Purdue, state in $259 million tech initiative

Purdue University and the state of Indiana are part of a $259-million national initiative to develop next-generation composite materials needed to manufacture energy-efficient vehicles and energy-related technologies.

The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation will direct a five-year, multistate research and development initiative that includes universities, economic development agencies, corporations and the U.S. Department of Energy, President Barack Obama said on Friday.

The University of Tennessee in Knoxville will lead the 122-member consortium funded in part by $70 million from the Department of Energy, $25 million from manufacturers, and $60 million from economic development agencies in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio. Purdue and other universities will contribute $8 million toward running the centers.

Purdue will house one of five centers that will research different aspects of creating fiber-reinforced polymer composites, streamlining the manufacturing process and finding ways to reuse the leftover material.

The primary missions will be design and simulation of the production process, developing 3-D printing of composites and recycling uses, Purdue engineering professor Byron Pipes said.

“It allows us to take knowledge developed in our research labs and employ it to create enterprise in our community that will lead to real advances in economics based in manufacturing,” he said.

Purdue will share technology it develops with the other centers in Michigan, Ohio, Colorado and Tennessee — states heavily involved in automobile manufacturing.

The center will hire about 10 engineers and a number of graduate students to work in 30,000 to 60,000 square feet of lab space Pipes expects will be located in Purdue Research Park. He said the center should be up and running in about a year.

The institute will pour about $40 million — $15 million from the Department of Energy, $15 million from the Indiana Economic Development Commission and $10 million from industry — into the center.

Pipes, a scientist from Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee and a representative of Dow Chemical developed the organizational strategy.

Composite material technology will help lift the future of advanced manufacturing in the state, Indiana Secretary of Commerce Victor Smith said.

The advanced composite market is poised for dramatic growth, Purdue President Mitch Daniels said.

“(The initiative) will help spark a dramatic reduction in our reliance on fossil fuels while also creating quality jobs, companies and industries as part of this economic revolution,” he said.