When nonlinear feedback plays a role, fabrication systems and the structures they create can co-evolve, and final outcomes cannot be reduced to isolated process steps. Instead, each processing step modifies the state of the product in ways that influence subsequent steps, leading to path-dependent outcomes, non-stationary system characteristics, and emergent macroscopic properties arising from locally controlled micro- or mesostructures. Rather than suppressing these effects, our goal is to understand and exploit them to enable controlled emergence in manufacturing, leading to improved performance, reliability, resource efficiency, and first-time-right production.
Fig.: Photograph of a typical laser-material processing setup, where a high-speed scanner controls the interaction point of the laser on the material.