President Obama mentions Youngstown business during State of the Union address

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Among other topics discussed in his State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama specifically mentioned Youngstown, Ohio.

"Last year, we created our first manufacturing innovation institute in Youngstown, Ohio.  A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the-art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything,” Obama said.

President Obama was referring to a pilot program based out of Youngstown called NAMII, or the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. 

 NewsChannel5 saw an example of an end product in a cube-like structure that NAMII Director Edward Morris handed over and let us feel.

"This is a sample of what can be done using the additive manufacturing process," Morris said. "It's very lightweight… You can see the holes through it. And what that does for products manufactured in the United States, it would be able to take out weight. So for aircraft or automobile applications, you have lighter structure, more fuel economy, better range, etc."

The cube structure and much more are being produced right out of Youngstown, demonstrating a new push in how to manufacture.

"You can do things with additive manufacturing that you can't do with classical machining that is now being called subtractive manufacturing," Morris said. Subtractive machining is the traditional type of manufacturing, where you have a drill with different drill bits that carve out what you're trying to create.

"With additive we're forming it in a different way. We're building it up by layer by layer," said NAMII communications manager Scott Deutsch.  

It's all done by machinery that uses lasers to create the exact model designed.  Deutsch showed us a machine.

"This particular machine was designed to print gold teeth. They could do a digital scan of a tooth that needed a crown and they can present that digital data into the workflow, and print the exact tooth that you needed."

In another example, Deutsch said, "In additive, we just end up with the Statue of David when we're done.  We don't have that extra waste, or that extra material that's not being used.”

They're using less material to make a final component, something Deutsch and Morris said will encourage businesses to stay in the U.S. 

Why? 

Morris said it's because they'll be saving a great deal of money in the materials.

NAMII is a private-public partnership that President Obama, government officials, Morris and Deutsch hope will be the first of 15 more throughout the U.S. 

To read and see more, visit: http://namii.org/