Jeff Mosher catches up with Tony Vernaci, Vice President, Global Business Development, MEDC about additive manufacturing’s role in Michigan.
Michigan is a leader in cutting edge technology and is getting a lot of recognition from out of state investors. Particularly when it comes to what Linear AMS in Livonia is doing with additive manufacturing. John Tenbusch, the company founder, is clearly a pioneer in the industry. Thankfully he had the vision to recognize the potential for this technology and courage to make the investment.
Just before the Christmas break, Tony managed to organized and participated in a meeting with a large out-of-state steel producer that is exploring ways to take part in additive manufacturing. It is not likely that additive manufacturing will have a big impact on the volume of steel produced by a company like the one that visited here last month, but it will make a significant impact on the end product. Such as, GE is producing a new engine for commercial aviation known as the GE9X and additive manufacturing is playing a key role. Additive has enabled the engineers at GE to design fuel nozzles that will deliver huge savings in fuel costs. So out of the hundreds of thousands of parts on an engine like this, only a very small number are candidates for additive manufacturing.
This is so key for Michigan. Thanks to companies like Linear, Michigan is recognized once again as a leader in technology and talent. This is clearly what attracted a larger conglomerate like Moog from New York to acquire them (Linear) in 2015 and an example why it is important to be a leader and not running from behind as a follower trying to catch up. Light weighting is extremely important for our strength in aerospace and dominance in automotive. When you combine what manufacturers are doing with the great asset we have at LIFT (the light weighing institute in Detroit) and this is why Michigan is such an awesome place for business.
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