Big Ideas Lab Polymer Enclave
Jun 17, 2025
Join Robert Maxwell, Program Director at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Jessica Bailey, Director of Advanced Manufacturing Engineering at the Kansas City National Security Campus, as they dive into the transformative Polymer Enclave initiative. They discuss how this collaboration revolutionizes manufacturing for the U.S. nuclear stockpile, drastically reducing production timelines from years to months. The duo emphasizes the importance of culture change and real-time collaboration, showcasing the power of integrating design and production to meet national security needs.
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Design-Production Partnership Accelerates Progress
- The Polymer Enclave pairs LLNL design expertise with Kansas City production capability to mature critical polymer components.
- This integrated partnership shortens iteration cycles and aligns R&D with scalable manufacturing needs.
B-2 Coating Failure Drives Caution
- The B-2 program's fragile radar-absorbent coating caused massive maintenance costs and cut production from 132 to 21 planes.
- That historical failure motivates the Enclave's tight design-manufacturing coupling to avoid billion-dollar mistakes.
Close The Design-Manufacturing Loop Early
- Close the loop between designers and manufacturers early to uncover material and process issues before they escalate.
- Use real-time collaboration to compress timelines from years to months for critical components.