New R&D Facility Could Mean New Industries For Flexcon
PHOTO/BRANDON BUTLER
Neil McDonough, president and CEO of Spencer-based Flexcon, addresses the gathered crowd during a groundbreaking ceremony for the company's planned 20,000-square-foot expansion.
Officials at Flexcon hope a new 20,000-square-foot research and development facility at the company's Spencer headquarters will help it expand into new markets, including the solar panel industry.
Jim Casey, the company's vice president of technology, said two major "incubator" projects that will be pursued in the new R&D facility will be photovoltaic parts and flexible electronic materials.
Flexcon has been selling individual products to photovoltaic manufactures for the past year and a half, Casey said. With expanded R&D opportunities to test products, Casey hopes the company will be able to offer a full line of products that could be used by solar panel manufacturers.
The other new area, flexible electronics, includes multi-layered films that have various properties, including being able to resist or conduct electricity.
Neil McDonough, the company's president and CEO, said after a groundbreaking event for the new facility on Tuesday afternoon that the new products and industries that the R&D facility will support are rooted in the company's history of manufacturing laminated and pressured films and materials. The 55-year-old company has focused in the past on adhesive, decal and signage manufacturing.
Construction on the facility is expected to be complete in the first quarter of next year.
Worcester-based Cutler Associates is the contractor for the project and Fred Mulligan, Cutler's chairman, said news of Flexcon's expansion is welcome.
"It's great to be doing an industrial project," he said.
While Cutler has had steady work in the education and health care sectors throughout the economic downturn, industrial projects have slowed.
"(Flexcon's construction) is telling that things might be improving in the economy," he said.
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