Many of the specialized jobs that manufacturers are having the hardest time filling today involve conventional manufacturing tasks.
Conventional manufacturing techniques limit aircraft designs.
Physically stacking cells wasn't practical with conventional manufacturing equipment.
The one in the background is made with conventional manufacturing methods.
In conventional manufacturing, these silver lines are printed using screen printing.
Conventional manufacturing processes for OLED screens waste a lot of expensive light-emitting electrochemical materials.
Rather than using conventional manufacturing pathways, the researchers are using inkjet printing, allowing for scalable and cost-sensitive deployment.
Thin-film transistors have several layers, and in conventional manufacturing, the materials in each layer are deposited separately.
As a replacement for high-temperature processes on a conventional manufacturing line, the liquid-based process can lower manufacturing costs.
"We've found a novel means of handling the plastic so it can be fed into conventional manufacturing equipment," he says.
"The real breakthrough is that we are using conventional manufacturing technology," said Randall D. Isaac, I.B.M.'s vice president for science and technology.
