🔒After $3.9M in renovations, new tech purchases, CCAT looks to guide manufacturers in post-COVID economy

Over the past year, the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT) has made significant renovations to both its facility and staff with the hopes of better helping the state’s manufacturing industry as it recovers from the pandemic and tries to keep pace with ever-changing technology.

The 18-year-old organization, which promotes the use of advanced technology in Connecticut’s manufacturing sector, this year completed a top-down renovation of its Advanced Technology Center, located on Raytheon Technologies’ East Hartford campus. That included the additions of several new state-of-the-art automated manufacturing technologies. Additionally, CCAT hired a new chief technology officer and senior manager of advanced technology centers.

With all those changes, in addition to overseeing two state grant programs for manufacturers upgrading their technology, CCAT is well positioned to help bolster Connecticut’s manufacturing sector in the months and years ahead, said President and CEO Ron Angelo.

“What we’re focused on at CCAT is really advancing manufacturing technology, and we took this time to look at CCAT’s legacy and say, ‘How do we make sure we’re positioned the right way going forward?’ ” Angelo said.

Electric car opportunity

CCAT significantly upgraded its East Hartford technology center, spending $3.9 million on new equipment and renovations so it can demonstrate new technologies to manufacturers, Angelo said. Renovations include new epoxy flooring, custom LED lighting and IT infrastructure.

The organization also added five new pieces of automation and additive manufacturing technology, including an electron microscope. Additionally, British engineering company Renishaw recently installed its AGILITY machine, a state-of-the-art manufacturing measuring technology. Renishaw has committed to demonstrating the technology’s use to local producers.

CCAT last month also hired a new chief technology officer, Jacquelynn (Jackie) Garofano. Garofano previously spent nine years working as a research scientist at the Raytheon Technologies Research Center (previously the United Technologies Research Center) in East Hartford, and has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Additive Manufacturing and the Journal of Materials Science.

CCAT’s technology buys over the past year have focused on advanced design, automation and measuring technology, all of which are becoming increasingly important in the manufacturing industry, Garofano said.

“There’s a lot more technology we want to showcase, but we also want to support and empower our supply chain [companies] across the state to adopt these technologies,” Garofano said. “We want to be looking forward to what’s going to be disruptive, particularly within the manufacturing technology space.”

Garofano said one key focal point for CCAT moving forward will be technology related to electric cars. A National Association of Manufacturers report last year said motor vehicle production is a top 10 manufacturing sector in Connecticut in terms of money generated and job growth.

The Edison Electric Institute, an association that represents all U.S. investor-owned electric companies, said the country had 1 million electric vehicles on the road by the end of 2018, and projected that number will shoot up to 18.7 million by 2030. Electric vehicles gaining traction means manufacturers in Connecticut must become familiar with and capable of producing parts for these new cars, Garofano said.

She said she’s trying to establish a program centered around educating and training local manufacturers on electric vehicle production, and what tools are necessary to make parts for this emerging industry.

“We have had exciting conversations with some local companies that have some connections to big names in that space, and so we might be forming a partnership there,” Garofano said.

Funding available

Another recent hire, Joe Wysocki, will be instrumental to CCAT’s efforts in assisting small to mid-sized manufacturers in adopting new technology.

Wysocki, senior manager of advanced technology centers, is another United Technologies/Raytheon alum who spent 37 years at the company’s research center in East Hartford, where he led the design, engineering and prototyping group for UTC and subsidiaries like Sikorsky and Carrier. Part of Wysocki’s job at CCAT is to work directly with local manufacturers on how to use new technology to solve current problems.

For example, Glastonbury aerospace manufacturer HABCO Industries recently approached CCAT with questions about how to more accurately stencil and cut parts for helicopter blades, Wysocki said. Federal contracts require accuracy within 1/16 of an inch, Wysocki said, and the company is trying to minimize waste from pieces that fall outside that margin of error and are rejected.

Wysocki is currently working with HABCO on using virtual reality technology to make precise stencils for more accurate cuts, he said. HABCO President and CEO Brian Montanari said in an email he’s excited about the project.

CCAT has also been involved in distributing grant funding to companies, Angelo said. Last year the organization distributed $1.8 million in grants from the state voucher program, which provides Connecticut manufacturers with 300 or fewer employees matching grants of up to $50,000 for investments in innovation or new technologies.

That activity could ramp up further, as the state has introduced the IoT Integration Voucher Program, which provides matching grants up to $20,000 for hardware, sensors, platforms, and related third-party integration services.

Additionally, CCAT is running the Additive Technology Adoption Program, which is funded through the state’s Manufacturing Innovation Fund. That program will award six matching grants of $100,000 to small and medium-sized manufacturers looking to buy new additive manufacturing equipment that will be integrated directly into their manufacturing processes.

“Right now these programs are active,” Angelo said. “We are sending checks to companies today.”