After receiving a $500,000 grant from New York State’s Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program in early 2016, the Rochester Institute of Technology has officially opened its 3,200-square-foot Additive Manufacturing and Multifunctional Printing (AMPrint) Center, located on the school’s Henrietta campus. The facility is described as being among the first research labs in the world to focus on development of next-generation multi-functional 3D printing technologies, materials and devices.
Denis Cormier, an expert in 3D print technologies, is Director of RIT’s AMPrint Center and the Earl W. Brinkman Professor in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering. A professor of industrial engineering, Cormier’s research focus is in printed electronics, specifically the synthesis of printable nano-inks, the development or enhancement of printing processes, and the design of novel printed electronic devices.
Cormier was the original principal investigator for the Center and brought together university partners from Clarkson University and SUNY New Paltz with corporate partners that include Xerox, GE Research, Corning, Kodak and MakerBot, to design novel devices and develop next generation polymer, metal and composite technologies.
The centre will serve as both a research and teaching facility for the university’s students as well as its corporate partners. Researchers will have access to functional 3D printing and fusing equipment, direct-write printing equipment, analogue printing and surface metrology technologies. Also included will be wet-chemistry infrastructure necessary to synthesize printable nano-materials.
Michelle Cometa of RIT produced an online article about the opening of the new facility, which included the partipation of New York’s Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul.
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