Neural networks are paying off on the production line
One very small company is working overtime on a technology called neural networks and is bringing this technology onto the production lines of some of the largest manufacturers in the world. The innovator here is Native American Technologies Co., Golden, Colo. Jerry Jones, the company`s chief scientist, explained the reason for this great interest in neural networks. A former member of the faculty at Colorado School of Mines, Jones said the large manufacturers want robust operating conditions. They want to be able to understand their processes well enough so that they don`t have to have fixtures on their shop floors. Fixtures are expensive to buy and to maintain and they have been known to die on the shop floor. Industry wants software capable of searching for those most robust operating conditions. N.A. Technologies is working closely with the Colorado School of Mines and with AMET, Inc., Rexford, Idaho, on projects in arc welding, friction stir welding, resistance welding, laser beam welding and electron beam welding. All of these projects are using exactly the same architecture and the same software, so the cost of development is spread out over a wide number of projects and a large number of potential applications. The end result is that the cost for any one given process is significantly less than it would be by any other approach.
- OSTI ID:
- 562017
- Journal Information:
- Welding Journal, Vol. 76, Issue 10; Other Information: PBD: Oct 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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