Advanced manufacturing lab opens in Detroit

A $50 million lightweighting research and development lab that the University of Michigan helped to jumpstart has opened its doors in Detroit’s Corktown district.

LIFT, which stands for Lightweight Innovations For Tomorrow, and IACMI, the Composites Institute unveiled the 100,000-sq.-ft. facility. It’s a cornerstone of LIFT’s effort to establish a regional manufacturing ecosystem that moves advanced lightweight metals out of the research lab and into tomorrow’s cars, trucks, airplanes and ships for both the commercial and military sectors. 

“The metalworking industry in our country already employs almost half a million people,” said Alan Taub, LIFT’s chief technical officer and a professor of materials science and engineering and mechanical engineering at U-M. “Through LIFT technology advances and education and workforce programs, we are enabling further growth.”

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