Manufacturers Use AI to Boost Efficiency
Artificial intelligence is doing everything from speeding up paint drying to designing more efficient sanding discs (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).
What’s going on: “Manufacturers say that AI, known for creating instant term papers and pixel-perfect fake videos, is fundamentally changing how new products are created. It is letting companies speed-run a process that can often be a deliberative slog relying on tried-and-true approaches.”
- At paint maker PPG, scientists constructed a database containing all their products’ properties “overlaid with the laws of chemistry.” About a year ago, it asked AI to create quick-drying clear coat paint for vehicles, and the chemical combination it came up with—for the product now sold as Deltron Premium Glamour Speed Clearcoat—cut drying time in half.
- Industrial and consumer product manufacturer 3M has utilized AI to create a “sanding disc that optimizes dust collection and grinding performance.”
How they did it: PPG’s product development team worked for several years on creating digital twins of the firm’s products, “mirroring their formulas and attributes, and then embedded algorithms reflecting chemistry principles.”
Why it’s important: “It is impossible for a human to search every possible combination,” PPG Technical Manager Jun Deng told the Journal, referring to the chemical ingredients the company uses. “So what AI or machine learning is doing is helping us to see this vast amount of potential candidates.”