Goal: Launch a consortium of forming and joining organizations and lead development of a technology roadmap that identifies and ranks joining and forming challenges and sets research-and-development priorities with the potential to deliver competitive advantages for U.S. manufacturing industries.
Lead: EWI
1250 Arthur E. Adams Dr.
Columbus, OH 43221
Award Number: 70NANB14H050
Federal Funding: $499,485
Project Duration: 24 months
EWI and its partners will develop the first comprehensive U.S. advanced joining and forming technology roadmap. The document will guide research and related efforts to accelerate innovation to meet intensifying demand from U.S. manufacturers for improved or entirely new methods for joining and forming materials. Reflecting trends and needs in many economically significant industries, including transportation, consumer goods, defense, energy, and infrastructure construction and repair, this demand is driven by a variety of forces, from the introduction of new materials to the transition to more agile manufacturing operations. Consider the automotive industry. Manufacturers are turning to lightweight materials to trim weight from cars and trucks—part of a push to significantly improve fuel economy. They are moving away from conventional steel to new high-strength steels, aluminum, titanium, magnesium alloys, and other lower-weight alternatives. Many of these new materials are difficult to form and join using traditional methods. New combinations of dissimilar materials mean, for example, that new joining technologies will be required to meet vehicle cost, performance, and safety requirements.
Domestic joining and forming operations contribute between an estimated $100 billion and $200 billion to the U.S. economy. Consisting mostly of small and medium-sized companies, the industry is highly fragmented. Yet, joining and forming technologies are closely related in terms of applications, users, technical fundamentals, and emerging challenges. Advances in materials joining and forming are expected to yield a competitive advantage for U.S. manufacturers in many market sectors, which will lead to more jobs and a stronger economy. Roadmapping technical priorities and approaches to solutions is a critical first step toward realizing these benefits.
For project information: Tom McGaughy,(614) 688-5054, tmcgaughy [at] ewi.org (tmcgaughy[at]ewi[dot]org)
Funded Participants:
AMTech Project Manager: Jean-Louis Staudenmann, (301) 975-4866, jean-louis.staudenmann [at] nist.gov (jean-louis[dot]staudenmann[at]nist[dot]gov)