Smart Manufacturing and Materials Ⅱ

Dear Colleagues,

In the era of industry transformation in line with the concept of Industry 4.0, modern manufacturing technologies and modern materials are becoming a subject of interest for an increasing number of scientists, engineers and businesses. Increasing production efficiency and flexible changes to the assortment of products and their personalization pose new challenges. However, modern technologies and materials allow for increasingly rapid development of industry and a change in the way people work as well as their role in production processes. Efficiency, flexibility and production speed translate into increased competitiveness and the reduction of production costs. To achieve this, modern manufacturing technologies are used, including additive manufacturing, systems based on virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, autonomous robots, simulations, and systems integration. Operations on large data sets and cloud computing are becoming necessary, and the industrial Internet of Things is gaining importance, but cybersecurity is also becoming a key element. All these issues are inextricably linked with the concept of modern, smart manufacturing and smart factories.

The concept of increasingly intelligent materials often also refers to the materials used in manufactured products, and as elements of the production systems themselves. Smart materials are gaining in popularity, and are being increasingly used in the modern world. Their applications open completely new paths of technological development and create new possibilities. This leads to the development of modern devices and technologies, and allows the development of new, previously unattainable solutions. It is extremely important to develop concepts and assumptions for action and research in laboratory conditions and on real objects of innovative systems based on the use of smart materials. At the same time, the modeling of technical means in which smart materials are used due to the complexity of the phenomena occurring in them is a complex task. However, the correct description of a given device in the form of a mathematical model, at the design stage, is, the basic condition for its proper operation. The development of mathematical models and algorithms for the analysis and determination of the characteristics of technical measures containing such materials is therefore an important element of scientific research.

For this Special Issue, I invite the submission of original papers and reviews of scientific papers presenting innovative solutions in the field of smart technologies and smart materials. Issues concerning modeling, testing, and applications can be presented. I encourage you to publish studies containing the results of conceptual work and laboratory and real object tests, to present issues including the use of modern modeling and simulation methods.

If you have any questions or doubts, you can contact me by email.

Prof. Dr. Marek Placzek
Guest Editor

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