AMP Grants CDME Half Million

It is an exciting day for the CDME as news breaks that we have been awarded a $500,000 grant from the FY 2016 Edison Advanced Manufacturing Program (AMP). The money will be put towards the commercialization of Vaporizing Foil Actuator Welding (VFAW) technology in the use of joining high performance metals.

The VFAW is a process invented and patented by The Ohio State University in 2012. It was awarded $570k by the Department of Energy in 2013 for development as a breakthrough technology to solve the problem of dissimilar metal joining to reduce the weight of passenger vehicles. This and other related early-stage research has demonstrated that this approach has promise to become a widely-deployed method for metal joining.

The plan for commercializing this technology involves collaboration with a number of different Ohio companies. This ultimately supports the development of our economy and the creation of jobs. Coldwater Machine Company will market and sell the novel welding equipment as a major joining technology on parity with resistance spot welding and self-piercing rivets. Honda will initially commercialize the technology as a pedestal welding system through its tier 1 component supplier base (Jefferson Industries) and ultimately look to bring it into their production as a head unit for robotic implementation, and Ashland will validate corrosion control methodologies and develop a market for sealants and methods for new, lightweight multi-material construction methods.