Last week, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) president and CEO S. Joe Bhatia attended the White House-hosted Manufacturing USA Stakeholder Event, held to recognize and highlight the success stories from existing Manufacturing USA institutes, with new institute highlights from the Departments of Commerce and Energy. ANSI represented The America Makes & ANSI Additive Manufacturing Standardization Collaborative (AMSC), a cross-sector coordinating body whose objective is to accelerate the development of industry-wide additive manufacturing standards and specifications consistent with stakeholder needs and thereby facilitate the growth of the additive manufacturing industry. Jim McCabe, AMSC secretary, Senior Director, Standards Facilitation, ANSI, also attended.
The event, which included an audience of stakeholders from industry, academia, and government, including senior leaders from the White House, Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, and representatives from many of the existing Manufacturing USA institutes, highlighted how the Department of Defense (DoD) is awarding the new Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing USA institute, which brings together a consortium of 87 partners from across industry, academia, and government to develop the manufacturing technologies for life-saving cells, tissues, and organs. The winning coalition, led by the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI, Inc.) and headquartered in Manchester, NH will develop next-generation manufacturing techniques for repairing and replacing cells and tissues, which may one day lead to the ability to manufacture new skin for soldiers scarred from combat or develop organ-preserving technologies to benefit Americans waiting for an organ transplant, the White House reports.
ARMI is the 12th manufacturing hub awarded by the Obama Administration, in addition to two other hubs announced within the past month, including the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, the first open-topic institute and the first institute awarded by the Department of Commerce (DOC), headquartered in Newark, DE; and the Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment Institute, awarded by the Department of Energy, headquartered in New York, NY. Manufacturing USA currently numerous manufacturing innovation institutes established or announced, with several more planned by the end of 2017. These institutes are public-private partnerships, and each has distinct technology focus but all work toward a common goal: to secure the future of manufacturing in the United States through innovation, education, and collaboration.
Reflecting on the collaborative effort during the White House event, U.S. Deputy Secretary Bruce Andrews highlighted the success of the Manufacturing USA program, he explained that the DoC plays two distinct roles in this effort, as the link between the institutes that make Manufacturing USA a national network, by uniting leaders from different sectors to share best practices in areas like skills training, supply chain management, and technology deployment. He added that the DoC is the only federal agency authorized to set up new institutes that are entirely industry-driven.
The White House has also published the multiple established manufacturing innovation institutes, including America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, headquartered in Youngstown, OH.
Earlier this month, the America Makes & ANSI Additive Manufacturing Standardization Collaborative (AMSC) released for public review and comment a preliminary final draft of the AMSC Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing (Version 1.0). Final publication of the document is targeted for February 2017. This request specifically invites comments that represent critical revisions and/or needed clarifications on what is presented in the document. While all comments are welcome, the AMSC reserves the right to hold disposition of comments in reserve for a future iteration of the document if they cannot be addressed within the time available. This might include, for example, comments on the document's organization, or issues not addressed. Comments on the draft roadmap may be submitted to [email protected] by January 11, 2017. Use of a comment form is required to better manage and collate comments.
The draft roadmap and related materials may be downloaded as follows:
Preliminary Final Draft Standardization Roadmap for Additive Manufacturing (Version 1.0)