NILES, Ohio – The next generation of manufacturers and the wealth they will generate are taking shape in the Mahoning Valley.
Leaders from America Makes laid out a bold vision for the future during the Youngstown Business Incubator’s inaugural Advanced Manufacturing User Expo on Tuesday at the Eastwood Event Centre. Central to that future is the Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense, which will deploy additive manufacturing to modernize America’s industrial base.
The Innovation Hub, said Kimberly Gibson, industrial base integration director at America Makes, was created to “modernize the industrial base for additive manufacturing, with a focus on aerospace and defense,” and to do so in a way that creates opportunity “in the region, in Ohio, in the nation, in the world.”
“Where was the wealth built after World War II? It was built in advanced manufacturing,” she said. “So what is the new wealth going to be built on? This time, again, it’s still going to be manufacturing innovation. And so we believe that by putting this hub in place, evoking the genius of all of you and many others in the region, we can build the next generation of manufacturers and the next generation of wealth.”
Alexander Steeb, operations manager at America Makes, emphasized the importance of expanding access to additive technology. “We need to figure out how we make the technology more accessible, so that more and more folks know when and how to use it,” he said. “It’s not a magic bullet. It won’t replace other technologies, but we want to arm you with knowing when it makes sense — and when it does not.”
The Innovation Hub, which will serve 15 counties in northeastern Ohio and extend its influence across the state, recently received a $26 million investment from the state of Ohio. Combined with $36 million in federal, local and private funding, including $11 million in local match, the initiative is expected to generate $162 million in economic output and create 450 jobs.
The funding will be used to renovate a 110,000-square-foot building and support workforce development, commercialization and technology adoption programs, Steeb said.
“The Department of Defense is spending generational kind of money, and this is an inflection point for this Valley,” Gibson added.
During his opening remarks, Jim Dascenzo of Hill Barth and King noted that YBI is “soon going to be announced as the lead for a center of excellence for advanced manufacturing for all of northern Ohio.”
Dascenzo, a former chairman of YBI’s board, said the organization has grown from one building into a five-building downtown campus and now leads $250,000 in monthly billing through its advanced manufacturing services.
One example of the innovation on display at AMUX was The Scorpion, a 20-foot-tall mobile concrete 3D printer designed to automate housing construction.
Vitruvian, the Athens, Ohio-based company behind The Scorpion, has its sights set on transforming both construction practices and workforce development in underserved communities. Modeled after a spider crane and equipped with a European-engineered print head and pump system, The Scorpion can fabricate the exterior walls of a home with remarkable efficiency, said Stefano Alva, director of operations.
“Two operators with this machine output the same as 10 bricklayers,” he said, noting the company trains local workers and integrates the printer into real housing projects.
Looking ahead, the company envisions a statewide network of localized “nodes” that share digital files and construction plans, enabling scalable and efficient deployment of printed housing.
“Construction is one of the least optimized industries,” Alva said. “But with this technology and a system of shared knowledge, we can start to change that — starting here in Ohio.”
Other panels at AMUX explored the promise and practicality of additive manufacturing across sectors.
In the Industrial Internet of Things panel, Adam Ellis, CEO of Harmoni Solutions, emphasized that while early adoption has been strong in process industries like food and automotive, the biggest opportunities are in job shops and smaller manufacturers.
“There’s so much data still being tracked on paper, even in advanced shops,” Ellis said. He cited one project where his company saved a client from buying new CNC machines simply by improving internal logistics. “They didn’t need another machine — they just needed to keep the machines they had running more.”
Michael O’Donnell, COO of Magnet, said IIoT allows manufacturers to “increase cycles of learning” by leveraging real-time data instead of traditional batch collection methods. “We’ve seen 40% to 45% capacity increases in some cases,” he said. “Everyone can do it.”
During the polymers panel, representatives from three local companies discussed how advancements in polymer-based additive manufacturing are opening new doors across sectors and creating opportunities for innovation in northeastern Ohio.
Zac DiVencenzo, president and co-founder of JuggerBot 3D, said his company, a longtime YBI portfolio member, has been pushing the boundaries of fused granulate fabrication, especially with high-performance materials like tungsten-filled polymers and thermosets.
“Over the course of 11 years, we identified dozens of segments,” DiVencenzo said. “People were utilizing 3D printing to convert something that was overkill — it was designed for metal but didn’t need to be metal. It could be prototyped quickly and made with plastic.”
One of the more promising applications DiVencenzo highlighted was 3D-printed tooling with integrated cooling.
“Cooling has been recognized as a very easy and simple way to transition 3D printing into making functional parts,” he said. That application, he noted, is gaining traction across defense, automotive and general manufacturing.
Patrick Kiraly, CEO of Center Street Technologies, emphasized the importance of cultivating regional talent to fuel this growing industry.
“The biggest challenge we see isn’t technical — it’s talent,” Kiraly said. “The ecosystem in Youngstown gives us access to universities, workforce partners and startups that are hungry to work in this space. We’ve had success here because of the people.”
The federal funding panel provided attendees with insights into how businesses and startups can better access government dollars to support research, commercialization and manufacturing initiatives.
Scot Loveland, director of the Ohio APEX Accelerator at Youngstown State University, encouraged companies to look beyond traditional pathways when seeking government support.
“You don’t have to partner with a university to get started,” he said. “There are a lot of ways to be innovative and a lot of agencies willing to fund that innovation — you just need to meet them where they are.”
Michael Bianco, deputy program manager for APEX, reinforced that idea, noting that various agencies have different priorities.
“Each agency is looking for something different,” he said. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. The Department of Defense might be looking for scalability and performance. The Department of Energy might care more about sustainability. You have to tailor your pitch.”
The 3D Printed Sand Cores panel began with a nod to the past — a video clip from a Business Journal newscast chronicling the early days of Humtown Products’ venture into additive manufacturing. The video showed Mark Lamoncha, CEO of Humtown, standing beside the company’s first 3D sand printer, a piece of equipment that, at the time, represented a bold step into the unknown.
“That was just the beginning,” Lamoncha said. “We had one printer and a whole lot of questions.”
From that single machine, Humtown has grown into a national leader in 3D-printed sand cores, which are used to create complex internal cavities in cast metal parts.
These cores, once the domain of intricate tooling and long lead times, are now printed directly from digital files, allowing for rapid iteration, reduced costs and design innovations that were previously impossible.
“We have 14 printers. One is being set up on the west coast for aerospace. And we have a joint venture with a printer that we have in Duselldorf, Germany. One of the big three automakers can’t buy the castings in the U.S., so we print semi-loads of the castings over there. They’re shipped to Bulgaria, and the castings come back to the U.S.”
YBI CEO Barb Ewing said the AMUX event was designed to showcase the incubator’s advanced manufacturing capabilities, beyond the more public-facing Shark Tank events.
“This is a place where nerds can be nerds and talk about differential equations, microelectronics and biomechatronics,” she said. “We have a great story to tell.”
Ewing said YBI’s advanced manufacturing team works closely with government and private sector clients to support technology adoption, offering everything from design support and pilot projects to workforce training and grant assistance. “We didn’t want to look back 20 years from now and say, ‘Why didn’t someone sound the alarm?’” she said.
“These changes are coming to manufacturing and we need to take advantage of it.”
Pictured at top: The Scorpion, a 20-foot-tall concrete 3D printer developed by Vitruvian to build exterior walls for houses, is on display at the Advanced Manufacturing User Expo at the Eastwood Event Centre in Niles.