Taft Presents $1 Million Third Frontier Award to NCC
DAYTON, OHIO (October 16, 2003) - Governor Bob Taft today announced that the National Composite Center will receive a $1 million Wright Capital Project Fund award to create 170 new, good jobs within five years.
"We can't compete by making boots or bicycles in Ohio anymore," Taft said. "Ohio must be the place where new knowledge is used to create new products, new businesses and new jobs. And we must be a leader in the new, promising technologies of the future, like advanced materials."
The project, known as "Long Fiber Thermoplastics for Low Cost, Light Weight Transportation," will develop Long Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastics (LFRT) to replace steel parts used in the automotive and mass transit industries, such as car doors and bus seats. The result is higher performing parts that are safer, lighter and more affordable. The ability of Ohio's fabricators to adopt these new technologies will be critical to the retention and future expansion of Ohio's automotive and mass transit job markets.
Fiber Form of Newark, Ohio, has partnered to be the first to commercialize the technology. The University of Akron and the University of Alabama in Birmingham also partnered on the project.
NCC received a $2 million Wright Capital Project Fund award in June to advance the manufacturing process of large-scale polymer parts. NCC has already made significant progress on that project, and updated Taft on their advances. By early 2004, the equipment currently being installed will be ready to develop new applications for commercialization in Ohio.
The Third Frontier Project is Taft's $1.6 billion job creation program to expand Ohio's high-tech research capabilities and promote start-up companies to create high-paying jobs. It is the state's largest-ever economic development investment and has received bi-partisan support from the Ohio Legislature. The final part of the Third Frontier Project, a $500 million bond program up for voter approval in November, would allow the state to allocate $50 million annually over the next 10 years to attract top research talent to Ohio institutions, help with the development and commercialization of new products and create new, good jobs for Ohioans.
