43
Tim Ryan presents $9 million DOD award to America Makes
YOUNGSTOWN
As U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan presented a $9 million check to America Makes for a U.S. Department of Defense project Tuesday, he looked back more than a decade ago, when the Youngstown area had not yet become the additive manufacturing hub it is today.
“In 2007, we put together what we were calling the Tech Belt Initiative, which was trying to move us away from Youngstown and Niles and Warren competing with one another ... and into a broader region competing against the world,” said Ryan of Howland, D-13th.
Now, this area is “becoming the hub of the most progressive additive manufacturing initiative in the country,” Ryan said.
Integral to that is America Makes, the first additive manufacturing hub created by former President Barack Obama’s administration.
America Makes – housed on the Youngstown Business Incubator’s downtown campus – is operated by the National Center for Defense, Manufacturing and Machining. It is a public-private partnership with member organizations from a variety of sectors, and is tasked with accelerating the application of additive manufacturing and 3-D printing technology.
This project will do just that, America Makes Executive Director Rob Gorham said.
The DOD award of $9,045,915 for the final phase of the Maturation of Advanced Manufacturing for Low-cost Sustainment (MAMLS) is part of the $30 million total awarded for the project, which Gorham said will have applications across the DOD. The project aims to build the military’s manufacturing capabilities.
For example, it will allow the Air Force to make parts it needs for repairs. Gorham said phase three of MAMLS will focus on manufacturing heat exchangers, fairings and oil coolers.
“It was really about trying to establish a capability the Air Force could use at their depots, whether it be a reserve station like the Youngstown Air Reserve Station or a maintenance center,” Gorham explained.
Also involved in this phase of the project are Youngstown State University, YBI and local manufacturer M7 Technologies, represented at Tuesday’s event by Mike Hripko of YSU, YBI CEO Barb Ewing and M7 Technologies CEO Mike Garvey .
Of the local impact a project like this has, Gorham said it goes well beyond $9 million.
For one thing, “We’re becoming known as the place to go,” he said.