Here, There and Everywhere… From the Desk of LIFT CEO and Executive Director Nigel Francis

Here, There and Everywhere… From the Desk of LIFT CEO and Executive Director Nigel Francis

October was an incredibly busy month for us at LIFT, from hosting students on Manufacturing Day to meeting with our elected officials and hosting an event with the other Manufacturing USA institutes in Washington, D.C., to traveling to a variety of large manufacturing shows and conferences around the country.

As the CEO of LIFT, it is critical that we share our work, and therefore the work of our partners, with our elected officials who have supported the institute from day one.

We were thrilled to have the opportunity to meet with U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Michigan Lt. Gov. Brian Calley while in Washington, D.C. for the recent Manufacturing USA Briefing and Expo on Capitol Hill. In those meetings, we were able to share details of the work going on in the LIFT network on both the technology and education & workforce development fronts.

Lt. Gov. Calley then spoke about Manufacturing USA at the Manufacturing USA Congressional Briefing about the key roles LIFT and IACMI are having on the Michigan economy. I cannot thank him enough for taking time from his schedule to join us in Washington to share the impact the institutes are having from the state’s perspective.

That Washington, D.C. activity hasn’t slowed down the work we have going on here in Detroit however.

The high-bay of our headquarters is buzzing with activity after two new machines were delivered recently.

Earlier in October, we took possession of the long-awaited linear friction welder from our partner MTI. As if our facility wasn’t unique enough, this machine puts us in a class of our own. This machine is the first linear friction welder in North America capable of full-size part development. We are thrilled to have it here on site and are looking forward to the variety of applications our network partners can test and develop with it.

We also took possession of an FP6000 – 5-Axis machining center from Heller Machine Tools.  This piece is ideal for machining a large range of parts over a wide material spectrum and shortens production time by by reducing the number of clamping positions and complete machining in one set-up, which optimizes cost.

These machines are welcome additions to our already leading edge high bay. We encourage you to come visit and take a tour to see all that we have to offer to help you and your lightweighting needs. We built this facility for our members use at the request of our members, so we encourage you to come use it.

If you would like to visit or schedule a tour, please contact us at communications@lift.technology and we will be happy to show you around and see how we can help.