Manufacturing Leaders, Students, and Elected Officials Learn, Network, and Celebrate the Production Happening in Massachusetts
Baker-Polito Administration Announces Over $3.4 Million in Mass. Manufacturing Accelerate Program Grants to 15 Companies
WORCESTER, MASS. — On Friday, September 16th, the second Massachusetts Manufacturing Mash-Up attracted over 1,200 attendees to Polar Park, the home of the Worcester Red Sox, to celebrate the Commonwealth’s manufacturing sector. The day-long event featured hands-on STEM challenges for students, plus special sessions on robotics in manufacturing, award presentations, and a startup pitch competition.
The event more than doubled from the inaugural Mash-Up in 2021, when 600 participants attended. The 2022 event added demonstrations and training booths for students from Innovation Pathway schools around the Commonwealth, plus increased attendance from companies seeking to enhance their connection to the manufacturing ecosystem. The Mash-Up provided a showcase for the Commonwealth’s new MassMakes campaign, a statewide effort to bring more people into manufacturing careers and to connect growing companies with critical resources.
“The Massachusetts manufacturing sector produces roughly $55 billion in goods each year, fueled by growing demand from global customers for the advanced products made across the Commonwealth,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “Through campaigns like MassMakes and events like the Mash-Up, we’re proud to celebrate the talented people that power Massachusetts companies and the innovative products being produced across our state.”
“Massachusetts’ manufacturing sector has bounced back as we exit the pandemic, with more manufacturing jobs in the state than we had in March 2020,” said Lt. Governor Karyn Polito. “This year’s Mash-Up delivered a strong focus on workforce development, hosting students and employers from across the state, to showcase the many career paths and skills that are needed to power the Commonwealth’s manufacturing sector.”
The Mash-Up also hosted the announcement of new awards from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Accelerate Program or MMAP, awarding $3,426,758 to 15 manufacturers from across the Commonwealth. Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy was on hand to announce the awards from the MMAP program, which is managed by the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech Collaborative, the lead organizer of the Mash-Up.
“Today’s event was a great platform to highlight the small and medium-sized manufacturing firms located across every corner of our state,” said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Kennealy. “Massachusetts Manufacturing Accelerate Program (MMAP) grants are a great way for the Commonwealth to co-invest in businesses that are looking to innovate. The advanced tools and the partnerships formed through these grants will help manufacturing firms modernize production lines to better meet customer demands and expand their workforce.”
The list of grantees is below and a detailed summary of each project is included at the end of the release.
| Company/Town | Grant Amount |
| Adhesive Applications, Easthampton | $250,000 |
| Affordable Interior Systems (AIS), Leominster | $250,000 |
| Artaic, Charlestown | $250,000 |
| Ascent AeroSystems, Wilmington | $242,500 |
| Boston Centerless, Woburn | $36,758 |
| Brownell Boat Stands, Mattapoisett | $250,000 |
| Consolidated Sterilizer Systems, Billerica | $250,000 |
| Custom Machine, Woburn | $250,000 |
| Davico, New Bedford | $147,500 |
| Dela Inc., Haverhill | $250,000 |
| Multiscale Systems, Worcester | $250,000 |
| Quabbin Wire & Cable, Ware | $250,000 |
| Valley Steel Stamp (VSS), Greenfield | $250,000 |
| Ward Process, Holliston | $250,000 |
| Worthington Assembly, South Deerfield | $250,000 |
The current MMAP award round opened in May 2022 with the aim to co-invest in small- to medium-sized manufacturers to better prepare their businesses to meet the demands of ‘Industry 4.0,’ the innovation-driven production methods powered by smart technologies such as data analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, automation, and connected technologies to stay competitive. This is the second set of grants, following the announcement of $2.1 million in grants to 13 projects announced in January.
In addition to the MMAP grants, the Mash-Up also hosted the 7th Annual Manufacturing Awards Ceremony Program, organized by the Legislature’s Manufacturing Caucus co-chaired by State Senator Eric P. Lesser and State Representative Jeffrey N. Roy. At the event, legislators from around the state celebrated a ‘Manufacturer of the Year’ from their district, with 55 companies honored with awards.
In his remarks during the ceremony State Representative Jeffrey N. Roy (D-Franklin,) House Chair of the Legislature’s Manufacturing Caucus, stated: “Manufacturing output here is at its highest level in history and accounts for about 11 percent of the state’s economy. It is the sixth largest employment sector here and $26 billion in manufactured goods are exported from the Commonwealth each year. We celebrated some truly great companies who make our economy roar and contribute to those statistics. These manufacturers are examples of what is means to ‘Make it in Massachusetts.’”
The packed agenda culminated in a startup pitch competition managed by the non-profit FORGE, which selected the winners of its Product Development Pitch Competition. Judges selected Boston-based Tatum Robotics for the Product Development Grant Award and its $10,000 prize, and the $5,000 Audience Choice Award went to rStream Recycling of Amherst, Mass.
“We’re extremely grateful for the outpouring of support from the manufacturing community across the state, including the energy delivered by the hundreds of students, startups, and manufacturing executives that came to celebrate this growing sector,” said Christine Nolan, Director of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech, the lead organizer of the event. “Our thanks to the sponsors and organizing partners for helping us grow this event in year two, and manufacturers who took the time out of their busy schedules to join us, connect and learn about what the ecosystem offers to help scale their businesses.”
The 2022 Mash-Up drew in a strong cross-section of manufacturing ecosystem sponsors, including Amazon Robotics, MassMEP (Mass. Manufacturing Extension Partnership), Synagex, ABCorp, Associated Industries of Mass. (AIM), Blackstone Valley Education Foundation, Davis Companies, GBMP, MassDevelopment, MassHire, Mass Manufacturing Energy Collaborative (MassMEC), Multiscale Systems, Pison, SiPhox, ToolingU, Tulip, and 6K.
Organizing partners for the annual event included the Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech, MassMEP, FORGE, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), MassRobotics, and MassHire.
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MMAP Grantees – Round 2
September 2022
Adhesive Applications
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Easthampton
Project Partner: MassMEP
New Hires: 2-6
Summary: Adhesive Applications is an innovative manufacturer and developer of pressure-sensitive adhesive tapes used in various industries including healthcare, automotive, aerospace and general industry. This grant will enable Adhesive Applications to make upgrades to a hot melt coating machine by adding UV acrylic capability and automation. As a result, the upgrades enable Adhesive Applications to grow its business in the medical, microelectronics, EV battery, and aerospace industries with local workforce talent.
Affordable Interior Systems (AIS)
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Leominster
Project Partner: MassHire North Central
New Hires: 8-18
Summary: AIS will purchase a new CNC router to provide increased production capacity and improvements to cabinet production by combining machining operations thus removing handling, extra secondary operations, potential for damage and material waste. The customer demand for wood products have increased significantly. The addition of this machine will free up some of that work load and provide more hiring opportunities and higher skill requirements to staff it.
Artaic
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Charlestown
Project Partner: Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP)
New Hires: 15-28
Summary: Artaic customizes, designs and fabricates award-winning mosaic tile installations for commercial and residential architecture projects worldwide. Artaic proposes to purchase a commercial digital printer and a customized next-generation mosaic production robot for digital Print-On-Demand personalized sales utilizing a more automated, efficient manufacturing process.
Ascent AeroSystems
Grant amount: $242,500
Location: Wilmington
Project Partner: MassMEP
New Hires: 4-6
Summary: Ascent AeroSystems is a leader in mission-critical unmanned aerial systems. This grant will help expand its in-house manufacturing capabilities to avoid supply chain delays and inconsistencies in quality, which will lead to more security in customer satisfaction, mitigating risk, and greatly reducing lead times. The capital will be used for production level cable harnessing, battery cell assembly, and 3D Printing.
Boston Centerless
Grant amount: $36,758
Location: Woburn
Project Partner: MassHire MetroNorth/NAMC
New Hires: 2-6
Summary: Boston Centerless in Woburn is an industry leader in the manufacturing and distribution of precision ground bar materials. Its bar materials are used to manufacture products such as medical implants, fuel injection seat guides, and aerospace valves. With these dollars they are purchasing equipment to straighten and cut coil to prepare for centerless grinding. Moving this process in house will help with quality and flexibility to meet customer demands.
Brownell Boat Stands
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Mattapoisett
Project Partner: MassMEP
New Hires: 11-22
Summary: Brownell Boat Stands is a steel fabrication company, manufacturing storage and handling products for boats stored out of the water. The company is in the process of transitioning to a new facility in Dartmouth. This move will require significant capital expenditures on a variety of fronts, but will allow them to streamline processes and grow the business.
Consolidated Sterilizer Systems
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Billerica
Project Partner: MassRobotics
New Hires: 9-21
Summary: Consolidated Sterilizer Systems is a manufacturer of steam sterilizers (aka, autoclaves). With the MMAP grant, they will purchase a custom robotic welding system and welding cell to address the welding of our company’s core products, steam sterilizers. The system will drive efficiencies, accuracies and quality while upskilling workers to better paying jobs.
Custom Machine
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Woburn
Project Partner: MassMEP
New Hires: 4-12
Summary: Custom Machine is a world leader in the precision manufacturing of aerospace, medical, semiconductor, and commercial components and assemblies. The MMAP grant allows them to purchase a 5-Axis Vertical Machining Center to help them streamline operations to remain cost competitive, particularly in the aerospace and defense industries. This will also require upskilling of employees to become more efficient and versatile.
Davico
Grant amount: $147,500
Location: New Bedford
Project Partner: MassRobotics
New Hires: 20-32
Summary: Davico is a key supplier of aftermarket catalytic converters for the automotive industry and regularly competes with major manufacturers across the globe. Davico is seeking to purchase an additional welding robot with scanner sensor technology from Scalable Robotics (another Mass.-based company) to scale and balance their robotic welding department, and a Haas Automation CNC Machining center to shape steel that will be welded by the robot. The equipment purchase provides advanced manufacturing (4.0) advantages over traditional welding and fabrication.
Dela Inc.
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Haverhill
Project Partner: MassMEP
New Hires: 8-18
Summary: Dela is a leading manufacturer of engineered flexible materials for companies servicing the medical, defense, public safety, footwear, automotive and specialty packaging industries. They will purchase foam fabrication equipment which will allow them to produce in large scale, at competitive pricing, disposable body positioner components for operating rooms, medical devices and custom packaging inserts within tight tolerances and to compete with worldwide low labor cost competitors.
Multiscale Systems
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Worcester
Project Partner: The Venture Forum
New Hires: 4-12
Summary: Multiscale Systems will use the MMAP dollars to purchase a contact-free non-destructive computer vision quality management system to help them upgrade from short-run productions to full-scale production for a project in which they are under contract with NASA. In addition they are planning to purchase additional property to expand manufacturing capacity in Worcester.
Quabbin Wire & Cable
Grant amount: $250,000
Project Partner: MassMEP
Location: Ware
New Hires: 6-12
Summary: Quabbin Wire & Cable plans to expand R&D and manufacturing capability by purchasing an automatic balunless testing unit, extrusion line, dryer and wire braiders. This equipment purchase represents another step towards automation and Industry 4.0 across their facility.
Valley Steel Stamp (VSS)
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Greenfield
Project Partner: BIC
New Hires: 5-15
Summary: VSS is a precision machining shop looking to expand its business in aerospace. It will be investing $3.5m in a NPI cell (New Products Integration) to develop and create processes for parts for aero engines, airframes and ground based power systems. This cell contains numerous machines to cover a wide variety of capabilities (5 axis mills, 4 axis horizontals, multi-tasking lathes, etc). In combination with in-house training programs, this capital will push VSS to be a world class solutions provider at the forefront of industry 4.0.
Ward Process
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: Holliston
Project Partner: MassMEP
New Hires: 2-6
Summary: Ward Process is a fabricator of thermal insulation products. The MMAP dollars will be used to invest in a new oven which will be deployed into the manufacturing process of high transmission loss acoustical products that are used to “block” sound within various customer applications. The oven will improve processing speeds by 10-15%, thus improving overall output without investment in labor or manufacturing overhead.
Worthington Assembly
Grant amount: $250,000
Location: South Deerfield
Project Partner: MassHire Hampshire Franklin County
New Hires: 3-9
Summary: Worthington Assembly is an electronics contract manufacturing company. To continue to meet the unique specification of the ultra-miniature semiconductor and electronics in medical, defense, energy and robotics, Worthington is investing in a pick and place robotics system. This equipment is built on the CFX Industry 4.0 standard enabling ‘plug and play’ IoT communication across the manufacturing environment, where all equipment, manufacturing processes, and transactional stations can communicate without the need for specialized software. This will enable the next generation of manufacturing jobs and support the Massachusetts advanced semiconductor ecosystem.
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About the Mass. Center for Advanced Manufacturing at MassTech
The mission of the Massachusetts Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CAM) is to foster the most complete, collaborative and agile manufacturing ecosystem, to enable business growth from innovation through production. The CAM is a division of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech), a public economic development agency tasked with supporting business formation and growth in the Commonwealth’s tech and innovation sectors. CAM provides a path for manufacturing growth through a connected, accessible ecosystem that supports innovation, workforce development and a business friendly environment. CAM managed programs include the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Initiative (M2I2), the MassBridge manufacturing training program, and the mamanufacturing.com portal. Learn more at https://cam.masstech.org/.
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Media Contact:
Brian Noyes, MassTech Collaborative
noyes (at) masstech (dot) org, P: 508-870-0312 X: 293