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IMTS 2016 will once again showcase emerging technologies MCLEAN, Va.—AMT–The Associa- tion For Manufacturing Technology will feature additive manufacturing, smart manufacturing, and integrated energies in its Emerging Technology Center (ETC) at the International Man- ufacturing Technology Show (IMTS), to be held September 12-17, 2016, at McCormick Place in Chicago, Ill. AMT created the ETC, which debuted at IMTS 2004, as a showcase for cur- rent and near-future state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies. Premier exhibits at IMTS 2016 include three proof of concept additive manufactur- ing (3D-printed) displays: the additive bionic human, the AMIE project, and a new app that tracks and provides users with the latest technology advances. The ETC showcases projects and dis- ruptive technologies that were previ- ously known to only a few, challenging preconceived notions of how manufac- turing performs at its best. EPA awards grants to 38 student teams for innovative sustainable projects WASHINGTON, D.C.—The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded 38 People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) grants to university student teams for proposed projects to develop new, sustainable products and strategies. Each team will receive up to $15,000 for their proposals. Funding for the P3 competition is di- vided into two phases. Teams selected for Phase I awards receive grants of up to $15,000 to fund the development of their projects, which are then show- cased at the National Sustainable De- sign Expo in the spring. Following the Expo, P3 teams compete for Phase II awards of up to $75,000 to further de- velop their designs and potentially bring them to the marketplace. This year's teams are testing innovative ideas such as repurposing chemical byproducts from the mining industry into new concrete that helps inhibit the corrosion of steel and developing a food waste collection kiosk that will spur food waste to energy production in the local community. Previous P3 teams have used their sustainable ideas and gone on to start businesses. Steel firm builds new paint line facility COLUMBUS, Miss.—Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI), a producer of carbon steel products, has broken ground on its new $100 million paint line and Galvalume facility in Columbus, Miss. The project, originally announced in May 2015, is ex- pected to be complete and ready for op- eration during the first quarter of 2017. Situated on a 1,400-acre site, the facility is a cutting-edge, high-tech electric arc furnace minimill capable of producing 3.4 million tons of steel annually. The plant features two electric arc furnaces, two ladle metallurgy furnaces, two vac- uum degassers, two thin slab casters, a hot strip mill, pickle lines, an annealing line, a temper mill, two hot-dipped gal- vanizing lines, and a rewind/inspection line. The addition of the paint line and Galvalume capabilities will allow SDI to produce additional value-added steel products. The paint line will provide an annual coating capacity of 250,000 tons. OSHA withdraws long-planned rule to reduce slips, trips, and falls WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Occu- pational Safety and Health Administra- tion (OSHA) has withdrawn its draft Final Rule to update existing regula- tions aimed at preventing slips, trips, and falls in the workplace from the Of- f i c e o f M a n a g e m e n t a n d B u d g e t (OMB) review. OMB's Office of Infor- mation and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the White House gatekeeper for rules with significant economic impact, re- ported in late December that OSHA had pulled the rule from OIRA pending further consideration by the agency. The "Walking Working Surfaces and Personal Fall Protection Systems (Slips, Trips, and Fall Prevention)" rule pro- posal was first issued in 1990. Eventu- ally, based at least in part on public comments submitted in response to the 1990 proposal, OSHA published a no- tice to reopen the rulemaking for a sec- ond round of public comment in May 2003. However, because advancements in fall protection technology had far outpaced OSHA's rulemaking process, the agency concluded that its proposal was out of date and did not reflect cur- rent industry practice or technology. In May of 2010, OSHA issued a reiter- ation of the proposal that reflected cur- rent information and increased consis- tency with other OSHA standards. OSHA held administrative hearings in January 2011 on the revised proposal. Then, in 2015, OSHA indicated that the rule was a top priority and they were on the cusp of finalizing and promul- gating a final rule designed to update the requirements to protect against falls in the workplace. Only a month later, OSHA halted the review process. Industry professionals speculate that, as important as fall protection is, promul- gation of the silica rule and the rule re- quiring electronic submission of injury and illness data are more important at this time. Glass nanocoating work wins NSF grant FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.—WattGlass LLC has been awarded a $746,000 Na- tional Science Foundation (NSF) grant in recognition of its work on a glass coating said to make the material antire- flective, self-cleaning, and highly trans- parent. WattGlass, a startup founded in 2014 to commercialize the coating de- veloped at the University of Arkansas, will use the grant to further develop the patent-pending coating technology. The coating virtually eliminates reflec- tion, glare, and fogging on glass and other transparent materials using a pro- prietary nanoparticle coating. The nanoparticle-based coating will also in- crease the efficiency of solar panels and reduce their cleaning and maintenance costs. The coating costs less than $0.50 per square meter and is made from commercially available materials. The company is looking into ways to apply its coating technology for automotive, consumer, building glass, and solar photovoltaic panels. The National Science Foundation Phase II grant came through the Small Business Innovation Research Program, 4 POWDER COATING, August 2016