The Metal Processing Institute (MPI) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Mass., announces that it has been selected as one of four core academic facilities for the American Lightweight and Modern Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute (LM3I). This is a new $148 million initiative that is aimed at helping to revitalize the nation’s manufacturing capabilities and competitiveness.
In addition, seven “process pillars” have been designated as critical to the success of the initiative. Diran Apelian is the lead for the casting pillar; Makhlouf Makhlouf, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Advanced Casting Research Center, and Richard Sisson, George F. Fuller Professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence, will be participating in this initiative.
MPI is one of the largest industry-university consortiums in North America, with more than 80 industry members. It is dedicated to advancing the state of the art in metal processing and materials recovery and recycling. It will contribute its unique expertise in lightweight metal casting and heat treatment reflected in the missions of two of its industry-funded research centers: the Advanced Casting Research Center (ACRC) and the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE).
LM3I is expected to create more than 10,000 new metals manufacturing jobs, spur innovative research and development on lightweight metals processing and manufacturing, and help train hundreds of engineering professionals and skilled trade workers in the most advanced manufacturing shills. It will be headquartered in the greater Detroit metro area and led by EWI, Columbus, Ohio, along with the University of Michigan and Ohio State University..
Four academic sites have been designated core facilities for the consortium. Along with WPI’s Metal Processing Institute in Worcester, they are Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan will provide materials processing and characterization facilities; Columbus, Ohio, where EWI and Ohio State University will make available advanced manufacturing equipment and facilities; and Golden, Colo., where the Colorado School of Mines has unique facilities for technology development in thermo-mechanical and other lightweight materials processing capabilities.
