Donahue Industries, Inc. | A full service international metal components manufacturer
  • Grinding Wheel Industry
    • Abrasive Wheel Inserts
    • Cup Wheel (Spider) Bushings
    • Disc Wheel Inserts
    • Reducing Adapter Bushings
    • Reusable Adapter Kits
    • Safety Backs
    • Throw-away Mounting Flanges
    • Threaded Hex Inserts
  • Wire Rope Industry
    • Fractional Wire Rope Gauges
    • Metric Wire Rope Gauges
    • How To Use A Wire Rope Gauge
  • Hardware Startups
  • Customize
  • About
  • Contact
  • Español
  • Français
  • Deutsche

New Massachusetts initiative helps startups know what they need and how to connect with manufacturers

2/22/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Spencer manufacturer FLEXcon needed to be able to mold thermal insulator powder into spacesuits. And Somerville startup Voxel8 can take almost any raw material and turn it into an ink for 3D printing after being exposed to a physical or chemical change. 

A partnership between the Worcester-based Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP) and Somerville startup incubator Greentown Labs made this win-win connection happen, according to reporter Laura Finaldi in her February 15, 2016 Worcester Business Journal article "Manufacturers helping to create statewide incubator." Called the Manufacturing Initiative, the program connects clean tech hardware startups housed at Greentown Labs with manufacturers across the state. The result: 33 startups connected with 86 Massachusetts manufacturers, resulting in 16 contracts for work. The ultimate program goal: products invented in Massachusetts get manufactured in Massachusetts.

The partnership came out of the need for startups to know what they need and know how to connect with manufacturers. Startups wouldn't know they go to different manufacturers for prototyping versus mass production.

When initiative's program manager Micaelah Morrill issued surveys for both manufacturers and startups, she found that the two industries don't understand each other. Morrill says that startups have people who graduate "from universities in Boston, but they may not be familiar with the rest of the state, I want them thinking about Worcester, Springfield, and North Adams before they think of China." But in many cases, manufacturing a product in Massachusetts hadn't even occurred to some startups.

"The real value here is we started a movement," said Peter Russo, program manager for growth and innovation at MassMEP. The program has received nationwide attention.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015

    Categories

    All
    Creating Products
    Lifting
    The Industry
    Working Smarter

    RSS Feed

​Grinding Wheel Industry
   Abrasive wheel inserts
   Cup wheel (spider) bushings
   Disc wheel inserts
   Reducing adapter bushings
   Reusable adapter kits
   Safety backs
   Throw-away mounting flanges
   Threaded hex inserts

Wire Rope Industry
   Fractional sheave gauges
   Metric sheave gauges
   How to use a sheave gauge
Customize
About
Contact
Donahue Industries



​
Donahue Industries, Inc. is a full service international metal stamping manufacturer in Massachusetts specializing in parts for the grinding wheel and wire rope industries. 

Donahue Industries, Inc.
5 Industrial Drive
Shrewsbury, MA  01545-5835

Phone: (001) 508-845-6501
Fax: (001) 508-842-7665
sales@donahueindustries.com