Artificial intelligence (AI) isn't magic, it's just really complicated math, said Greg Mulholland, CEO and founder of Citrine Informatics (Redwood City, CA), at a press roundtable hosted by Lanxess (Cologne, Germany) at K 2019. But Mulholland's hosts seemed quite bedazzled by his AI-enabled platform, nonetheless. Lanxess is the first company to adopt Citrine's technology at scale, and Dr. Markus Eckert, Senior Vice President, Head of Business Unit Urethane Systems at Lanxess was eager to explain what it means for customers. Citrine is a Silicon Valley startup that couldn't be more niche: It has developed a platform that leverages data and AI specifically to accelerate the development of materials and chemicals. Citrine has been recognized for technology innovation by the World Economic Forum as a Tech Pioneer, and collaborates with world-class academic institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the University of California, Berkeley.

Metallurgists have long sought the Holy Grail of alloys, metallic glass that is strong and won't shatter. It is amorphous, with its atoms arranged every which way, much like the atoms of the glass in a window. Its glassy nature makes it stronger and lighter than today's best steel, plus it stands up better to corrosion and wear. Even though metallic glass would be useful as a protective coating or an alternative to steel, only a few thousand of the millions of possible combinations of ingredients have been evaluated over the past 50 years, and of those, only a handful developed to the point that they may become useful. Now a group led by scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Northwestern University has reported a shortcut for discovering and improving metallic glass–and, by extension, other elusive materials–at a fraction of the time and cost.

The machine, a 3-D metal printer, lays the powder down a single dusting at time, while a laser overhead welds the layers together. Over several hours, the machine prints a small block the size of brownie. HRL's parent companies, Boeing and General Motors, want to 3-D print intricate metal parts in mass for their sleek new generation of cars and planes. Airbus has already installed the first-ever 3-D printed metal part on a commercial airplane, a bracket that attaches to its wings. But the tech is limited by the quality of today's metal powders, says Martin.