May 6 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden was set to travel to southern Ohio on Friday and detail new administration efforts to lower costs for American families by creating an alliance of manufacturers and developing 3D printing on a larger scale.
Biden was previously scheduled to make the trip to Cincinnati, but the White House unveiled details of his plans on Friday.
The White House said that the president will meet with manufacturing leaders there and promote 3D printing as a way to improve domestic supply chain issues and, thereby, reduce costs.
Biden's "AM Forward" initiative focuses on 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, and is being created to encourage large American manufacturers to buy 3D printing parts from smaller suppliers nationwide.
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3D printing is the relatively new process of producing three-dimensional objects from machines in a more efficient and rapid manner than traditional manufacturing. One of the main advantages of the process is that it often allows production of items with complex structures or shapes that are difficult to construct or reproduce by hand.
Several large companies have already signed onto the effort, officials said -- including GE Aviation, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Siemens Energy.
Biden is scheduled to outline the strategy during a visit Friday to the United Performance Metals plant in Hamilton, Ohio, which is located about 20 miles due north of downtown Cincinnati.
The president was scheduled to arrive at the airport in northern Kentucky, which is just across the river from Cincinnati, early Friday afternoon. He will deliver a speech at 3:45 p.m. EDT.
"The president will meet with manufacturing leaders, see new additive manufacturing technologies at work, and discuss his plan to make more in America by building on the 473,000 manufacturing jobs created since he took office," the White House said in a statement.
"[Biden] will deliver remarks calling on Congress to build on that success and pass legislation like the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which will create good-paying jobs, boost domestic manufacturing and lower prices for working families."
The White House said that AM Forward aims to build a more resilient and innovative domestic supply chain by investing in small- and medium-sized companies, as well as grow industries of the future by overcoming "coordination challenges that limit new technologies."
"Not enough American companies are using 3D printing or other high-performance production technologies," the White House added. "Firms use this capability to reduce the number of parts required for an application, to make spare parts one at a time as needed, and design high-performing components in various industries ranging from aviation to medical devices."
Ohio is a key battleground state with a heavy blue-collar manufacturing base. The state has been carried by the Republican presidential candidate in the last two elections. Biden lost the state in 2020 by about 500,000 votes.
Biden last visited the city last July, when he toured an electrical training center there and participated in a town hall event.
