Twenty five years ago, Americans watched as Japan became a formidable economic rival. As the U.S. saw its trade surpluses shrink and trade deficits grow, millions of high-skill, high-wage manufacturing jobs were lost. The pain was especially acute across the “Rust Belt”, a swath of states ranging from the northeastern U.S. to the Midwest. By the end of the 1980s, stopping the decline in U.S. manufacturing was more than just a matter of trade policy. In response, the MEP system was born.

NIST working on prototype for Sustainability in a variety of industries.

Manufacturers who are inclined to be engaging in sustainability, rejoice! A source to help navigate the dynamic and complex minefield of regulatory, voluntary, and performance aspects of sustainability is making great progress!

NIST, the National Institute for Standards and Technology, part of the Department of Commerce and parent of the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, (MEP) (our benefactor at FuzeHub and the NYSTAR Regional Technology Development Centers (RTDC’s) has been hard at work to create a systematic means to adopt and implement sustainability in US Industries, particularly manufacturing.

Blog Written by Hutch Hutchison, Director, Technology & Engineering Matching, FuzeHub Xerox and 3-D Systems announced a merger on Wednesday, December 18, slated to help both companies grow. 3-D Systems acquired the product  design, chemistry, and engineering portion of Xerox’s Warrenville, Oregon R&D Facility for $32Million. The R&D Facility, originally acquired by Xerox from Textronix in 2000, will add 100 …

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Production in Innovation Economy (PIE) commission isn’t satisfied with how the United States is commercializing innovation and supporting manufacturing. Although America still has deep reserves of innovation capacity, decades of decline in our manufacturing base have made it difficult for companies to bring new products and technologies to market.

At September conference, the PIE commission summarized its findings, offered recommendations, and asked tough questions that require answers from more than just manufacturers. After collecting data and conducting hundreds of interviews with industry leaders, MIT faculty members explained how the U.S. can turn its strengths in science and research into businesses, products, and jobs.

In my blog: Additive Manufacturing – A new tool in the toolbox, part 5, I discussed several bio-3-D Printing projects, like skin, and I mentioned Organovo. It is a California company that was pioneering the 3-D Printing of organ tissue, with an eye toward actually printing organs on demand. They have had excellent results of late, actually printing functional liver tissue. The liver tissue, created using actual cells from donated human livers, is created by printing each type of liver cell, as well as vascular cells in a hex pattern, and providing nutrients so that the cells “grow” as they would in a human liver, to form the liver tissue structure, as well as replicate the liver functions.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle New York state has enormous resources to help manufacturers succeed, but sometimes it’s still difficult to determine exactly where to go if you’re a business owner who needs a problem solved. Enter FuzeHub, a program developed to help small- and medium-sized companies and spur economic growth in New York state.  More