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State of the Union Address
It’s been a while since we mentioned the State of the Union address in which President Obama said, “3D printing has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything”.
The inspiration behind the President’s additive manufacturing good will was the once boarded up warehouse turned state-of-the-art laboratory, NAMII.
Three months down the line and Obama has come good on his promise to create more of these ‘New Manufacturing Innovation Institutes’ as the US Government announces a $200 million Federal funding initiative to create three more institutes.
Though 3D printing/additive manufacturing is only one part of this wave of “new manufacturing processes” it is no doubt at the forefront of the Obama Administrations think mainly due to the hype surrounding the technology.
It will be up to The Department of Defense to lead two of the new Institutes, focused on “Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation” and “Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing”, and the Department of Energy will be leading one new institute on “Next Generation Power Electronics Manufacturing”.
The Obama administration said in the press release, “President Obama is committed to making America a magnet for jobs and manufacturing so we continue to build things the rest of the world buys. After shedding jobs for a decade, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 over the past three years. Manufacturing production has grown since the end of the recession at its fastest pace in over a decade. To build on this momentum, the President has outlined a concrete and comprehensive agenda to invest in American manufacturing.”
Whatever you may think of this as a political strategy, investment in this sector can only be a good thing.
