Ford's new F-150 will be up to 700 pounds lighter than the outgoing pickup truck. Photo credit: Len Katz.
President Barack Obama is expected to announce a new, $140 million project meant to speed the development of new lightweight metals and other materials. Based in suburban Detroit, the project will be backed by the Defense Department, though it should have a serious impact on the auto industry’s efforts to reduce vehicle mass and improve fuel economy.
Dubbed the Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation – or LM3I – it will be one of a number of new institutions intended to help boost the performance of the U.S. manufacturing sector, according to a statement by the White House. The project is expected to receive $70 million in federal funding with a matching $70 million coming from other sources.
By some estimates, the new manufacturing institute could eventually result in the creation of up to 10,000 new jobs.
A total of 34 companies, 9 universities and 17 other groups – including ALCOA, GE, Honda, the Universities of Michigan and Kentucky, and the American Foundry Society — will participate in the project which will “focus on lightweight and modern metals manufacturing,” according to the White House.
There’s a growing interest in the use of aluminum, titanium, and high strength steel, as well as even more exotic materials such as carbon fiber, particularly in the aerospace and automotive industries.
Ford Motor Co., for example, plans to switch to an “aluminum-intensive” body for its redesigned F-150 pickup truck next year. That move will save between 500 and 700 pounds per vehicle and is expected to yield as much as 5 miles per gallon or more in improved fuel economy. Boeing, one of the corporate participants in the LM3I project, meanwhile, is ramping up production of its 787 Dreamliner, a largely carbon fiber jet.
(For more on the new, aluminum Ford F150, Click Here.)
“The long-term goal of the LM3I Institute will be to expand the market for and create new consumers of products and systems that utilize new, lightweight, high performing metals and alloys by removing technological barriers to their manufacture,” the White House said over the weekend.
The new institute will be based in the Detroit suburb of Canton Township, Michigan, and will be run by an Ohio-based firm, EWI, that specializes in innovative manufacturing technologies.
The goal of the program is to help bring together advanced researcher and the companies that might eventually be able to put any breakthroughs into production. But consumers aren’t the only ones who could benefit from the project, according to the White House.
(GM also looking to slash weight off next-gen pickups. Click Here for the story.)
There could be a major payoff for the military, it said, noting the project, “will strengthen our defense capabilities, like enabling the creation of armored vehicles strong enough to withstand a roadside bomb but light enough for helicopter-transport.”
The president revealed plans to open three new of these manufacturing institutes during his State of the Union address last month. The first, the Next Generation Power Electronics Manufacturing Innovation Institute, was announced. Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, it will be backed by the Department of Energy. A third institute, focusing on digital manufacturing and design technologies also will be announced this week, and will be based in Chicago.
Eventually, there could be as many as 45 of these manufacturing institutes. The administration is still waiting for Congress to approve funding, but the proposal has garnered some rare bipartisan support in both houses, including Senators Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and Missouri Republican Roy Blunt, as well as Congressmen Tom Reed, a New York Republican, and Joe Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat.
(Click Hereto check out BMW’s new carbon-fiber battery-car, the i3.)