more interesting jobs,” Baril stated, standing near an advanced 3D printer.

Robots are increasingly used for training workers and can be humans’ assistants, he said. They can cover some labour shortages, allowing people to inhabit the jobs “that create the most value within manufacturing.”

The printer near Baril used three lasers, the first of its kind in Canada. Smaller laser powder bed fusion machines have gained traction in aerospace and medical sectors, Smart said.

The machines are used for orthopedic implants, among other things. The NRC is researching how to increase such a printer’s speed and the different materials that can be processed.

Beside the $2-million printer was another one, without lasers, producing metal parts. Researchers were testing aluminum-based items.

In a separate area, scientists studied the biodegradability of food processing and manufacturing products.

The NRC collaborates with industry, passing along its findings so businesses can commercialize them or change their own manufacturing processes.

Winnipeg’s plant has 10 smaller labs and space for companies to pilot scale new manufacturing technologies.

It will need $5 million annually to operate, Baril estimated.

The Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters has supported the new facility’s creation since 2017, according to Ron Koslowsky, divisional vice-president for the organization’s Manitoba branch.

“The fact is — Manitoba, and Canada as a whole, are falling behind when it comes to (research and development) compared to other advanced economies,” Koslowsky wrote in a statement. “For manufacturers looking for help — specifically those in the land transportation and food processing sectors — this could be good news.”

“By (the NRC) supporting the potential growth of our employers, we hope to continue to grow the Manitoba economy,” Koslowsky wrote.

Over the last 20 years, Canada’s research and development has been in “perpetual decline,” a TD Bank report published in July stated.

Canadian research and development spending accounted for 1.7 per cent of the national gross domestic product in 2021, the report continued.

Winnipeg’s new facility holds around $13 million of scientific equipment and staffs roughly 20 people.

The NRC also conducts manufacturing and surface transportation research and development in Ottawa; London, Ont.; Boucherville, Que.; and Saguenay, Que.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com