Who Will Fill Manufacturing’s Toolbox?
During a recent visit to Pittsburgh, President Obama promised to provide small-to-medium manufacturers with the tooling they need to help themselves. “I can’t rent the Space Shuttle to you,” he joked, “but there are areas where we can enhance what is already being done by companies like TechShop,” a Steel City business that is lending production tools and equipment to local manufacturers.
On that same day, the White House announced that the Administration would offer entrepreneurs easier access to high-tech resources at more than 700 federal R&D facilities, including NASA’s National Center for Advanced Manufacturing in New Orleans. To speed the development of innovative materials, five federal agencies will also spend more than $150-million to support the Material Genome Initiative.