CeraNova looks to expand manufacturing capacity
John Gannon, managing director and general manager at CeraNova Corporation.
Several of the military’s HUMVEEs and helicopters are outfitted with durable materials made in Marlborough by CeraNova Corporation, a manufacturer of advanced ceramic products. The company’s ceramics provide a better level of protection for military vehicles than some of the alternatives, said John Gannon, the company’s managing director and general manager.
Gannon spoke about staying on top of the latest breakthroughs and expanding the company’s manufacturing capacity.
Tell me about the history of CeraNova.
Ceranova is a company that was founded 1992 by the owner, Mark Parish. It has been a development company focused on advanced ceramic materials. The current focus is mostly on transparent ceramic materials for defense, aerospace and commercial applications.
These are oxide ceramics, so they are polycrystalline materials that can be formed to near-net shape forming, close to the final shape that the application may require. They might be in the form of flat panels, or domes, or curved windows, or things like sensor systems on missiles, or sensor systems on a kind of aircraft, or rotary helicopters. It could be a window for harsh environments needing to withstand high temperatures and corrosive chemical environments.
How do you make sure your workforce stays up to speed?
The senior technical team here stays on top of what’s going on in the industry, in terms of materials, processes, and applications requirements, through trade shows, technical literature, and meetings with defense personnel. The senior management and senior technology leadership team keep the company abreast of latest goings on in our field.
Where are your clients located?
All over the country. We have clients on the east coast, some in the Midwest, and on the west coast as well. They are U.S. Department of Defense agencies as well as some commercial customers.
Any special projects you’re working on right now?
We have a couple of different projects we’re working on for defense-related product development. These are development efforts to make transparent ceramic windows and domes for defense systems, for different types of defense systems. Another area -- also defense related -- is transparent armor, which would mean using our materials as a component in transparent armor systems for air vehicles and well as land vehicles.
Armor for vehicles?
Yes. A ballistic-proof window for something like a HUMVEE [a military truck] or something like a helicopter. So our ceramic materials are a potential replacement for ballistic transparent windows, which are usually big glass. The ceramics are much harder and stronger, and perform much better. They improve performance for ballistic protection.
What’s in the future for CeraNova?
We are in the process of planning to build our capacity out further. For much of the company’s history, we’ve been doing project-based research and development -- developing materials, and doing proof of principle for product prototypes. We're focusing more on building our manufacturing capability to produce in small volumes for advanced products.
That will mean building the capabilities here, the manufacturing systems, and quality management systems. We’re working towards ISO certification. We will also be bringing on additional skill sets with manufacturing experience, and helping to build the market and expanding our visibility in new markets, to drive the growth.
Which markets will you be looking to?
Defense, and commercial markets as well. They could be industrial equipment markets, there could be opportunities in commercial product markets. Anything that might require a transparent screen that has high-strength, high scratch resistance, and high toughness, might go into the materials we work do.
We see a great opportunity for growth in the company. We think there’s a much broader market for our products that could help drive the company to grow further and add jobs to the area.
We have some capacity that we can build on. As additional orders come in, and additional development products come in, we can work to build out that capacity further. We can hire additional men and get the additional manufacturing systems in place.
We’re implementing our plan, we plan to start implementing it next year, and it will go over the three to five year period -- we’re planning out three to five years for this growth. Like anything else, we’ll take it year by year, put it up against milestones and metrics, and adjust the plan as needed.
For the past two years or so, we have been working with MassMEP and SBANE on a number of training programs that are helping us strengthen our defense-related business and also develop market intelligence and new opportunities for our products in non-defense commercial applications. These programs have been extremely valuable, helping to establish a path for the company to diversify its revenue streams, implement robust manufacturing and quality systems, and achieve overall growth for the business.
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