Delta Apparel Shifts Production To Produce Cotton Face Masks To Help Fight Spread Of COVID-19

GREENVILLE, S.C. – April 14, 2020 – Delta Apparel Inc., a provider of core activewear and lifestyle apparel products, today announced that it will leverage its manufacturing facilities to begin producing cotton face masks. The Company has joined a coalition of iconic apparel brands that are responding to urgent calls for companies to help produce face masks during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Once fully ramped up, the coalition, inclusive of Delta Apparel, expects to produce up to 10 million face masks per week in the United States and in Central America.

Robert W. Humphreys, Delta Apparel Inc.’s chairman and CEO, commented: “We are extremely proud to offer the resources we have available for the manufacture of face masks to help support those hospitals and health care workers on the front lines, as well as all Americans battling the spread of COVID-19. We have already begun production of the face masks in our sewing facility in North Carolina and expect to begin production in Honduras this week.”

The U.S. Center for Disease Control recently issued recommendations on wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, and especially in areas of significant community-based transmission. In addition to the production of face masks with the coalition, Delta Apparel is also producing and selling non-medical grade face coverings.

Humphreys concluded: “We are proud of our dedicated workforce who wanted to participate in these efforts and quickly took on the challenge to retool our production lines to begin making these masks and face coverings. Of course, the safety of our employee base is of utmost importance to us. We are following the recommended protocols within our facilities, including providing face masks for our employees to wear, implementing social distancing protocols, and increasing sanitation and cleanliness measures.”

Posted April 14, 2020

Source: Delta Apparel Inc.

Lectra Opens Atlanta Technology Center To Partner With Volunteers To Create PPE

ATLANTA — April 14, 2020 — Lectra — a provider of technology solutions for the fashion, upholstered furniture and automotive interior industries — is opening the Technology Center at its Atlanta headquarters to create personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare and other essential workers to help combat COVID-19 in the Atlanta and Georgia communities.

Lectra has a fully operational cutting room usually used for tests and demonstrations, and is making the facility and the company’s leading experts available to produce life-saving PPE. However, Lectra needs volunteer partners to provide fabric, sewing and distribution, and is looking to collaborate with groups or organizations that would like to join forces.

“Our company and our industry as a whole are committed to helping the communities we serve during this pandemic,” said Edouard Macquin, president, Lectra Americas. “We are enthusiastic to partner with any organizations that would like to volunteer their services and are making the full resources of our company and our experts available to help in any way possible.”

Any organization that would like to be part of this volunteer effort can contact Daniella Ambrogi, vice president of marketing for Lectra Americas, at d.ambrogi@lectra.com.

In addition to producing PPE at Lectra’s Technology Center, the company is also providing its experts to help clients pivot manufacturing technology to the production of PPE across Lectra’s service lines.

Posted April 14, 2020

Source: Lectra

Eastman Donates Material To Purdue For Protective Lenses, Face Shields

KINGSPORT, Tenn. — April 13, 2020 — As part of the world’s collective effort to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, Eastman is donating materials to produce protective lenses and face shields for medical personnel.

Eastman donated 600 square feet of material to Purdue University. More than 40 volunteer faculty and staff members are using the school’s laser cutting system to produce up to 3,000 lenses and 4,000 face shields. The protective equipment will be distributed to hospitals across Indiana.

“I’m proud of the speed at which the Eastman team was able to get material to the teams at Purdue,” said Brendan Boyd, vice president, Specialty Plastics & Fibers Technology. “The need for more protective equipment is urgent. We value these innovative partnerships that can meet a significant community need quickly and effectively.”

Personal protective equipment (PPE) plays an essential role in protecting medical personnel and others on the front lines battling the epidemic. Safety glasses and face shields protect people from droplets produced by coughing and sneezing and can help prevent workers from touching their faces.

Purdue’s Bechtel Innovation Design Center is using a pilot-scale manufacturing facility to make protective glasses and face shields. “Under guidance from medical professionals, we have redesigned and manufactured complex fittings for ventilators and are actively producing laser cut, waterjet cut, and 3D-printed parts for face shields and safety glasses,” said David McMillan, assistant director of the center.

In addition to the Purdue donation, Eastman employees around the globe are serving an essential role in the response to COVID-19. Eastman has donated material to organizations in Tennessee, Virginia, and Brazil for the production of face shields. In Europe, the company has donated resins to customers that are making hand sanitizer instead of cosmetics.

Posted April 13, 2020

Source: Eastman Chemical Co.

Ford To Produce Respirators, Masks For COVID-19 Protection In Michigan; Scaling Up Production Of Gowns, Testing Collection Kits

DEARBORN, Mich. — April 13, 2020 — Ford is expanding its efforts to design and produce urgently needed medical equipment and supplies for health care workers, first responders and patients fighting coronavirus.

In addition to the current production of more than 3 million face shields in Plymouth, Mich., Ford-designed powered air-purifying respirator production begins Tuesday, April 14. Ford also is now producing face masks and leading an effort to scale production of reusable gowns for health care workers. Lastly, Ford started providing manufacturing expertise to help scientific instrument provider Thermo Fisher Scientific quickly expand production of COVID-19 collection kits to test for the virus.

“We knew that to play our part helping combat coronavirus, we had to go like hell and join forces with experts like 3M to expand production of urgently needed medical equipment and supplies,” said Jim Baumbick, vice president, Ford Enterprise Product Line Management. “In just three weeks under Project Apollo, we’ve unleashed our world-class manufacturing, purchasing and design talent to get scrappy and start making personal protection equipment and help increase the availability and production of ventilators.”

Ford and 3M Collaboration Leads to New PAPR

Since late March, Ford manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain experts have been embedded at 3M manufacturing facilities to help increase production of urgently needed products.

With this additional help, 3M and Ford were able to increase the output of PAPRs and N95 respirators at 3M’s U.S.-based manufacturing facilities.

“3M is dedicated to helping to protect our heroic health care workers and first responders globally, including sharing our scientific expertise to increase supply of needed PPE,” said Bernard Cicut, vice president, 3M Personal Safety Division. “We are proud to stand together with Ford in this effort, as they have helped us increase manufacturing of existing 3M PPE products and, together, we have rapidly designed a new PAPR to help protect these heroes.”

Ford will start producing an all-new PAPR design to help protect health care professionals on the front lines fighting COVID-19. Rapidly designing components and prototyping in accordance with federal guidelines and with 3M expert support and guidance, Ford teams reduced PAPR development time to less than four weeks.

“By working collaboratively with 3M to quickly combine more than 100 years of Ford manufacturing and engineering expertise with personal protection equipment design and expertise, we’re getting much-needed technology into the hands of frontline medical workers to help when they need it most,” said Marcy Fisher, Ford director, Global Body Exterior and Interior Engineering.

Approximately 90 paid UAW volunteers will assemble PAPRs at Ford’s Vreeland facility near Flat Rock, Mich., with the ability to make 100,000 or more.

The newly designed PAPR includes a hood and face shield to cover health care professionals’ heads and shoulders, while a high-efficiency (HEPA) filter system provides a supply of filtered air for up to 8 hours. The air blower system — similar to the fan found in F-150’s ventilated seats — is powered by a rechargeable, portable battery, helping keep the respirator in constant use by first-line defenders.

The development team has been supported by the CDC’s NIOSH National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. NIOSH provided timely guidance to Ford and other US manufacturers to encourage the development of protective public health emergency PAPRs to respond to the COVID-19 emergency. Ford expects to achieve the temporary, limited NIOSH approval by the end of April.

Pending approval, 3M will distribute the newly designed PAPRs through its U.S. network to help bring these technologies quickly and efficiently to health care workers who urgently need them. 3M and Ford will donate any profits they earn from the sale of the PAPR to COVID-19 related nonprofit organizations.

Face Mask Production

Meanwhile, Ford is now manufacturing face masks for internal use globally and pursuing certification for medical use its Van Dyke Transmission Plant. Face masks can help slow the spread of the virus and help people who may have the virus and do not know it from transmitting it to others.

The CDC is now encouraging all U.S. residents to use masks to curb the spread of the virus.

Ford’s global manufacturing and purchasing teams quickly sourced the necessary materials and equipment from its network of equipment manufacturers around the world. Production began earlier this week.

Approximately 30 UAW paid volunteers will start making masks in the plant’s ISO Class 8 cleanroom, which is a controlled environment with extremely low levels of pollutants, enabling the safe production of face masks for medical use. Eventually, approximately 80 UAW paid volunteers will make masks as production increases.

“UAW Ford members continue to step up and volunteer to work during this difficult time as we expand at the facility across from Flat Rock to make respirators and at the Van Dyke Transmission Plant to make face masks for medical use,” said Gerald Kariem, vice president, UAW Ford Department. “The UAW also continues to work with Ford to follow stringent CDC guidelines and go above and beyond protections for these members who are so proudly volunteering to serve their communities and their nation.”

Gown Production

To help further protect health care workers, Ford is leading efforts to manufacture reusable gowns with airbag supplier Joyson Safety Systems. The go-fast project has created re-usable gowns manufactured from material used to make airbags in Ford vehicles.

Production of gowns will reach 75,000 gowns a week by Sunday and scale up to 100,000 gowns for the week of April 19 and beyond. By July 4, Ford-supplier Joyson Safety Systems will cut and sew 1.3 million gowns, which are self-tested to federal standards and are washable up to 50 times.

Ford worked with Beaumont Health in Metro Detroit to quickly design the gown pattern and test for sizing during fit and function trials. More than 5,000 gowns have already been delivered to the hospital.

“The need to protect our medical teams is heightened — Ford’s gown production could not come at a better time during this crisis,” said David Claeys, president of Beaumont Health hospitals in Dearborn and Farmington Hills. “Our front line health care workers are working around the clock to treat COVID-19 patients and we need the necessary supplies to support them.”

Collection Kits for COVID-19 Tests

Ford is helping scale production of collection kits for COVID-19 tests at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Thermo Fisher’s engineering team at the company’s site in Lenexa, Kan., realized their expertise, combined with the manufacturing expertise of Ford’s nearby Kansas City Assembly Plant engineering team, could help set up additional collection kit production machinery. The Ford team also helped Thermo Fisher adapt machinery that currently runs glass vials for other products to run plastic vials required in drive-through coronavirus test collection.

“Ford’s engineers brought a fresh perspective to production expansion, and together, we’ll more than triple the number of collection kits we can deliver each week starting April 20,” said John Reuss, senior director, microbiology business for Thermo Fisher. “It’s great to see different industries coming together to solve a common problem.”

Additional Efforts

“We are doing all we can to expand production and availability of personal protective equipment to help keep the true heroes — medical personnel — and our communities safe in the fight against COVID-19,” said Adrian Price, director, Global Core Engineering for Vehicle Manufacturing.

Ford also is continuing to manufacture transparent full-face shields for medical workers. As of April 13, Ford had produced more than 3 million face shields for medical personnel and first responders. Besides the U.S., face shield production also has started globally at Ford facilities in Canada and Thailand and with Ford joint venture partner Mahindra & Mahindra in India.

Work at Rawsonville, Mich., Components Plant is underway to transform a portion of the plant to manufacture a third-party ventilator, in collaboration with GE Healthcare, with production expected to start the week of April 20. Built by paid UAW volunteers, the goal is to produce 50,000 Model A-E ventilators by July 4 to help COVID-19 patients.

Ventilator pre-production activities are also underway in the U.K., where Ford and an industry consortium are preparing to make ventilators from Penlon. Ford is providing manufacturing engineering capability, project leadership, purchasing support and assembly of the ventilators at its Dagenham engine plant. This production will help meet demand for 15,000 ventilators ordered by the U.K. government.

Posted April 13, 2020

Source: Ford Motor Co.

Aramark To Manufacture Essential Protective Gear To Support COVID-19 Response

PHILADELPHIA — April 13, 2020 — Philadelphia-based Aramark, keeping with its 84-year history of answering the call for assistance in times of need, today announced its Uniform Services division has redeployed production lines in order to manufacture essential personal protective equipment (PPE) for the heroes working in hospitals and in other critical roles across the United States.

Aramark, a global leader in food, facilities management and uniforms, converted its uniforms manufacturing plants, which ordinarily produce lab coats, work shirts, pants, and coveralls, to produce respirator and medical masks, scrubs and isolation gowns. In just one week, Aramark converted its facilities to design the products, re-engineer and configure the production lines, and train employees on fabricating the new products.

Once fully operational, Aramark expects to produce millions of masks, scrubs and isolation gowns. The first shipment of scrubs and isolation gowns was delivered to clients last week. Production of respirator and medical masks is scheduled to begin by mid-July.

“As the country pulls together to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, we are pleased to be able to assist the brave frontline workers who need it most,” said John Zillmer, Chief Executive Officer, Aramark. “It’s this selfless passion for service that defines our Company and we are proud to do our part during this extraordinary time.”

The garments and gear will be shipped from Aramark manufacturing plants in Mexico to clients across the United States in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and other vital industries where employees rely on these supplies to perform their jobs.

Helping assist with the shortage of supplies is a continuation of efforts Aramark has undertaken throughout this unprecedented public health crisis.

Aramark partnered with the Debra and Leon Black Family, the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, Robin Hood and the American Red Cross to launch “NYC Heroes Fund” and provide 300,000+ packages of shelf-stable food, household cleaning and personal care products, as well as over-the-counter medicine to NYC hospital staff on the front lines combatting the COVID-19 pandemic, alleviating the burden of having to shop for themselves and their families.

In the communities where Aramark serves, employees have banded together at hospitals, schools and other facilities, providing safe and hygienic meals, uniforms, refreshments and facility services. To date, Aramark has donated over 110,000 pounds of food to local organizations and continues to serve free and reduced meals to over 215 schools during the pandemic.

At healthcare facilities across the country, Aramark opened on-site ‘pop-up’ grocery stores to serve as a one-stop shop for doctors, nurses and other hospital staff to grab necessities, such as bread, milk, eggs and toilet paper, on their way home.

Aramark has mobilized its emergency relief and large scale event expertise to aid temporary field hospital operations in various cities.

Posted April 13, 2020

Source: Aramark

Saving Livelihoods And Lives: YPO Members Launch Manufacturing Coalition To Streamlined U.S. Supply Chain To Meet Coronavirus Healthcare Needs

WASHINGTON — April 13, 2020 — The nation, and world, are facing huge uncertainty due to the COVID-19 global pandemic and some of the most dire needs include medical devices, products, supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for essential workers. Manufacturing Coalition represents hundreds of manufacturing companies nationwide, who have come together to offer these imminently demanded resources and services to help the U.S. during this time of crisis.

The global leadership community of YPO is made up of over 29,000 chief executives who are driven by the belief that the world needs better leaders. Each of the members have achieved significant leadership success at a young age, these are leaders who want to become better leaders and better people through peer learning and exceptional experiences and operate already as an inclusive community that is built on trust. Key leaders from within the organization stepped up early this week and have worked tirelessly to coordinate a trusted supply chain to U.S. companies in a time of need to supply much needed PPE.

“We are American entrepreneurs, we have manufacturing capabilities, we want to help and we know how to help,” said Manufacturing Coalition Lead Shirish Pareek. “This coalition represents over 200 manufacturers located in 30 states. We are uniting to solve the COVID-19 supply challenges and by doing so we are not only saving lives but saving livelihoods.”

Given a drastic decrease in exports from select countries combined with a huge increase in demand due to the global outbreak, manufacturers of PPE are reporting challenges in meeting order demands. The members of the Manufacturing Coalition are united Americans of states, joining forces to combat supply chain issues and create long term nearshoring solutions while meeting the short term need of maintaining the U.S. workforce. The alliance aims to combine the expertise and knowledge within the manufacturing members to support the public and private sectors in their efforts to mitigate against the COVID-19 spread and assist essential workers who are in dire need of PPE.

Meeting this demand head on, a vast majority of coalition members can pivot their production lines to create COVID-19 related products and supplies such as N95 masks, disposable gloves, sanitizing gels and liquids, ventilators and ventilator housings, COVID-19 testing kits, aluminum components for blood analysis tools, and more in less than seven days and begin distribution as needed at a fair cost. This swift transition is possible because members have diverse manufacturing capabilities including: Metal/Pre-Fabrication, Food and Beverage, Medical device manufacturing, Clothing and Textile, Injection Molding, Petroleum, Chemicals, Plastics, Transportation and Supply Chain, Paper and Wood and 3D printing. While some members produce finished goods, others supply much needed components and raw materials.

As the COVID-19 global pandemic continues to spread, resources are becoming increasingly limited and those on the frontline such as physicians, nurses, emergency responders, food service workers, security, and any other professional who directly or indirectly supports patient care face high risks of becoming infected themselves.

“As business leaders, we have asked ourselves how we can support efforts to contain COVID-19, and address avenues to help protect both patients and frontline workers, while keeping Americans employed,” said Pareek. “Pivoting our product lines with speed and agility to create efficient supply chain connections amongst coalition members is our solution.”

Posted April 13, 2020

Source: Manufacturing Coalition

Georgia-Based Textile Supplier, Canvas ETC, Donates Masks To Local Healthcare Workers

AUBURN, Ga. — April 13, 2020 — Canvas ETC, a textile supplier and e-commerce business, has donated thousands of face masks to area doctors, clinics and hospitals.

Nik Narwani, spokesperson for the company, shared: “We source fabrics domestically and from all over the world. Because we have built up goodwill with manufacturers, we were able to put those relationships to good use. Our company wants to give our community’s healthcare workers every chance to help us beat this virus safely.”

Like in so many cities all over the United States, Atlanta and suburban healthcare facilities are struggling to prepare for the possible influx of COVID-19 patients. Responding to the need for personal protective equipment (PPE), Canvas ETC distributed thousands of face masks to Emory Healthcare, Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, and other local clinics.

“I think we all recognize the need to support the most vulnerable essential workers in this fight: our healthcare workers,” Narwani adds. “Canvas ETC will continue helping our community in any way we can.”

Posted April 13, 2020

Source: Canvas ETC

Arris Composites Secures $48.5 Million Series B To Accelerate Mass Production Of High-Performance Carbon Fiber Products

BERKELEY, Calif. — April 10, 2020 — Arris Composites, the pioneer of next-generation composites, today announced $48.5 million in series B funding. Arris will be expanding its proprietary composite manufacturing capabilities and opening facilities in the U.S. and Taiwan, the latter to serve the demand of the consumer electronics industry.

The round was led by Taiwania Capital with participation from return investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA), which led Arris Composites’ $10 million Series A round in January 2019, alongside Valo Ventures and Alumni Ventures Group (AVG).

Carl Bass, former Autodesk CEO, will join the board of directors as an independent board member. Bass has been involved with Arris since 2017 as an angel investor, advisor and research collaborator while the company incubated in his personal machine shop.

“Since we began working with Arris Composites in 2018, we’ve been impressed with the maturation of their manufacturing technology and the intense interest and enthusiasm we’ve seen from top brands in the consumer, automotive, aerospace and other industries in leveraging Arris’ manufacturing methods for next-gen, not-yet-released products,” explains Greg Papadopoulos, venture partner, NEA and former chief technology officer, Sun Microsystems. “High-performance composites that can be mass-produced in new ways hold incredible promise for all kinds of products.”

Carbon Fiber Products for the Masses

Founded in 2017, Arris Composites enables the mass-production of high-strength and light-weight composite parts through its proprietary Additive Molding™ manufacturing technology. With this new process, advanced carbon fiber materials can be produced at the same speed as plastic molded products. To unlock the potential for customers, Arris has developed unique tools for in-house design collaboration and application engineering teams. Now customers can design and produce previously impossible products that are highly integrated and stronger and lighter than metals.

A Design Revolution Across Multiple Commercial Markets

Arris Composites’ technology has wide applications across multiple markets where new product designs and architectures are now possible. Customers in consumer, automotive, industrial, aerospace, and transportation industries are advancing programs to take advantage of the revolutionary capabilities to make products lighter, stronger and smarter. Industrial and automotive applications seek corrosion-proof, high-strength and durable glass fiber and carbon fiber structures. And top consumer and sporting goods brands are seeking new commercial advantages by elevating product performance and differentiation.

The fastest-growing market for Arris Composites is consumer electronics, where next-gen devices are being designed to be lighter, smaller and smarter. With a short product refresh cycle and fast pace of innovation, a portable electronic device is likely to be the first Arris manufactured product available to the public.

“When NEA introduced us to Taiwania Capital it was clear they had deep manufacturing expertise, as well as a track record scaling up new high-volume consumer electronics technologies,” said Ethan Escowitz, CEO and Founder of Arris Composites. “The alignment of our organizations was immediately evident and I knew they were an ideal partner to assist in scaling-up production for our consumer electronics customers.”

“What made Arris Composites appealing to us is their ability to make consumer electronics products that were simply not possible with previous manufacturing technologies,” said Huang Lee, managing partner at Taiwania Capital and Arris Composites Board Member. “Despite major advances in the electronics within portable devices, the structures have not changed very much, until Arris.”

Recyclable Composites

Composites have a history of major reductions in fuel consumption due to their light weight; however, recyclability has been a problem. Arris Composites employs a new generation of recyclable composites and has developed a novel method of designing products with the end in mind so the waste stream from today’s products becomes the feedstock for future products.

Posted April 13, 2020

Source: Arris Composites

Bolger & O’Hearn Sees Escalating Demand For High Powered Durable Water Repellents For Medical Textiles In Response To COVID-19 Pandemic

FALL RIVER, Mass. — April 13, 2020 — Bolger & O’Hearn, known for developing innovative specialty chemicals for the global textile industry, is seeing brisk demand for the company’s high-powered durable water repellents (DWRs) in connection with COVID-19 and the growing call for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and other medical textiles.

This includes DWR’s used in the production of medical masks, gowns, bed coverings, hospital room drapes and more.

“In particular, we are seeing a high demand for Stormproof/Breathable OmniBloq™, a DWR we developed for high-end performance apparel brands that surpasses industry standards for water and soil repellence,” said Kelly Murphy, co-president of Bolger & O’Hearn.

OmniBloq provides resistance to fluid penetration, splatter and soils and a higher level of barrier protection for both woven and nonwoven textiles than standard industry DWR’s.

Bolger & O’Hearn has been developing high-performance DWR’s and other specialty coatings since 1969 and has a proven portfolio of more than 2,500 products. Its experienced technical staff and R&D lab is known for providing rapid proof of concept evaluation and transition to commercialization and fully committed to working on projects related to fighting this devastating, global pandemic, Murphy added.

Bolger & O’Hearn has been designated an essential service by the state of Massachusetts, the U.S. department of Defense and Homeland Security. Its offices, R&D labs and manufacturing operations are remaining open as the company provides brands and textile manufacturers with the chemistries they need to make PPE and other textile end products essential to fighting COVID-19.

Bolger & O’Hearn is known and respected throughout the industries it serves as a trusted partner and developer of innovative, highly-effective chemical products. A bluesign system partner, B&O is also known for developing chemical products based on environmentally-compliant materials and technologies. Most of its chemistries are water-based, and Bolger & O’Hearn strives to continually improve the health, safety and environmental profiles of the chemistries it develops.

Posted April 13, 2020

Source: Bolger & O’Hearn

NASA Looks To University Teams To Advance Aviation Technology

WASHINGTON — April 10, 2020 — NASA has selected five teams led by university faculty and students to examine a range of technical areas in support of the agency’s aeronautics research goals.

Known as the University Leadership Initiative (ULI), the project will provide a total of $32.8 million to the five teams during the next four years.

“Each of these teams is working on important problems that definitely will help break down barriers in ways that will benefit the U.S. aviation industry,” said John Cavolowsky, director of NASA’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program in Washington.

This is the third time NASA Aeronautics has reached out to the academic community in this way. Five teams were selected in 2017 and three teams announced in 2019.

Unlike other NASA-funded research programs in which the agency specifies the project goals, universities are asked to come up with a compelling investigation, so long as that technical challenge addresses one of the strategic research thrusts of NASA.

Another key goal of ULI is for the student researchers involved to gain experience in leading a multidisciplinary team made up of partners from other universities and industry, especially representing those who traditionally have not applied their skills to aviation problems.

“We’ve also sought to emphasize inclusion of universities that serve underrepresented student populations and I think we’ve been successful this year in achieving that goal,” said Koushik Datta, ULI project manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.

For the first time, a ULI team will be led by a historically black university, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro. Moreover, team leader Oklahoma State University in Stillwater is known for graduating the most Native American students of any school in the nation.

The five team leaders and their research topics are:

North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University

The team seeks to develop a novel integration of secure and safe autonomous systems used on unmanned Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft with the goal of advancing their technical readiness level and be ready for industry to consider using these technologies. The team intends to validate these systems with flight tests of multiple aircraft.

The team will receive $8 million over four years. Team members include Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.; Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta; Aurora Flight Sciences in Manassas, Va.; Alaka’i Technologies Corp. in Hopkinton, Mass.; General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in Poway, Calif.; and Northrop Grumman Corp. in Linthicum, Md.

Oklahoma State University

The team will look for ways to improve real-time weather forecasting of low-level winds and turbulence in both rural and urban environments with an eye to improving safety for Unmanned Aircraft Systems flying in AAM operations.

The team will receive $5.2 million over four years. Team members include the University of Oklahoma in Norman; University of Nebraska Lincoln; University of Kentucky in Lexington; National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.; Vigilant Aerospace Systems Inc. in Oklahoma City; AirXOS, part of GE Aviation, in Boston; and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Stanford University

The team will seek to develop tools that ensure machine learning in autonomous systems used by unmanned AAM aircraft work as expected in real-time, as well as to employ fault detection and recovery methods if they do not, particularly in situations involving taxiing, landing and collision avoidance.

The team will receive $8 million over four years. Team members include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge; Georgia Tech in Atlanta; University of New Mexico in Albuquerque; Hampton University in Hampton, Va.; University of California, Berkeley, Calif.; MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Mass.; and United Technologies Research Center Inc. in Berkeley.

University of Delaware

Using a composite supply method already developed under a Defense Advanced Research Project Agency program, the team plans to demonstrate the ability to produce aerospace-quality components at a rate comparable to that of the automotive industry.

The work supports a NASA research goal to find ways to help manufacturers increase the rate at which they can produce hardware using composite materials.

The team will receive $5.9 million over four years. Team members include Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, La.; Joby Aviation in Santa Cruz, Calif.; Spirit AeroSystems Inc. in Wichita, Kan.; Advanced Thermoplastic Composites Manufacturing in Post Falls, Idaho; American Composite Manufacturers Association in Arlington, Va.; Arkema Inc. in King of Prussia, Pa.; and SGL Carbon in Charlotte, N.C.

University of South Carolina

The team seeks to develop tools and technology to help better understand and safely use a composite tape made of thermoplastic in designing and manufacturing parts for an AAM vehicle. Two structural parts typical of an AAM vehicle — a fan blade and airframe shell component — will be designed and built to demonstrate the technology.

The team will receive $5.7 million over four years. Team members include the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg; Boise State University in Boise, Idaho; Benedict College in Columbia, S.C.; The Boeing Company in Chicago; Joby Aviation in Santa Cruz, Calif.; Toray Advanced Composites USA in Morgan Hill, Calif.; Ingersoll Machine Tools Inc. in Rockford, Ill.; Smart Tooling in Xenia, Ohio; C. A. Litzler Co. Inc. in Cleveland; Schrӧdinger in New York City; and Collins Aerospace in Melbourne, Fla.

A fourth round of ULI request for proposals is anticipated to be announced soon. An online virtual workshop for interested participants is currently scheduled for Thursday, April 30.

Posted April 11, 2020

Source: NASA

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