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State of the Union Address
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President Obama's State of the Union Address
When the most powerful man in the Western world says that the technology you’ve been preaching about has “the potential to revolutionise ” you’ve probably got the right to feel a little smug.
This wasn’t just a throwaway comment in a routine press conference; this was the State of the Union Address…
“After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. After locating plants in other countries like China, Intel is opening its most advanced plant right here at home. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again.
There are things we can do, right now, to accelerate this trend. Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio. A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything. There’s no reason this can’t happen in other towns. So tonight, I’m announcing the launch of three more of these manufacturing hubs, where businesses will partner with the Departments of Defense and Energy to turn regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs. And I ask this Congress to help create a network of fifteen of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is Made in America.”
One could be forgiven for thinking that Obama’s just using buzzwords fed to him by an army of advisors just to appear cutting edge.
However, The White House commissioned a report way back in January 2011 recommending, amongst many things, that there should be a personal manufacturing lab in every school. Add to that the President’s announcement that we’re going to get three more manufacturing innovation institutes on top of the Youngstown, Ohio based National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII) and it seems to suggest these are more than just usual political sound bites.
Tell us what you think about The State of the Union Address and what it means to 3D printing….
UPDATE: Stocks in 3D printing companies received a boost in early trading after President Obama's speech. 3D Systems' shares were up more than 6% and Stratasys Ltd. were up by 2%. Could this just be usual market fluctuation or has the President's seal of approval caused the upturn?
