🔒Amid expansion, New Britain-based Force Automation’s move to Bristol aims to train CT’s future robotics workforce

Lukasz Poplawski has accomplished a lot since he founded Force Automation Inc. in New Britain in 2017.

Back then, his robotics manufacturing company — which takes robotic arms that are manufactured as generic parts, programs them to do what the end-user requests and then builds specific machines around the arms — was located in just 3,500 square feet and had just two employees besides himself.

Four years later, in 2021, he expanded into unoccupied space adjacent to his company’s New Britain location at 100 Production Court. Knocking down a wall, Force Automation grew to 9,500 square feet and added four more employees.

Expanding every four years seems to be a thing for the company, but this time its plans are supersized.

Poplawski recently received site plan approval in Bristol for a $3.5 million project to build a new facility on a vacant lot in the city’s business park. He will acquire the 6.53-acre lot from the city for $288,000, and construct two buildings in two phases.

Phase one will add a 30,000-square-foot industrial building that will include 13,000 square feet of manufacturing space, 2,800 square feet of space for front office and engineering staff, and a 3,000-square-foot robotics training facility.

Phase two will yield a second, 12,000-square-foot structure described as a “tenant building,” though a tenant has not yet been determined.

During a recent interview with Hartford Business Journal, Poplawski said he expects the first building to be completed by November and the move from New Britain to be wrapped up in December.

He also expects to double his staff to 14 employees before the end of the year, and grow to 21 employees by the middle of 2026.

While some of those employees will work in the new manufacturing facility, a portion will be instructors in the workforce training facility.

“The robotics training center is going to require multiple people to run it, and then multiple teachers to teach the classes,” he said.

Force Automation’s continued expansion, as well as its desire to train more workers, is evidence of the growing need for manufacturing that supports the robotics industry, which is expected to grow dramatically worldwide over the next 10 years.

According to a Future Market Insights report released in March, the global industrial robotics market is projected to reach a valuation of $55 billion this year, and to expand significantly to $291 billion by 2035, “reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 18.1%.”

From Poland to New Britain

Force Automation’s story actually begins long before its founding in 2017.

Poplawski and his family immigrated to the United States from Poland in 2000, when he was 16 years old. They settled in New Britain, where he attended E.C. Goodwin Technical High School.

He went on to study mechanical engineering at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, and then started working in computer numeric control (CNC) manufacturing shops, he said.

“Basically, I worked in a CNC shop for a couple years, and then as my experience was growing and I was curious about automation, I started with a company and worked there from technician all the way to controls engineer, overseeing company projects,” Poplawski said.

After a few years, he was hired by a New Haven-based aerospace parts company.

“They were doing overhaul and repair on engine parts,” he said. “The owner of the company asked us to create multiple, very, very difficult automated equipment to do post-process finishing and then coding of the parts. So, I ran the engineering team.”

Over the next three years, he said, they developed four pieces of equipment that worked on military and commercial engine parts.

That success led to a visit from officials with ABB Ltd., a multinational electrical engineering and robotics company based in Sweden and Switzerland with its U.S. headquarters in Michigan.

The company also has a 200-employee research and development outpost in Bloomfield.

‘A big niche’

ABB asked Poplawski to develop a robotic arm that could take aerospace engine parts, such as blades or vanes, and remove excess material to precise specifications.

While it might sound simple enough, the work is actually complicated for a robotic arm to perform.

“It’s one of the hardest automations you can possibly encounter,” Poplawski said. “Some of those parts are very, very big and hard to move around. … Obviously, geometries are very complex.”

Despite the challenges, he agreed to take on the work, and in January 2017, he formed Force Automation, with himself as company president.

Since then, the company has grown to develop and program robotic arms for uses that serve not just aerospace and defense industries, but also consumable casting and assembly facilities, and even the medical sector.

“It depends on the need,” Poplawski said.

Customers listed on Force Automation’s website include Ametek Specialty Metal Products, Barnes Aerospace, Bio-Techne, GE Power and RTX, just to name a few.

Force Automation also does 3D printing of metal, and according to Poplawski, was the first company to integrate engine heads made by Spain-based additive manufacturer Meltio into robotic arms. That process converts the robot arm into a metal 3D-printing system.

Mark Handelsman, channel sales manager for ABB’s robotics division in Michigan, said Force Automation has done outstanding work for his company.

Force Automation “became an authorized value provider three to four years ago, and that’s due to his performance, his commitment to work with ABB, and his competency,” Handelsman said of Poplawski. “He does a good job with what he does for the customers that he serves.”

That’s why his customer list and overall business continue to grow.

“It’s been nine years,” Poplawski said. “We go into 10 years next year. This is going to be our third expansion. So, we’re growing nonstop, and we’re trying to help the New England community grow with us by creating a training center for robotics.”

Workforce development

The robotics training center is not a small project. Poplawski says he expects to train up to 1,700 students annually, with each paying $3,100 for the four-and-a-half day class.

Assuming he trains 1,700 people, the annual tuition revenue raised would be $5.27 million.

The training at Force Automation’s facility will be certified by ABB, making it the first school in New England with that designation, Handelsman said.

Poplawski said he’s making a significant investment in the training facility, including supplying the robotic arms, in order to serve the growing need for workers in the industry.

“This is going to be for manufacturers, for the big companies, for schools, colleges, any person that wants to go into robotics and wants to learn how to program those, and then develop more stuff with it.”

Paul Lavoie, Connecticut’s chief manufacturing officer, said the state offers robotics and automation training that it supports financially through the state’s Manufacturing Innovation Fund.

“The funding goes to the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology (CCAT), and they have a robotics lab in East Hartford at their advanced manufacturing center,” Lavoie said.

That lab is available to all manufacturers in the state at no additional cost, he said, adding that some Connecticut technical schools and colleges, including UConn and Quinnipiac University, also offer robotics training programs.

Lavoie said manufacturers can get a $25,000 grant to implement a robotics program.

The state also offers incumbent worker training grants “of 50 cents on the dollar,” he said. Any Connecticut manufacturer that utilizes Force Automation’s training program “can submit their receipts and we’ll reimburse them for 50% of it,” he said.

Poplawski acknowledged the other robotics training programs in the state, but said they are not ABB-certified and generally have a limited amount of equipment.

He added that he’s creating the training center to meet not only his need for more robotics-trained workers, but the state’s need as well.

“Our site will have multiple stations,” he said. “We’re going to be able to do hands-on training of 16 people at a time, and offline programming is going to be another 16 people.”