Wednesday, June 18, 2014
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
An additive manufacturing initiative set out to impact eight local companies actually will expand to at least 15 companies statewide.
“We really see this as something that can be immensely impactful,” said Barb Ewing, chief operating officer of the Youngstown Business Incubator.
At the beginning of June, YBI and Youngstown State University announced the award of $500,000 from the Ohio Third Frontier Commission to be added to a previous award from the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, which was to support the integration of additive manufacturing in the foundry industry.
Together, the two grants amount to nearly $2 million for the additive manufacturing initiatives.
The newest award will enable YBI and YSU to get companies involved in learning how to optimize a design for 3-D printing, know when to use the printing, and then actually gets the companies hands-on experience with the printing.
The funding will be used to assist companies in the accelerated adoption of additive manufacturing, specifically in the printing and post processing of metal parts and components.
“They will understand the additive process enough and they will be able to look at other pieces and see other applications and other ways they can bring it in,” Ewing said.
Guha Manogharan, YSU’s technical lead and assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, said the project is going to “rethink the approach for companies.”
Companies can use this to optimize a design for energy efficiency.
So far, there has been a good response from manufacturers.
“This is technology that they need to be looking at,” Ewing said. “They will be able to see the applications in other areas.”