EWI Logo on Product Example

Biden tours EWI; sees innovation first-hand

July 20, 2012

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited EWI yesterday as part of the Whitehouse’s Made in Ohio Manufacturing Tour. EWI, the largest manufacturing technologies company in North America dedicated to materials joining and allied technologies, has been helping manufacturers become more competitive since its founding in the early 1980’s.

Dr. Henry Cialone, EWI President and CEO, took Biden on a tour of the company’s extensive labs where many manufacturing technologies are being developed. Biden stopped frequently to talk with the company’s engineers. EWI employs 130 individuals at the facility, approximately 70 of which are engineers, with the large majority being welding engineers.

According to Cialone, “Vice President Biden was very engaged. He was interested in the manufacturing technologies we showed him, and wanted to talk specifically about the ones that could stimulate job creation in the manufacturing industry.”

Biden was shown several new technologies developed by EWI, including AcousTechTM Machining, a patent-pending high-power ultrasonic machining technology that recently won a prestigious 2012 R&D 100 Award. EWI Engineers also demonstrated RealWeld TrainerTM, a new innovation in welder training. The demand for skilled welders, and the ability to train them quickly, is so high that EWI recently created spinoff company RealWeld Systems, Inc. to be the sole licensee of the product.

In addition, Biden was shown EWI’s work in ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM), a technology that is expected to revolutionize manufacturing by reducing capital costs and increasing flexibility. He met Mark Norfolk, the president of EWI’s first spinout, Fabrisonic LLC, which sells UAM machinery and services.

During the visit, Biden remarked that EWI was ahead of the curve, since it was into manufacturing before manufacturing was cool.