Collaborative Research Facility in VA Moves Forward

The new 50,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility will house best-in-class manufacturers that collaborate with accomplished faculty and students from Virginia’s top research and teaching institutions to perform advanced manufacturing research in surface engineering and manufacturing systems.

Commonwealth Center For Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM; Petersburg, VA) . . . Virginia governor Bob McDonnell and the presidents of the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Virginia State University recently joined with executives from some of the world’s biggest names in manufacturing to officially break ground for the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM), a unique collaborative research facility in Prince George County that promises to accelerate the transfer of laboratory innovations to manufacturing production lines where they can improve efficiencies, products and profits.

The groundbreaking put in motion the construction of a 50,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility, which is adjacent to a new Rolls-Royce plant that is starting production of jet engine components next month. Under its roof, best-in-class manufacturers will collaborate with accomplished faculty and students from Virginia’s top research and teaching institutions to perform advanced manufacturing research in two priority areas: surface engineering and manufacturing systems.

When complete in March 2012, the facility will house computational and large-scale production labs, as well as open production space for heavy equipment and surface coating processes, including a thermal spraying machine, a directed vapor deposition machine, integrated data acquisition systems and a thermal conductivity measurements system.

“CCAM is a game changer for manufacturing operations in this country and around the world,” said David Lohr, the newly appointed president and executive director of CCAM. “Its collaborative model joins academic research with manufacturing’s drive for competitive advantage and it promises new, valuable innovations faster than ever before.” CCAM is the only collaboration of its kind in North America, and it promises its member companies significant benefits.

By pooling resources to pursue university research authorized by member companies, CCAM increases the value of the R&D dollar because R&D risks and costs are shared by members – away from live production floors – and research results are shared with all members, allowing them to capitalize on new, breakthrough developments that emerge from CCAM research.

CCAM also announced the founding companies that anchor the new facility and its initial research operations: Canon Virginia Inc. (Newport News, VA), Chromalloy (Orangeburg, NY), Newport News Shipbuilding (Newport News, VA), Rolls-Royce (London, England), Sandvik Coromant (Sandviken, Sweden), and Siemens Industry (Elk Grove Village, IL).

As Organizing Industry Members, these companies play a significant leadership role in CCAM. Company officials join representatives from the university organizing members (UVA, VT and VSU) on the CCAM board of directors to oversee the facility’s development, its research priorities and its outreach to additional prospective member companies. Recruitment efforts are well underway.

Other regions in Virginia also will see benefits from CCAM. With financial assistance to build CCAM from Virginia’s Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, CCAM will invest in new workforce development programs in Southside Virginia that will re-tool Virginians to meet the demands of advanced manufacturers. www.ccam-va.com