IACMI – The Composites Institute Provides Key Support and Response to COVID-19 Pandemic

IACMI – The Composites Institute is working closely with its consortium members and other partners in response to the covid-19 crisis and remains prepared to help accelerate post-crisis recovery. Priority ongoing response efforts include the following: • IACMI CTO Uday Vaidya led a University of Tennessee effort involving students, University labs, community members, and over 60 printers, to rapidly create more than 5,500 3d-printed frames for face shields to the State of Tennessee for its emergency response efforts. https://news.utk.edu/2020/03/24/ut-labs • Creation of a robust COVID-19 information page on the IACMI Website that includes current response efforts and resources for federal, state, and shared databases. • Ongoing collection of information from members and others at covid19response@iacmi.org • Collaboration with LIFT to donate personal protective equipment (PPE) to nearby Community Health and Social Services (CHASS) Center in support of the fight against coronavirus. https://iacmi.org/2020/04/09/iacmi-and-lift-donate-equipment-to-detroit- • Provide thought leadership and innovation connectivity to aid Dassault Systemes in its frugal innovation approach to design that can reduce product complexity and costs facilitating solutions such as 3d printing of spare parts and super-fast design for manufacturing of masks or ventilators. https://3dexperiencelab.3ds.com/en/projects/fablab/open-covid-19/ • Sharing information with other Manufacturing USA Institutes • Contributing to a shared database of resources and needs and promoting links to information repositories and medical device information at MXD and America Makes websites. • Convening ecosystem partners and providing input to key global technology companies such as Apple, that are pivoting their respective businesses to provide manufacturing assistance. • Collaborating with manufacturing partners to determine alternatives to N95 mask Given the current situation, and the fact that IACMI has unparalleled assets, facilities, top of the line research personnel and talented work force, it remains well-positioned to address near-term materials and manufacturing-related challenges, target weak spots in domestic production and other supply chain vulnerabilities, and accelerate deployment of advanced composites.