The use of light in manufacturing is currently dominated by power applications (cutting, welding and heat treatment) and photolithography for integrated circuits. Both are valuable, but we suspect, far from exhausting the fruitful possibilities. This effort is devoted to non-power applications (excluding the first set of current uses) in optically assisted manufacturing of 3D objects (excluding the second set which is confined to 2 1/2D or multi-layered flat structures). The level of research is frankly exploratory, but we have assembled a world class team of experts in three areas (optics, light sensitive materials, and manufacturing) to carry out the research. The Principal Investigator is expert in all three. We will have 3 group meetings (one at the beginning in Dayton, one in the middle in Detroit, and one near the end in Dayton). These "brainstorming" sessions will result in task assignment to be fulfilled before the next meeting. Air Force participation in all 3 meetings is urged. NIST will participate at no charge except for travel expenses. The net effect of these 3 rounds of discussion, invention, search and study will be a set of recommendations for future ManTech research and a well-documented defense of those recommendations.
Keywords: 3d, Holography, Autostereoscopic, Optically-Assisted, Flexible Manufacturing, Helioimaging
