IACMI is pleased to announce two high-profile speakers for our IACMI Summer 2022 Members Meeting June 28-30 in Salt Lake City: Ms. Adele Ratcliff, Director of the U.S. Defense Department’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program, and Jeff Sloan, editor-in-chief at CompositesWorld.
The three-day event will be held at the Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel. In addition to Ratcliff and Sloan, the June 29 program features a full day of speakers and panels, including representatives from the State of Utah and the Department of Energy. Also on the agenda are panel themes and presentations showcasing IACMI Working Groups reports, IACMI core partner capabilities, technology advancements from small/medium enterprises, organizational importance of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Women in Composites. Stay tuned for more speaker updates coming soon. IACMI Working Groups will meet on June 28 and June 30.
Adele Ratcliff: Domestic Manufacturing
as a Matter of National Security
IACMI is pleased to announce the director of the Defense Department’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program, Ms. Adele Ratcliff, is planning to speak at our IACMI Summer 2022 Members Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 28-30. Ms. Ratcliff has been instrumental in envisioning and implementing America’s Cutting Edge (ACE), an initiative to revitalize the U.S. machine tool industry through technology innovation and workforce development.
“Research proves that nations that design and manufacture products are far better at innovating,” says Ratcliff. “The United States must be able to conceive, design, build, and use advanced machine tools. The decline in the U.S. advanced manufacturing and machine tool technology and capacity has significantly impacted national and economic security. We need advanced machine tools and people with the knowledge, skills and abilities to design, program, operate, and maintain them to produce many of the products that are used in modern society and that our country so vitally needs to defend our nation.”
The U.S. has not been the world leader in the machine tool sector since 1982 and currently ranks fifth internationally. The COVID-19 pandemic spotlighted supply chain issues and a need to refocus efforts to boost domestic manufacturing, and the IBAS program has responded by creating a series of efforts under the National Imperative for Industrial Skills (or “Skills Imperative”) initiative.
Ms. Ratcliff plans to address ACE’s key role in that initiative in the context of defense manufacturing and supply chain needs, including opportunities for advanced composites. She will also highlight major impacts, such as the IACMI-led pilot training program to advance the machine tool workforce last summer in Knoxville, Tennessee. This effort was so successful that DoD is expanding it and creating regional ACE hubs across the country.
Jeff Sloan: Opportunity and Challenge – Sustainability
in Composite Materials and Processes
So, just how are composites manufacturers after the pandemic? “My observation is that the pandemic not only failed to stifle innovation, but apparently created an environment in which it could flourish,” writes Jeff Sloan, editor-in-chief at CompositesWorld, in the April magazine.
IACMI is excited that Jeff and CW are going places again and looking forward to Jeff being in Salt Lake City to speak at our Members Meeting on June 29. Fresh off a trip to JEC World 2022 in Paris where sustainability was the main topic, Jeff will focus his presentation on that timely topic, “Opportunity and Challenge: Sustainability in Composite Materials and Processes.”
Jeff is well known to IACMI members. He has been editor of CompositesWorld since 2006 and directs and manages all editorial content for all of the brand’s products, including printed magazine, digital content, newsletters, videos and podcasts. A member of SAMPE, Jeff has been a speaker at SAMPE conferences and CAMX as well as IACMI meetings.
Prior to joining CompositesWorld, Jeff worked for 10 years as editor and then publisher of Injection Molding, Modern Plastics and Plastics Machinery & Auxiliaries magazines. Jeff has also worked as a technical writer and is a 1990 graduate of Colorado State University with a degree in technical journalism.