Youngstown Business Incubator project to receive NAMII funding

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Youngstown Business Incubator is one of 15 National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute partners to receive funding for applied research and development projects, NAMII announced Tuesday.

Teaming up with other organizations, the Youngstown Business Incubator will support the transition of binder jet additive manufacturing processes to the small-business casting industry by increasing access to equipment and by developing design guidelines and process specifications.

In total, NAMII, which is driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining and specializes in 3-D printing, will award $9 million to 15 teams representing a wide range of additive manufacturing projects across the country. The project teams will contribute $10.3 million in matching cost share, NAMII said.

This was NAMII’s second project call. Issued to partners Aug. 30, 2013, it focused on five specific areas: design for additive manufacturing, additive manufacturing materials, process and equipment, qualification and certification and knowledge development. The selected projects included 75 individual partners, and 31 of those were NAMII members.

“Today’s announcement of the second project-call awardees exemplifies how our incredibly innovative and active community-comprising both members and nonmembers is working together, sometimes even with competitors, to advance our industry by exploring the limitless possibilities of [3-D printing],” said Ralph Resnick, America Makes founding director and NCDMM president and executive director.

The projects are slated to start in spring of this year.

NAMII also announced that it will conduct a program management review of its members between March 18 and 20. That review will include overviews of the newly awarded projects.