CARES Act Funds Four Advanced Manufacturing Institutes

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has supplied four public-private partnerships with $3.4 million in funding from the CARES Act.

All four institutes are working on manufacturing solutions for the COVID-19 pandemic response.

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America Makes received $1.4 million from the fund, a partnership to expand production of PPE through additive and digital manufacturing technologies. Through more collaboration and a simpler request system, American manufacturers should be far more able to supply hospitals and front-line workers.

Re-training institute LIFT received $1 million, which will be used to train 250 workers in Pittsburgh and Detroit who have suffered from loss of work, due to the pandemic. It will specifically train in CNC machine operations, industrial machine maintenance, and robotics.

The Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute, currently testing safe methods to deploy collaborative robots for COVID-19 testing, received $600,000. It plans to deploy collaborative robots in hospital and university labs, to reduce exposure.

Finally, BioFabUSA received $400,000 to develop and share a roadmap for COVID-19 response and recovery. It will identify key needs for different areas of the United States. The institute said it will publish the roadmap in three months, with help from federal and academic partners.  

“The collaborative programs these institutes have built since the launch of Manufacturing USA have resulted in powerful networks including universities, inventors, and manufacturers,” said NIST Director Walter G. Copan.

“These partnerships have allowed them to rapidly respond to the current pandemic with projects to expand production of needed medical countermeasures, provide workforce training, increase testing capacity, and help manufacturers prepare for the future.”