Kristin Carlson (left, speaking) explains different parts that are manufactured by Peerless Precision to State-Sen. Eric Lesser (right) during a tour of the Westfield business Feb. 14, 2020. (PETER CURRIER PHOTO)
WESTFIELD- State Sen. Eric Lesser, D-1st Hampshire and Hampden, and Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Executive Director Carolyn Kirk toured the Peerless Precision facility Feb. 14. The tour highlighted a project by the Westfield company to manufacture printed flexible-hybrid electronics.
The tour was led by Peerless Precision President Kristin Carlson, who spoke with Kirk and Lesser about the importance of Westfield to certain manufacturing-based industries.
“Westfield is a manufacturing town. It always has been and always will be,” said Lesser, who is the co-chair of the state legislature’s manufacturing caucus.
The project that was highlighted during the tour is a collaboration between Peerless Precision, UMass Lowell and two small manufacturing companies in Billerica and Wilmington. The organizations received a grant of $928,400 in January 2019 from the Massachusetts Manufacturing Innovation Institute.
The project is an effort to develop printed electronics that can be specially designed to fit on the rounded nose cones of aircraft and other components that would be otherwise difficult to design electronics around.
The Institute was launched in 2016 to help local manufacturers to adopt new innovative technologies and to help better guide Massachusetts’ investment in the national Manufacturing USA program. The nearly $1 million grant to the Peerless Precision collaboration is part of more than $100 million in funding to support similar projects across the state. Thus far, the Institute has invested more than $60 million in grants.
“There is no other state in the country with the same investment in manufacturing thanks to the state legislature,” said Ira Moskowitz, director of Advanced Manufacturing Programs at Masstech Innovation Institute.
Carlson said that herself and other manufacturing specialists from the Western Massachusetts Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association earlier Friday morning to discuss what kind of developments in manufacturing have been coming from Boston.
Before the tour, Carlson said that Westfield is unique in that several companies in the city manufacture different parts for some of the same end products, meaning that many of the companies have the same customers.
As part of the tour, Carlson showed off specific parts that are developed at the relatively small shop in Westfield. Peerless Precision specializes in manufacturing smaller parts for larger pieces of equipment. This included a small piece from a prosthetic shoulder, pieces from landing gear systems in aircraft, and parts found in the optical equipment that captured the first images of a black hole last year.
Peerless also develops pieces for optical devices used in military applications.
Lesser asked Carlson what impact the recent aluminum tariffs had on her company. Carlson said that the tariffs affected everyone in just about every country, not just the U.S. and China.
“Demand went way up, and the supply went down,” said Carlson, “Prices began going up after that.”
She said that some of the materials the company buys ended up doubling, and in some cases tripling in price.
