Partnerships | Because EWI is a membership-based organization, I believe our Members, as well as our EWI Associates, are stakeholders in EWI’s future and have a vested interest in our business strategy. I’m happy to report that we completed the process of putting a new five-year plan on paper earlier this summer, and I’d like to share one of the five strategic priorities that we will pursue and highlight some of the activities that are already underway to support it.

Among several other things, we determined that our future is dependent upon our capacity to create effective partnerships that enhance our ability to solve problems. Establishing the criteria for effective partnerships will be customized to each partner relationship, and you can be sure that, at the core, every partner relationship will focus on the needs of our Members and business partners.

Admittedly, partnerships are not new to EWI. In fact, EWI’s success to date correlates to the stellar relationships and collaboration that have been established for the purpose of expanding the technical capabilities of industry and government. The Navy Joining Center, operated by EWI, is but one well-known example of our partner efforts.

Going forward, we know that we must continue to emphasize strategic partnerships in order to ensure that we do our part to help drive the newest engineering developments into our Members’ manufacturing and materials processes. The alliances and partnerships we enter may take many forms. We may foster new academic partnerships with colleges, universities and institutions that are interested in EWI’s Research Solutions Partner Program. Whether through Graduate Student Fellowships or through encouragement of joint university research, we want to build strong bonds with the student engineers that are being trained for tomorrow’s engineering challenges. Naturally, as those student engineers progress through their careers, we want them to remember EWI as a resource for next-generation ideas.

Of course, the greatest percentage of our “partnering” will occur in the commercial world. We may create or participate in consortiums such as the Nuclear Fabrication Consortium that was founded in response to the resurgence of activity in nuclear power and corresponding manufacturing and fabrication needs. We will most certainly respond to society’s demand for all types of efficient machinery. To this end, we will seek available grant money to explore how our joining processes can influence and help achieve the standards that are being set for scores of production systems. One partner “win” that has already occurred in this arena is the grant that we, together with GE Aviation, Boeing, US Army Research Laboratory, Solidica, Nanodynamics and ADMA Products, Inc., and The Ohio State University recently received from the Ohio Department of Development to further research high power ultrasonic additive manufacturing processes. My well-known EWI colleague, Dr. Karl Graff is a champion of the ultrasonic additive manufacturing process and believes it holds the promise of transforming rapid prototyping and tooling in the production of smart structures such as thermal management systems. It is certainly our goal to repeat this type of “win” in our R&D endeavors.

Partnering with industry giants and small manufacturing start-ups alike puts us in the unique position to address the needs of both types of operations. And so, we are equally thrilled when our knowledge dissemination leads to breakthroughs for companies of more modest means. Our partnership with the Ohio Supercomputer Center has made computational modeling and testing of materials joining and weld design available to smaller-scale manufacturing operations in the form of our E-Weld Predictor product.

In addition, many of our traditional avenues of partnership remain open, such as our Joint Industry Programs (also known as Group Sponsored Projects). R&D conducted through our Joint Industry Program can be funded by a group of companies rather than a single company, thereby dramatically decreasing the cost for each participant. These partnerships often create synergy that extends well beyond the original program scope. I invite you to take a moment and look at some of the Joint Industry Programs that are being formed now and assess if any of them might be the partner opportunity you need to accelerate your business goals.

To sum up, we’re planting partnership “seeds” in many sectors hoping big ideas will take root and grow into profitable endeavors for our Members. We welcome your feedback and inquiries about the partnership programs that can best benefit your business.