See inside Knoxville carbon fiber lab with unique machines

Experts from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory − through a unique partnership bringing together government, students and industry leaders − have moved into a new 44,000-square-foot lab that will turn big ideas into products that boost U.S. manufacturing.

The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation, founded by the Department of Energy alongside UT Knoxville and ORNL, held an open house on Feb. 19 to show off the distinctive machines that are up and running at its new lab within UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm, the hub of East Tennessee's unique startup ecosystem.

The institute works specifically on structural composites, which string high-tech fibers through materials to make them strong, light and relatively cheap. Two particular focuses of the institute are carbon fiber and fiberglass, which have applications in airplanes, cars, bridges − even athletic clothing.

Chad Duty, CEO of the institute better known as IACMI – the Composites Institute, compares composites to his idea of a perfect cookie that brings together dough, chocolate chips and nuts. In simple terms, composites combine the characteristics of two or more materials to create more advanced ones.

When it opened in 2015, IACMI was the fifth of what are now 18 institutes in the Manufacturing USA network. ORNL and UT founded the institute in partnership with the Department of Energy and around 150 companies, as well as other labs and universities.

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The first machine open for business at the new lab is owned by Michelman, an Ohio-based provider of advanced industrial coatings and materials. The company provided the machine - which applies a thin coating called fiber sizing - to UT Knoxville as part of its partnership with the institute.

"They're unique across the world in terms of capabilities," Duty said about the institute's machines. "These are brand new pieces of equipment that have been developed in modular forms to be able to do research and innovation on."

At its core, the institute is about giving college students remarkable access to machines that are changing manufacturing in real time, and the institute's leaders are mostly professors at UT who work closely with ORNL.

Most of the people who show up at the new headquarters for work each day are students.

"It will be a place to conduct research and development at scale and transition innovative ideas and concepts to field commercial applications. This is unique to the East Tennessee ecosystem," said Uday Vaidya, chief technology officer at the institute and the UT-ORNL Governor's Chair for Advanced Composites Manufacturing.

Vaidya was honored at the open house as the visionary behind the new headquarters, which addresses the institute's lack of a central location. The institute plans to maintain its presence at several other lab spaces in the Knoxville region and nationally.

The institute shared these figures around its 10th anniversary to mark the work it has done so far:

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email [email protected].

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