Airbus Joins Forces with Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing

The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM) has announced that aeronautics leader Airbus has joined CCAM’s industry, academic and government consortium dedicated to manufacturing breakthroughs and advancements in applied research.

The announcement of the new membership was made by CCAM, Airbus and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe during a celebratory signing event at the Farnborough International Airshow in 2014.

Charles Champion, Executive Vice President of Engineering for Airbus commented on the union by saying, “Airbus was founded on innovation – we operate daily knowing that using and developing leading edge technology is a requirement in our business, and CCAM is founded on that mindset. This union is a natural one. Tapping the intellects of the greatest researchers in the industry benefits everyone involved from the developers to the end users.”

Governor McAuliffe also commented on the announcement, saying, “The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing is a world-class asset that brings together Virginia's leading manufacturing companies and top educational institutions to expedite research and turn ideas into real-world technologies and solutions. The addition of a major player like Airbus is a great testament to the pivotal role CCAM plays as a centerpiece of Virginia's efforts to promote R&D and technology commercialization, and contribute to a growing Virginia economy. We are thrilled that, as an Organizing Industry Member of CCAM, Airbus will partner with its fellow industry, government and university members and share best practices, experience and expertise to further strengthen advanced manufacturing in Virginia.”

Airbus has manufactured single-aisle and widebody commercial aircraft, military airlifters, cargo transports and business aircraft that increasingly offer greater fuel efficiency, performance and reliability for over forty years.

CCAM President and Executive Director Joseph F. Moody said, “Airbus is a global leader in advanced manufacturing and a pioneer in applying forward-thinking innovation. As a CCAM Organizing Industry Member, Airbus will bring decades of expertise in engineering technologies and manufacturing systems to the research conducted at CCAM.”

CCAM—the only collaboration of its kind in North America—is based at a state-of-the-art facility in Prince George County, Virginia.  CCAM provides production ready advanced manufacturing solutions to member companies throughout the world. CCAM member companies and academic and government partners collaborate on research to further develop manufacturing practices, resulting in innovative new techniques and processes applied in the aerospace, defense, transportation and consumer electronics industries as well as others.

The research is guided by members, leveraging talent and resources within CCAM and Virginia's top universities through a collaborative model, which enables them to pool research and development efforts in order to increase efficiencies.

Collaboration between diverse industry sectors, academia and government increases the output of breakthrough developments and accelerates commercialization into industry applications.

Current CCAM industry and government members include Chromalloy, Newport News Shipbuilding, Canon Virginia Inc., Rolls-Royce, Sandvik Coromant, Siemens, Oerlikon Metco, Hermle Machine Co., Mitutoyo, Paradigm Precision, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blaser Swisslube, Buehler, Cool Clean Technologies, GF AgieCharmilles, Mechdyne, National Instruments, Spatial Integrated Systems, Airbus and NASA Langley Research Center.  CCAM’s academic partners are the University of Virginia, Virginia State University, Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University.