DISPUTATNTA, VA-Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and the presidents of the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Virginia State University today joined with manufacturing executives to break ground for the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM), a collaborative research facility in Prince George County, VA, that promises to accelerate the transfer of laboratory innovations to manufacturing production lines where they can improve efficiencies, products and profits.

The groundbreaking puts in motion construction of a 50,000-square-foot facility. Under its roof, best-in-class manufacturers will collaborate with accomplished faculty and students from Virginia’s top research and teaching institutions to perform advanced manufacturing research in two priority areas: surface engineering and manufacturing systems.

When complete next year, the facility will house computational and large-scale production labs, as well as open production space for heavy equipment and surface coating processes, including a thermal spraying machine, a directed vapor deposition machine, integrated data acquisition systems and a thermal conductivity measurements system.

By pooling resources to pursue university research authorized by member companies, CCAM increases the value of the R&D dollar. R&D risks and costs are shared by members – away from live production floors – and research results are shared with all members, allowing them to capitalize on new, breakthrough developments that emerge from CCAM research.