NCDMM launches the V4 Institute

The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) is launching the V4 Institute (V4I), an industry-led consortium with the mission of providing advanced assurance in product development and manufacturing through virtual verification, validation, and visualization. V4I offers value-driven computation modeling and simulation solutions for research and development (R&D) of product and processes to advance cross-industry innovation and support the digital thread.

“We established the V4 Institute in an effort to help manufacturers alleviate the burden of proof that comes with any new product design,” said Ralph Resnick, NCDMM president and chief executive officer and America Makes founding director. “A tremendous amount of physical testing is required to validate new designs. Moreover, for manufacturers, the physical testing process is expensive, tedious, and slow.

“With the creation of the V4 Institute, our goal is to arrive at a point in which rigorous research, engineering principles, and scientific and mathematical data all merge together to significantly increase the impact of current physical testing and even reduce the necessity of physical testing to meet the burden of proof,” Resnick continued. “By increasing the scientific use, reliability, and trustworthiness of virtual testing to reduce cost and time to market, NCDMM believes that V4I will help companies gain a substantial return on their R&D investments. Ultimately, V4I will serve as the trusted accelerator for new product system and service realization within the manufacturing industry and beyond.”

Like the public-private model NCDMM helped to pioneer with America Makes, the national additive manufacturing accelerator and flagship institute for the Manufacturing USA network, V4I is also comprised of industry, academia, and government partners. While V4I is not formally part of the Manufacturing USA network, V4I directly supports the network’s mission of securing the future of U.S. manufacturing through innovation, education, and collaboration.

Membership in V4I is open to all U.S. industrial organizations, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and governmental agencies interested in furthering computational modeling and simulation technology and education. V4I offers three levels of membership – Silver, Gold, and Platinum with each membership tier featuring invaluable benefits.

“Using the America Makes membership model as a basis, we are successfully fostering and developing an expansive and diverse V4I membership community,” said Gary Fleegle, NCDMM chief operating officer. “As such, we are extending the reach, and the subsequent impact, of the collaborative efforts within the V4I community to advance the product and services supply chain – digitally integrated through virtual verification, validation, and visualization – and to accurately demonstrate the acceptability of new products through quality by design.”

For more information about NCDMM’s new V4 Institute or how to become a member, visit v4i.us.