The potential of any technology is realized only if it is convertible into products that promote progress. Although luck and determination help, this conversion progress takes concerted effort. It takes the business community and its drive for profit. And it also takes the educational community with its dedication to research and the pursuit of knowledge.

These separate and distinct bodies operate under two completely different systems. The business community is based on free enterprise in a competitive environment. The educational community thrives on the acquisition of pure knowledge as its primary goal; funding and monetary support exist as secondary goals.

The coordination and cooperation of these two—the corporate world and the academic world—is essential to any technology's realization of its growth potential, including powder metallurgy. The Center for PM Technology was created to help bring these two very different systems together.