Below is a chronological list of the most significant activities and accomplishments of the
Ohio Energy and Advanced Manufacturing Center, Inc. (OEAMC)

In late 2005, Lima Mayor David J. Berger convened local leaders to explore how to build a robust technology environment in Lima, Ohio. Our group then traveled to New York City to meet with Dr. Rick McGahey, the Ford Foundation’s Director of Impact Assessment, and other foundation representatives. There, we shared our vision and sought advice on positioning Lima as a hub for high-tech research and development. The Ford Foundation provided several valuable recommendations, all of which were implemented in the years that followed.

The first significant Research and Development (R&D) project we partnered on was the development of an Advanced Materials Commercialization Center (AMCC). The collaborators in the grant received $1.35 million in funding from the Ohio Department of Development through its Third Frontier Wright Projects program to conduct the research within the walls of a local manufacturing plant. We were simultaneously assisting the City of Lima to acquire and remediate the “Lima Loco Works,” a 64-acre industrial site in Lima; and create the Lima Research and Development Technology Park on property adjacent to that site. The State of Ohio assisted in both of these endeavors with funding from the H.B. 442 Program and the Job Ready Site Program.

During 2006 & 2007, we implemented the first of the Ford Foundation’s recommendations, which was to expand our outreach activities in the hopes of bringing additional partners into the fold. By 2007, the Mayor’s “Technology Committee” included the Director of R&D for American Trim, the Dean of Engineering of Ohio Northern University, the Plant Manager of the local General Dynamics Plant, the Operations Manager of the Husky Lima Refinery, the President of American Electric Power (AEP-Ohio) in Columbus, Ford’s Executive Director of Global Manufacturing in Dearborn, Michigan and a former Ohio Governor’s Regional Economic Development Director.

In 2008, we partnered with a for-profit manufacturing company and the Ohio Northern University on a grant application to create a $3 million Materials Deposition Center (MDC) which would utilize additive 3-D printing technology to turns physical design into made-on-demand products.

In 2009, we implemented another recommendation of the Ford Foundation team, which was to officially incorporate as a non-profit corporation.

In 2010, Ohio Development Services Agency (ODSA) Director, Christiane Schmenk, visited Lima to tour our new Energy Efficient Selective Protective Mask Line Project, which was made possible by a million dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 a federal stimulus package designed to jumpstart the economy, save/create jobs, and invest in infrastructure, education, and energy. She was impressed with the number of R&D projects the OEAMC had accomplished to date and helped us secure a grant to assist us in continuing and expanding our work.
We had now been in existence for five years and we recognized that in order to ensure our continued growth we needed to implement the final steps recommended by the Ford Foundation. Those two steps were: 1) hire a full time CEO, and 2) construct our own technology center. Until this time all the research projects we collaborated on were being housed within the facilities of our for-profit partners.
In 2011, Judith Cowan became the organization’s first full time President and CEO. We felt this was a perfect time to bring all our board members, our new President and our legal advisor together for a comprehensive off-site Strategic Planning exercise. We held our workshop at the Aileron Center for Business in Dayton, Ohio, which was built by Clay Mathile, former owner of the IAMS Pet Food Company. The workshop was conducted by a Harvard School of Business graduate who worked for Aileron. We walked away from the workshop with a strategic road map for our future.

In 2012, we were awarded a $1.4 million grant from the United States Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration (EDA) to construct a new 20,000 square foot Research Center in Lima, Ohio. We matched the grant funds with a loan from the Ohio Research and Development Loan Program and the result is a beautiful new facility located in the Lima Technology Park.

In 2013, we expanded our outreach by traveling to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee for an introductory meeting with members of their Manufacturing Division. Since that initial meeting, the Oak Ridge team has visited Lima several times and since that time we have enjoyed a strong working relationship with them. They have collaborated on two of our technology grant applications. We have also hosted representatives from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) located in the State of Washington and they partnered with us on our federal proposal for the development of a new High Velocity Metal Forming (HVMF) Research Commercialization Center.

In 2014, representatives of the OEAMC held a strategy meeting with the engineering team at the Husky Lima Refinery. The goal of the meeting was to identify potential joint research projects that would benefit not only the Lima Refinery, but all seven chemical companies located on Lima’s large Lima Petrochemical Campus. The OEAMC was awarded over $200,000 in federal grant funds to conduct a feasibility study for the potential creation of a liquids and metals analysis laboratory within the OEAMC’s R&D Center.

In 2015, the OEAMC was awarded $1.2 million in two federal grants to support our High Velocity Metal Forming (HVMF) Commercialization Center activities. In July of 2015, we hired a Technical Director for the new HVMF Commercialization Center. He began purchasing the specialized custom-made equipment required for the center and conducting outreach activities to potential collaborators in a multi-state region.

2016
In the ten years since the mayor convened his initial technology development committee in 2005, the OEAMC has led or collaborated on over $27.5 million in funded projects, and we had $1.4 million in grants funds in the pipeline. We have been recognized as the primary regional R&D Center by regional for-profit companies, National Laboratories, federal agencies and our federal legislators.

2017 – 2020
From 2016 to 2020, the OEAMC staff and Board of Directors concentrated a significant portion of our efforts in the development of an innovative technology utilizing an Adiabatic Driven Punch Press (ADPP). The intent of this project was to commercialize a “greener,” cheaper and faster way to pierce and punch parts made from exotic high strength lightweight materials such as boron steel, multilayered laminates or composites of carbon fibers, ceramics, magnesium, Inconel, titanium, polymers, and aluminum alloys. At the beginning of the project, the OEAMC was fortunate to have several staff members who possessed the background and knowledge to bring this high velocity metal forming project to completion. Unfortunately, the lead engineer on the project died very suddenly and the engineer that was second in command left the employ of the OEAMC. We still had some good team members but none of them had the necessary experience in the development of the operational procedures we needed to complete the partially built ADPP machine. Thus, the project terminated prematurely.

2020 - 2025
The COVID-19 pandemic took everyone in the world by surprise and caused the most significant public health and economic crisis in modern U.S. history, resulting in over 1.2 million deaths, a serious economic disruption due to massive layoffs, and lasting social changes. The pandemic triggered a $16 trillion economic loss in the US, forced major shifts toward remote work, and accelerated political polarization, with 72% of adults saying it drove the country apart. The COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible for the OEAMC to find industrial partners for continued research on new or existing metal forming related projects. The large industries we partnered with in the past, and potential new partners, were focused on managing their current operations with a greatly reduced staff and limited funding, so they were not interested in investing time and funds into innovative technology partnerships during that very challenging time. With the loss of our metal forming experts, we realized we needed to shift our focus from advanced metal forming technologies to another area.

2022 – 2026
Non-Point-Source Runoff Monitoring in the Lake Erie Basin

In 2022, a Lima based company engaged the OEAMC to assist them by providing scientific research services that focused on measuring and identifying harmful algal bloom (HAB) toxins present in northwest Ohio’s agricultural runoff that was contaminating the Great Lakes, primarily Lake Erie. Sampling and analytical procedures were needed to generate the data that measures the effectiveness of various agricultural treatment technologies. This data gives farmers and their advisors, including Soil & Water Conservation Districts, The Ohio State University Extension Offices, and others a path to make more informed environmentally friendly decisions about the optimal types and volumes of fertilizers and weed control additives. To make this project a success, the OEAMC applied for funding assistance through the federal Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) program, formerly known as "earmarks," via United States Senator Sherrod Brown’s office. The title of our project was the “Non-Point-Source Runoff Monitoring in the Lake Erie Basin.” An award was granted to the OEAMC and was administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).