Advanced Materials

Northeast Ohio is arguably the top area in the world for Advanced Materials. This strength has stemmed from our strong industrial heritage and has created a materials focus that would be difficult for any area to match.

Ohio is the number one state in the U.S. in polymers, measured by employment and business activity. In fact, if it were a state, Northeast Ohio would rank number eight on its own. The University of Akron is ranked second in polymers for U.S. universities and Case Western is ranked fifth.

Northeast Ohio has a very strong position in metals, metalworking and metallurgy. ASM, the Materials Society (formerly the American Society for Metals) has its worldwide headquarters here and a large number of metalworking companies call Northeast Ohio home. Steel was a major driver in Northeast Ohio’s development in the 20th century. Although the industry declined, the region has recovered some of its prominence with specialty steels from manufacturers like Mittal, Timken and RTI Industries.

Northeast Ohio is known for our cluster of paint, coatings and lubricants companies, also a world leading area.

The list of Northeast Ohio advanced materials companies is seemingly endless, including Lubrizol, RPM, PolyOne, Goodyear, BF Goodrich, Graftek, Sherwin Williams, ICI Paints, and many others.

Our strength in materials has led to leadership in the newest area of materials technology development, nanotechnology. Ohio’s Nano-Network, a NorTech initiative, has raised Ohio’s profile in nanotechnology, leading to the state's ranking in Small Times magazine’s “Top Ten States for Nanotechnology” the past three years. In 2005, the Third Frontier funded the Center for Multifunctional Polymer Nano Devices (CMPND), a research center that will encourage leading edge research and commercialization.

Increased understanding and the ability to measure the properties of materials at the nano scale adds to Northeast Ohio’s opportunities at the intersection of materials with other signature areas, notably electronics, biosciences and energy. Building on the strength of our industrial base, Advanced Materials are at the core of many interesting collaborative pursuits with these technology areas, including new materials for fuel cells, new materials for flexible electronic displays, and nano-applications in medicine and electronics.

TechLift’s Role

Despite Northeast Ohio’s prominence in advanced materials, we have not created enough startup companies to take advantage of this obvious strength area. TechLift encourages and nurtures Northeast Ohio’s advanced materials entrepreneurial companies to incubate, grow, attract outside funding, and produce jobs and economic activity.

We are focused on Northeast Ohio's signature technologies:

Advanced Materials, BioSciences, Electronics, Information Technology, Advanced Energy