7 Projects Share $4.5M in NAMII Funding
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute announced Wednesday that seven applied research and development projects will share $4.5 million in funding as a result of NAMII’s first project call.
The awarded projects ”span a variety of metals and polymer additive manufacturing processes and materials with near-term technical achievements impacting multiple key markets within a few months,” NAMII officials said in a news release announcing the awards. The project teams will provide matching funds totaling $5 million.
NAMII and the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining, which in August 2012 was awarded the contract for NAMII, “found that the submitted proposals detailed highly innovative additive manufacturing project ideas, featuring applied research and development, efficient use of digital data, high sustainability, and aggressive education outreach and workforce training plans,” said Ed Morris, NAMII director and NCDMM vice president.
“The down-select process proved to be intense. NAMII’s fundamental objective is to spawn the creation of new, innovative products and the corresponding U.S. jobs to support them based on the unique capabilities of additive manufacturing. NCDMM and NAMII have selected seven projects that best integrate with the four NAMII thrust areas of technology development, technology transition, advanced manufacturing enterprise, and education/workforce outreach.”
The seven projects selected and their sponsors are:
- “Maturation of Fused Depositing Modeling (FDM) Component Manufacturing”
– Rapid Prototype + Manufacturing LLC (RP+M) and the University of Dayton - “Qualification of Additive Manufacturing Processes and Procedures for Repurposing and Rejuvenation of Tooling”
– Case Western Reserve University - “Sparse-Build Rapid Tooling by Fused Depositing Modeling (FDM) for Composite Manufacturing and Hydroforming”
– Missouri University of Science and Technology - “Fused Depositing Modeling (FDM) for Complex Composites Tooling”
– Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems - “Maturation of Fused Depositing Modeling (FDM) Component Manufacturing”
– Rapid Prototype + Manufacturing LLC (RP+M) - “Thermal Imaging for Process Monitoring and Control of Additive Manufacturing”
– Penn State University Center for Innovative Materials Processing through Direct Digital Deposition (CIMP 3D) - “Rapid Qualification Methods for Powder Bed Direct Metal Additive Manufacturing Processes”
– Case Western Reserve University
“Today’s announcement of NAMII’s first project call awardees is the continuation of the industrious and high-energy pace that NCDMM has established for NAMII since its founding a mere seven months ago as the pilot institute for the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation infrastructure,” said Ralph Resnick, NCDMM president and executive director and NAMII founding director. “This initial award of projects marks the beginning of additional awards to come that will accelerate the integration of additive manufacturing into mainstream manufacturing.”
NAMII said it will conduct program management review and project kickoff meetings for NAMII members only on April 2-3 in Youngstown. More details on the project awards will be made available by the respective awardees following the meeting.
NAMII will officially announce its next project call at the RAPID 2013 Conference and Exposition on June 10-13 in Pittsburgh.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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