Grants designed to boost innovation

GROUP STUDY: Tracey MacNeal, center, chief strategy officer at ATW Companies, examines a pistol magazine with Elida Blazevic, assembly group leader, and Joel Allegrezza. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
GROUP STUDY: Tracey MacNeal, center, chief strategy officer at ATW Companies, examines a pistol magazine with Elida Blazevic, assembly group leader, and Joel Allegrezza. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

ATW Companies is hoping a $15,000 Manufacturing Innovation Challenge Grant will help them expand their metal manufacturing into two new markets: higher-capacity pistol magazines and 3D metal printing.

The Warwick-based firm is one of 32 companies to receive such a grant from Polaris MEP and R.I. Commerce Corp. In total, $700,000 in funding was invested in the manufacturing industry by the Office of Economic Adjustment and the U.S. Department of Defense. The government agency, looking to secure and enrich its supply chain, required applicants to have at least 10 percent of their business in defense contracts.

ATW, a metal-manufacturing company, is recalculating its pistol-magazine design to increase capacity, making it suitable as a military or police sidearm.

Given the concerns about escalating gun violence in the U.S., “We want to be able to provide higher capacity for our military and police, which will require some design and innovation of our product line,” said Tracy MacNeal, ATW’s chief strategy officer.

- Advertisement -

The second expansion, by metal-injection molding arm Parmatech, is in 3D metal printing.

“3D-printing in plastics is pretty well wrung out. … In metal, the competing technology we’re getting into is extremely expensive and difficult to learn,” she said.

“Manufacturing tends to be pretty invisible to society at large,” said MacNeal, who believes it will take the industry more than a decade to recover from the slump witnessed in the 1970s and 1980s.

She added grants like these could be a step in the right direction for creating the workforce pipeline the industry needs to replace retirees.

Designed in two stages, innovation-challenge grants first deliver $15,000 and a strategic business assessment built by an outside team. The second level builds on the first, awarding $35,000 grants to implement the growth plans generated by third party perspective.

In a statement, Commerce RI spokesman Matt Sheaff said these grants create a collaboration between two of Rhode Island’s strongest industries: design and manufacturing, pairing academics with manufacturers to yield new products for the defense industry.

Citing Southern New England Defense Industry Alliance research, claiming every defense-related job generates 1.52 jobs in other industries, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo said grant recipients were the type of companies propelling Rhode Island forward.

Polaris MEP, a division of the University of Rhode Island Research Foundation, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bill McCourt, president of R.I. Manufacturing Association, sat on the review board for the grant program. He says the funding could connect firms to previously out-of-reach resources.

“These are amazing companies … who cannot see the path they need to go down, or do not have the talent or resources they need, to achieve [their goal],” he said.

Blount Boats, a Warren-based steel and aluminum vessel manufacturer, began their $15,000 level-one grant in September, according to Livia Lisker-Blount, special-projects coordinator.

She believes the strategic assessment will take six weeks and hopes the consultants find a way to increase efficiency, be it tweaking their layout or routine.

As the price of oil goes down, the challenging nature of the boat-building industry increases, said Lisker-Blount, and the company faces competition from more shipyards also looking to expand or change focus.

“A lot of responsibility lies with the company to embrace what the people and the team bring to the [table] and to … follow through with actions,” she said.

North Providence’s Custom Molded Products, a rubber-parts manufacturing company, is also looking to increase its efficiency and save money. They, however, are in the second stage of the program and are implementing the results of the assessment with the help of engineering students from URI’s Capstone Experience program.

When their strategic assessment was completed 18 months ago, L’Etoile said he had no idea the results would catapult business activity.

Owner Nick L’Etoile said the students have introduced 3D printing in the shop. “It’s something we haven’t done before,” he added, but it will “save us time and bring in a lot more money.” •

No posts to display