GE, College of Engineering Celebrate Special Equipment Installation at ARI

The College of Engineering and representatives from GE Additive today marked the installation of a GE Metal Additive Manufacturing System (the Concept Laser Mlab 100R) at the Illinois Applied Research Institute.

Representatives of GE Additive, College of Engineering Associate Dean for Research and ARI interim Director Jennifer Bernhard, College of Engineering Dean Rashid Bashir, Vice Chancellor for Research Susan Martinis, and others celebrated with a ribbon cutting at ARI’s shared user facility located in the University of Illinois Research Park. 

The System was awared to the College of Engineering by the GE Additive Equipment Program, a competitive process that selected five higher-education winners from more than 500 proposals.

Using lasers to melt layers of fine metal powder, the System creates complex geometries with incredible precision directly from a CAD file. As part of ARI’s shared user facility for light manufacturing, the System will allow Illinois researchers, faculty, and students to gain a better understanding of 3D additive metal manufacturing and its applications first-hand.

The System will also offer the University of Illinois the opportunity to directly engage with industry and other research and development organizations on collaborative projects and technology transfer efforts that fully leverage high-performance additive manufacturing technology.

For more information, visit the College of Engineering announcement about the acquisition.