To realize a clean, decarbonized economy, we must drive innovation to transform resources, materials, and manufacturing for energy applications. The U.S. ramp up of production of technologies that are needed for this energy transition will require new materials, new manufacturing processes, and new circular materials flows. The modernization of manufacturing can help bring these innovations on-line at the needed scale and quality faster. Smart manufacturing provides a systemic approach for this modernization that holds great promise to significantly improve productivity, efficiency, safety, security, and sustainability of U.S. manufacturing and energy systems. Smart manufacturing refers to the suite of platform technologies that directly support the digital transformation of the manufacturing enterprise across the entire production lifecycle, which includes design, process, production, supply network, and enterprise levels. Platform technologies are manufacturing technologies that can be applied to manufacture multiple products. This FOA applies smart manufacturing across four topic areas: Smart Manufacturing for a Circular Economy Smart Manufacturing of Tooling and Equipment for Sustainable Transportation Smart Manufacturing for High Performance Materials Smart Technologies for Sustainable and Competitive U.S. Mining.
