Success Stories

Crafting Solutions That Make a Difference

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was built on a "team science" approach, so we understand the power of new perspectives. Blending Laboratory expertise with the flexibility of an open campus, LVOC helps collaborators find new applications for cutting-edge science. We know we can't solve complex problems alone. Here's how some of LVOC’s partners have applied LLNL’s scientific resources to real-world problems.

Explore a few of the Extraordinary
Results of our Partnerships:

Designing high-volume, decarbonized industrial production

Livermore researchers and Seurat transformed the metal manufacturing process to develop components faster, more efficiently, and closer to their final destination.

Learn more about revolutionizing how metal components are made

Designing high-volume, decarbonized industrial production

Powered by 100% green energy, Seurat is reinventing and reshoring manufacturing with its Area Printing technology developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. When Seurat’s CEO, former LLNL researcher James DeMuth, helped design the reaction chamber for an inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant, he and his colleagues determined that the only material able to handle the 600°C (1,100°F) heat and rapid temperature fluctuations was a steel-nanoparticle composite able to maintain its strength at high temperatures. Looking beyond IFE, DeMuth understood that the ability to design and produce additively manufactured metal parts with tailored microstructures that meet stringent performance requirements had wide industrial appeal. Seurat’s 3D metal printing technology delivers high-precision, high-volume, decarbonized manufacturing with the potential to directly mitigate as much as 100 million tons of CO₂ by 2030.

From production to transportation, the manufacturing industry is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Advanced technology unlocks new capabilities within manufacturing while creating a path toward sustainability. Unlike traditional additive manufacturing, Seurat uses a powerful laser working pixel-by-pixel to micro-weld layers of metal powder, manufacturing entire renderings at once in a single defined area. Seurat’s decarbonized process enables companies to craft metal components more efficiently, further strengthening LLNL’s mission-driven development of advanced materials and manufacturing processes.

Benefits:

Jump start a green manufacturing industry in the U.S.
Expert team with proven technology that exceeds industry standards.
Provide clean manufacturing that can compete with the volumes, quality, and price points of traditional manufacturing.

Area Printing Technology: A technology transfer success story

Listen to how LLNL’s Innovation and Partnership Office (IPO) helped bring an LLNL technology to market with industry-leader Seurat Technologies, on Apple or Spotify.

Advancing quantum technology at home and abroad

LVOC’s Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory is an ideal venue for the Vector Atomics group to develop innovative non-GPS navigation devices via advanced quantum sensors.

Learn more about navigating when GPS is compromised

Navigating when GPS is compromised

Advancing quantum technology at home and abroad

Vector Atomics was one of LVOC’s first tenants at the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory (AML). Their goal was to create more reliable, robust, and accurate non-GPS navigation devices via advanced quantum sensors. GPS navigation is an area of potential vulnerability for the military, and Vector Atomics looked to LLNL’s precision engineering and assembly capabilities to help improve positioning for the warfighter. LLNL researchers and Vector Atomic staff combined their complementary expertise in quantum physics, engineering for extreme environments, and additive manufacturing to successfully test a prototype navigation device.

Multidisciplinary teams worked together in the AML to refine and test their knowledge of quantum technology. Researchers used AML’s large hexapod devices and shake tables to test prototype of their device, while Laboratory staff were able to increase internal investments in quantum technology. The partnership relied on a combination of expertise and infrastructure with Laboratory scientists able to engineer devices suitable for the harshest conditions, and Vector Atomics' new application for quantum technology. Working with LLNL at the frontier of quantum science, Vector Atomics was able to quickly and organically scale up from a three-person startup to a 40-person, employee-owned business while furthering LLNL's mission to anticipate adversarial actions and support mitigation of emerging threats.

Benefits:

Decrease warfighter reliance on vulnerable GPS signals.
Advancement of engineered quantum devices for everyday use.
Validating quantum solutions in harsh thermal, dynamic, and radiation environments.

Stock photo of hand pulling level; reducing carbon

Accelerating climate technologies and energy security

LVOC’s Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory helps petrochemical companies like Siemens and TOTALenergies craft electrolysers to convert carbon dioxide to hydrogen more efficiently.

Learn more about transforming oil and gas into clean energy

Accelerating climate technologies and energy security

The petrochemical industry has long relied on established models and processes for energy production. But as clean energy becomes not only a dream, but a requirement, electrochemistry is an appealing avenue for traditional oil and gas companies. For petrochemical industries like TOTALenergies US to start shifting how they do business, they rely on models and simulations to confirm they’re on the right track. Siemens Energy USA is a world leader in making electrolysis systems for producing hydrogen and works closely with TOTALenergies US. Their electrolyser converts carbon dioxide to hydrogen for many different applications, but their research requires extensive validation and modeling before scaling up any major changes.

Working with LLNL scientists at LVOC’s Advanced Manufacturing Lab resulted in new partnerships, more efficient testing, and a better understanding of how we harness energy production. The Laboratory contributed high-performance computing power, advanced manufacturing capabilities, and materials synthesis to ensure the electrolyser model could be modified to fit experimental parameters. This collaboration directly benefits LLNL’s mission-driven work in climate resilience and energy security, since hydrogen can help decarbonize a wide range of sectors. Additionally, the Laboratory’s electrochemists and electrochemical modelers gained insight on how to apply their work to industry problems. LVOC served as an ideal place for partnering researchers to visit and work on their timeline, particularly those visiting internationally. Modern office space and laboratory amenities are also a benefit to local Laboratory staff as they collaborate on mission-aligned technologies to reduce accumulation of greenhouse gases and pursue affordable, clean, and increasingly carbon-free energy.

Benefits:

Reducing pollution from petrochemical industry.
Job creation in emerging fields of electrochemical research.
Modifying products, processes, and variables to scale up device production.

Simulating cardiac tissue in real time

Combining Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s supercomputing capabilities and IBM’s expertise in domain science, the Cardioid group aims to gain understanding of the complex electrical processes driving the human heart.

Learn more about advancing personalized medicine with every heartbeat

Simulating cardiac tissue in real time

Building simulations of the human heart is incredibly complex. Much like an engine, there are lots of moving parts and electrical systems that work together to keep your blood flowing and your heart beating. Scientists and medical staff have long been interested in developing a cardiac simulator that can be run in real time to a high level of scientific accuracy. Due to the complexity of the human heart, it takes vast amounts of supercomputing power to run a cardiac simulation—an entire supercomputer is needed to simulate a single heart in its entirety. By combining the domain science experts at IBM with the supercomputing power at LLNL, the Cardioid project works to solve biologically complex problems in a new way.

After growing from 4-5 people to a 20-person multidisciplinary group, the Cardioid group members were initially scattered across multiple buildings across the Laboratory campus. LVOC provided an ideal location for LLNL researchers and IBM collaborators to work together on the challenges of cardiac simulation. Applying LLNL’s high performance computing resources to pressing biological has improved projects beyond Cardioid. From developing better datasets to more efficient workflow managers, the tools developed at LVOC contribute to the Laboratory’s mission-driven work in bioscience and beyond.

Benefits:

Detect and treat heart defects more accurately.
Better understand how medication affects the heart’s electrical activity.
Improve cardiac toxicity screening and testing methods.

Cardiac cycle simulation

Finite element model

Torsades de Pointes simulation

Partnering with Us

Potential collaborators come to LVOC with different challenges, capabilities, and resources. We tailor engagements to help meet your needs. If you have a big idea that could benefit from national laboratory expertise, we’d like to hear from you. Connect with us to explore opportunities for collaborations or plan a visit to the campus.

Get in Touch with LVOC

Success Stories

Crafting Solutions That Make a Difference

Explore a few of the Extraordinary Results of our Partnerships:​

Designing high-volume, decarbonized industrial production

Advancing quantum technology at home and abroad

Accelerating climate technologies and energy security

Simulating cardiac tissue in real time

Partnering with Us

Explore a few of the Extraordinary
Results of our Partnerships: