6 CT Manufacturers Receive Grants For 3D Printing Operations

CONNECTICUT – Six manufacturers in Connecticut will be receiving a total of $600,000 matching grants each to facilitate the adoption of additive manufacturing in their operations.

Better known as 3D printing, additive manufacturing uses data and computer-aided-design software or 3D object scanners to create a finished object from scratch. Traditional manufacturing processes often require removing or shaping materials through machining, milling or carving.

Under the Additive Manufacturing Adoption Program, Accurate Lock and Hardware Co., LLC in Stamford, Beacon Industries, Inc. in Newington, Burke Aerospace in Farmington, Okay Industries, Inc. in New Britain, PTA Plastics in Oxford and Westminster Tool, Inc. in Plainfield will each receive a $100,000 matching grant to be leveraged with an equal or greater amount of company funding.

Components that could not be produced just a few years ago can now be made to high standards using a wide variety of plastics and metals through additive manufacturing, which can also reduce lead times, material waste and the size of inventory on hand.

AMAP is a competitive grant program developed by CCAT and the Connecticut Manufacturing Innovation Fund Advisory Board in 2020. Applications were accepted from April 1 through May 31, 2021. The program was open to manufacturing companies and allied service providers that expressed a strong interest and a compelling need to enhance their operations with new additive technologies such as high-end, 3D metal printers to produce functional parts and tooling, as well as high-end plastic printers.

"Connecticut is the Silicon Valley of advanced manufacturing, plain and simple," Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement. "These grants will help our brilliant manufacturers across the state continue to innovate, building bigger, faster, and more complex machines that drive our state, country, and world further into the 21st century."