Design and Manufacturing for Lightweight Components and Structures

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, in an era of rapid technological progress and growing environmental awareness, the quest for lightweight components and structures has become a top priority in various industries. The manufacture of automotive and aerospace components, precision assemblies, and bioengineered implants relies heavily on machine tools as a production factor. However, today's machine tools and manufacturing methods are not what they used to be, thanks to considerable advances in additive manufacturing technology, fiber-reinforced composites, structural optimization, and quality inspection/detection techniques. Additive manufacturing technologies enable the fabrication of complex-shaped parts by stacking materials layer by layer while reducing material waste. Still, they also face challenges such as uncertain material properties, processing defects, and cost control. Fiber-reinforced composites combine lightweight fibers and high-performance resins to provide excellent strength and stiffness, but the manufacturing process is complex and costly. Structural optimization technology minimizes the use of materials. It achieves lightweight design through mathematical modeling and computational analysis but also faces problems such as computational complexity and difficulty in manufacturing optimization results. Quality inspection/detection technology ensures the quality of the manufacturing process and the final product. Still, traditional methods face the complexity of lightweight materials and structures, and testing accuracy and efficiency need to be improved. In addition, metal joining technology is crucial in lightweight design and manufacturing. Traditional welding and bolting are gradually replaced by new bonding, welding, and riveting methods, which reduce the weight and improve the joining's strength and durability. However, they also face problems of unstable bonding strength and complex processes. Solving these problems requires the development of new joining materials and methods, the optimization of joining design, and the investigation of joining interfaces.

The theme of this Special Issue is "Design and Manufacturing for Lightweight Components and Structures." It is intended to provide a platform for scholars and investigators to share their latest theoretical and technological achievements, and original ideas are expected to be presented in the papers submitted. The topics to be investigated include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Advanced lightweight materials;
• Structural optimization and design;
• Simulation and computational modeling;
• Composite materials and processing technology;
• Dissimilar material joining;
• New metal joining technology;
• Quality inspection/detection technology;
• Lightweight design for automotive, aerospace, marine, and consumer electronics;
• Additive manufacturing technologies for lightweight components;
• High performance manufacturing tools;
• Sustainable manufacturing;
• Energy efficiency and environmental protection.

Dr. Hao Jiang
Dr. Shaoluo Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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