NCMS is partnering with the Department of Energy (DOE) to identify and develop critical manufacturing technologies vital to the affordable manufacturing of alternative energy systems.  The call for Concept Papers will be used to select projects to be funded by this program.

NCMS is interested in Concept Papers in the following areas:

• Advanced composite manufacturing technologies that will enable process automation for wind blade manufacturing including process automation and advanced curing technologies for higher throughput.
• Advanced joining technologies to reduce the cost of manufacturing and installing wind turbines.

Collaborations are expected.

Available Funding / Cost Share Requirements

Approximately $220,000 of funding is available for each project, which will require an additional 1:1 cost share.

Timeline

Two page Concept Papers need to be emailed to Chuck Ryan, chuckr@ncms.org by 5 pm EST, March 31, 2010.  Please follow the attached template.  Selected teams will be asked to develop a larger proposal (12-15 pages) based on the same template.

NCMS Membership Requirement

NCMS is a non-profit membership organization.  Project Participants must become NCMS members for those collaborative teams who are asked to submit a larger proposal.   Please see the web site for details:  www.ncms.org

Please direct questions to Chuck Ryan via email.

Chuck Ryan, Ph.D.
Vice President, Technology
chuckr@ncms.org

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ilumisys Partners with National Center for Manufacturing Sciences for
Department of Energy Solid-State Lighting Program

DoE program to develop eco-friendly LED products, recycling procedures

TROY, Mich. – April 15, 2009 – ilumisys, Inc., developer and producer of next-generation solid-state lighting technology, announces a partnership with the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) in conjunction with a Department of Energy grant for product lifecycle design for solid-state lighting.

The purpose of the DoE grant of more than $590,000 to the NCMS is to develop a sustainable design and manufacturing strategy that addresses product use, recycling and disposal scenarios for LED-based lighting.  

“NCMS has been successfully commercializing and standardizing innovative technology for decades,” said Rick Jarman, President and CEO of NCMS. “This partnership with ilumisys will strengthen the growing solid-state lighting industry both in Michigan and nationwide.”

Full Press Release

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Geoff Wood- Profile Composites, Craig Snyder- Bayer, Michael Fancher- NCMS

NCMS was formally recognized last week for the creation of a new process for creating high pressure hydrogen storage tanks for vehicles.  The JEC Innovation awards identify the most innovative composite solutions worldwide and contribute to the advancement of the composite industry.

NCMS brought together Profile Composites, Inc; Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America; Bayer MaterialScience, LLC; MAG Cincinnati Automation; and A&P Technology to design a new manufacturing process to increase production volume. The team used a resin material custom formulated by Bayer and applied it to a dry fiber preform, rather than the conventional – and slow – filament winding process of the traditional model. As a result, a new tank is ready for market 18x faster than filament winding, and project partners are confident that speeds can be doubled with additional improvements to the process.

NCMS is no stranger to global recognition for its collaborative R&D management model: the Michigan-based non-profit has won six Defense Manufacturing Excellence Awards and five consecutive R&D 100 Awards. NCMS also administers the Robotics Technology Consortium for the Defense Department, overseeing over 100 participating companies and a budget in the hundreds of millions. Recently, another collaborative NCMS DoE project made headlines as two recently developed fuel cell stacks served as the sole source of power for an Oakland, California passenger bus for more than 130 hours over two weeks, a fantastic example of NCMS innovation taking one step closer to mass-market reality.

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New Technology will Revolutionize Commercialization of Alternative Energy Vehicles

ANN ARBOR, MI – January 28, 2009. The prestigious JEC Innovation Award for Innovation in Transportation Technology was presented to the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) Hydrogen Cylinder Manufacturing (HCM) project team this week, sharply underscoring the value of collaborative research and development in a global manufacturing marketplace. The HCM project was honored by an international panel of renowned engineering, manufacturing, R&D, and innovation experts in the Transportation category for its commercial potential, financial impact, and originality.

Formed in response to a key Department of Energy milestone, HCM addresses a crucial obstacle for the Hydrogen Economy: making high pressure hydrogen tanks economically feasible for mass production. The team’s development of a reliable high-pressure hydrogen storage tank, suitable for volume manufacture will further the possibility of commercializing alternative fuel vehicles by cutting the production cycle time for a single tank from six hours to an amazing 20 minutes. The project results indicate that further refinements will eventually cut the production cycle time to less than 10 minutes per tank.

“This is an incredible honor,” said Rick Jarman, NCMS President & CEO. “Alternative energy is a global challenge, but it’s not just as simple as finding alternative fuel sources. We have to manufacture solutions that make those sources commercially viable. It’s exhilarating to have NCMS once again recognized for managing collaborative partnerships that shatter barriers and quickly bring innovation to market.”

NCMS is no stranger to global recognition for its collaborative R&D management model: the Michigan-based non-profit has won six Defense Manufacturing Excellence Awards and five consecutive R&D 100 Awards. NCMS also administers the Robotics Technology Consortium for the Defense Department, overseeing over 100 participating companies and a budget in the hundreds of millions. Recently, another collaborative NCMS DOE project made headlines as two recently developed fuel cell stacks served as the sole source of power for an Oakland, California passenger bus for more than 130 hours over two weeks, a fantastic example of NCMS innovation taking one step closer to mass-market reality.

For HCM, NCMS brought together a strong partnership with highly complimentary skills: Profile Composites, Inc; Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America; Bayer MaterialScience, LLC; MAG Cincinnati Automation; and A&P Technology worked together to design a new manufacturing process to increase production volume. The HCM team used a resin material custom formulated by Bayer and applied it to a dry fiber preform, rather than the conventional – and slow – filament winding process of the traditional model. As a result, a new tank is ready for market eighteen times faster than filament winding, and project partners are confident that speeds can be doubled with additional improvements to the process.

“The result is a massive reduction in production costs and, suddenly, full production of these tanks is now possible,” said Mike Fancher, NCMS Program Manager for the HCM project. “In fact, we believe that these tanks could be used in commercially available vehicles that will be launched as early as this year.”

The formal presentation of the award will take place at the JEC Innovation Awards Programme 2009 at the JEC Composites Show, March 24-26, 2009, in Paris, France. This show is one of the largest in the world, with 27,000 attendees and over 1,000 exhibits.

About NCMS

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) is the largest cross-industry collaborative research and development consortium in North America. It boasts a 22-year track record in the formation and management of complex, multi-partner collaborative R&D programs to deliver innovative manufacturing innovations to market – faster, more affordably, with increased ROI and reduced risk compared to traditional methods.

For more information, visit http://www.ncms.org

About JEC Group

JEC is dedicated to promoting composites internationally. It supports the development of these materials by fostering knowledge transfer and exchanges between suppliers and users. To date, the JEC network connects more than 200,000 professionals worldwide from 96 different countries. For more information, visit http://www.jeccomposites.com/

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Automotive manufacturers and their suppliers are pressing to innovate in order to increase vehicle fuel efficiency to meet federal CAFÉ guidelines by integrating lightweight materials into new vehicle designs. These lightweight materials pose unique challenges and opportunities that must be addressed. The solutions for some of these challenges may be found in other industries such as aerospace and defense or in new tools and processes.

The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) has assembled an innovative suite of software tools and cross industry innovators to help automobile OEMs, tier one suppliers, and component manufacturers realize the benefits of lightweight materials while lowering costs, minimizing risk, and speeding commercialization.

Through the use of High Performance Computing Simulation (HPCS) manufacturers will select the best lightweight materials for their products, during the design phase of development. The tools developed in this NCMS project, utilizing HPCS will allow companies of all sizes to use this cutting edge capability which in the past was cost prohibitive and generally not available.

NCMS has immediate project opportunities for companies who want to integrate lightweight materials into their product designs. The US Department of Energy, with the goal of helping the automotive industry to increase fuel efficiency, is sponsoring this groundbreaking program through the NCMS which has more than 20 years of management experience with projects of this magnitude and scope.

For more information please contact:

Senior Program Manager Steve Hale, 734-995-2195, stevenh@ncms.org

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