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IACMI takes part in US Department of Energy's summit

21 Jun '19

3 min read

Pic: IACMI

IACMI - the Composites Institute took part in the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the third in the Innovation XLab series, which features the assets and innovations of the national laboratories across the US. The institute presented its ability to support connections between ORNL and industry.

Through IACMI’s participation, the institute showcased its ability to support connections between ORNL and industry, and to highlight ORNL’s connectivity to additional world-renowned resources, such as the IACMI Scale-Up Research Facility (SURF) in Detroit, Mich.

IACMI presented its capabilities to industry, national laboratory, and US Department of Energy (DOE) leadership in the lab tours at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) which is home to one of IACMI’s composites lab.

IACMI CEO, John A Hopkins, and group leader for Polymer Materials Development at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, Vlastimil Kunc, spoke about the impact and capabilities of the composites research. They also spoke to ORNL and IACMI’s ability to take innovation from material and process concept to full-scale production through IACMI capabilities and facilities. Attendees toured the Carbon Fibre Technology Facility (CFTF), where the director of the Carbon Fibre Technology Facility, Merlin Theodore, discussed capabilities at the CFTF to research large-scale materials and production of carbon fibre.

Through the tours, IACMI leadership engaged with DOE leadership, including Daniel Simmons, assistant secretary in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in the US Department of Energy (DOE), and Chris Falls, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E).

In addition to participating in lab tours, IACMI featured prototypes and industry advancements made possible through technical projects by participating in the Advanced Manufacturing Summit Outdoor Pavilion, which displayed nearly a dozen prototypes on the ORNL main campus – four of which were made possible through IACMI collaboration. IACMI discussed the cost-savings of the low-cost textile carbon fibre (LCCF) and its applications in the automotive industry.

IACMI’s wind technology area director and senior engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)’s National Wind Technology Centre, Derek Berry, spoke with DOE secretary, Rick Perry, about the 11-partner collaboration on the 9-meter wind blade project, which has propelled industry-leadership of innovations in wind blade creation and its potential to transform the wind industry.

IACMI CEO, John Hopkins, moderated a panel during the Advanced Manufacturing Summit on Carbon Fibre, Composites, and Bio-Derived Materials. Panelists included Dan Casey, chairman and acting president, Guardian Manufacturing Company; Leo Christodoulou, senior director in the CTO office and chief technologist for Additive Manufacturing, Boeing; Habib Dagher, executive director of Advanced Structures and Composites Centre, University of Maine; and Natalie Rudolph, director of Material and Process Development, AREVO. The panel discussed the impact of low-cost carbon fibre, renewable materials for additive manufacturing – such as poplar and bamboo – as well as the application of these material innovations for a variety of industries.

The Innovation XLab Advanced Manufacturing Summit was a unique opportunity for IACMI to engage with manufacturing industry and federal agency leadership to discuss the impact that industry collaboration can produce through collaborative technical projects. (SV)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India