JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #97 - Special JEC Americas - May/June 2015 - 21

Fig. 4: Universities, colleges and U.S.-funded research centres involved in composites (including nanocomposites, C/C, CMC & MMC) - Editor's own data NB: due to
the scale of the map, some of the points can cover more than one entity

of Energy will partner with a
consortium of 122 companies,
nonprofits, and universities (led by the University
of Tennessee-Knoxville) to
invest more than US$250
million (70 million in federal
funds and some 180+ in nonfederal funds from states and/
or private companies).
The IACMI is part of the
federal National Network for
Manufacturing Innovation
programme, which aims to
create a Research-to-Manufacturing infrastructure to
help U.S. industry and the
academic world solve industrial problems. The IACMI
is the fifth of eight manufacturing innovation hubs to
be launched by the Obama
Administration. The first
one, which is called America
Makes and focuses on 3D
printing, is already bearing its
first fruit. These institutions

are key in federal efforts to
revitalize the U.S. manufacturing industry by relying on
advanced technologies and
partnerships with the private
sector.
The IACMI has headquarters
at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and brings
together 57 companies, 15
universities and laboratories,
36 Consortium members and
14 other entities (see map
in Figure 5). The economic
development agencies for
Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky,
Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee
and Colorado have pledged to
invest a total US$60 million,
added to the $25 million from
122 major manufacturers
and other organizations, $8
million from universities, and
$90 million from government
research laboratories.
Five main topics have been

chosen for implementation
through Application Centres:
- Purdue University will work
on the Composites Virtual
Factory HUB (cvf HUB),
with a focus on simulation,
manufacturing phenomena,
and additive manufacturing;
- the Vehicles Application
Center, organized around
Michigan State University;
- the Materials and Processing
Enabling Technology Center,
led by the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, the University of
Tennessee and the University
of Kentucky, with the support
of Vanderbilt University;
- the Compressed Gas Storage
Application Center, led by
the University of Dayton Research Institute and with the
support du National Composites Center, Ohio State
University, Polymer Ohio,
Sinclair Community College,
and Fives;
No97 May - June 2015 /

- the Wind Turbine Application Center, led by the
National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, with the support of the
Colorado School of Mines,
Colorado University-Boulder,
Colorado State University and
Iowa State University.

Conclusion
The U.S. composites market is
already large, and should keep
on growing both in volume
and in technology, with
the help of a wide-reaching
federal initiative and leading companies in our sector
that are headquartered in the
United States. n
More information:
www.iacmi.org
www.purdue.edu
http://manufacturing.gov/
nnmi.html
www.jeccomposites.com

jec composites magazine 21

http://www.iacmi.org http://www.purdue.edu http://www.manufacturing.gov/nnmi.html http://www.jeccomposites.com/

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #97 - Special JEC Americas - May/June 2015

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