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High-speed direct digital printing

BOSTON – Working with the Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance, MTC’s John Adams Innovation Institute has invested $150,000 through its Regional Priority Grants Program to conduct analysis and test process development techniques to improve textile production in Massachusetts.

The focus will be to reduce barriers to the implementation of high-speed direct digital printing of textile materials with radiation curable inks. Development and implementation of this technology will offer cost savings in electricity, water and labor consumption, reduced toxic waste streams, and faster, more efficient production.

Currently, Massachusetts has 136 textile companies employing more than 11,000 people, with sales of about $1.8 billion. In the highly competitive, global textile industry, the new printing process will provide the textile cluster with a competitive advantage, particularly for fibers, machinery, wool mills and specialty components most prominent in Southeastern Massachusetts.

About half of the 34 major textile facilities operating in Massachusetts will benefit from the new technology. Further, more than 100 other companies in the textile sector would benefit through the switch from screen-printing to digital-printing technology.

Dr. Augustus Obunbameru of the Massachusetts Office of Technical Assistance will serve as project manager and team leader. The Center of Green Chemistry at University of Massachusetts Lowell, led its director, Dr. John Warner, and Dr. Richard Himmelwright, co-founder of Cold Spring Technology, will be the two vendors for the project.

Jack Barre, the technical manager of Brittany Dyeing and Printing Corp. in New Bedford predicted that the change from solvent/oil-based pigments and dyes to radiation-curable pigments and dyes will make a significant impact on operations at his textile facility.

 

Micro-machining and micro-fluidic prototypes

FALL RIVER – The Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center (ATMC) at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has received an investment of $70,238 from the John Adams Innovation Institute through the Regional Priority Grant Fund to expand its efforts in commercialization activities, focusing on the medical device and micro-fluidics industry.

In particular, the project will focus on micro-machining components for Morgan Ceramic implantable medical devices, small apertures for the Harvard-BioMEMS Resource Center, and micro-fluidic prototype parts for Claros Diagnostics.

As part of this effort, AMTC will participate in the upcoming Micro-fluidics Tech Fair in October 2006, organized by the Center Massachusetts Technology Transfer. It will also enlist Moore & Isherwood Communications, Inc., to develop materials and a follow-up strategy.

A micro-fluidic device has one or more channels with at least one dimension less than 1 mm. The use of micro-fluidic devices to conduct biomedical research and create clinically useful technologies has significant advantages. In a manner similar to microelectronics, micro-fluidics technologies enable the fabrication of highly integrated devices for performing several different functions on the same substrate chip.

Professor Lamar Bullock at ATMC is the leader of the micro-fluidics project. “The promise of a  ‘lab-on-a-chip’ has driven development in academia, and crated a number of spin-off start-up companies, such as Claros Diagnostics, who are attempting to commercialize new technologies for this market.”

If successful, the project will position ATMC as one of a handful of locations in the nation that has a proven capability in micro-fluidics. it will also support the marine science and medical device sectors in Massachusetts.

 

Growing Life Sciences in the Pioneer Valley

SPRINGFIELD – Working in partnership with the Regional Technology Corporation, the John Adams Innovation Institute has awarded $14,347 to develop a strategic plan for a robust, export-oriented, regional Life Sciences sector that will be a source of high-quality jobs and economic opportunity for Pioneer Valley residents.

The strategy will seek to leverage a number of competitive advantages in the region:

• A growing medical devices industry and a strong precision machining sector.
• The national leadership of the University of Massachusetts Amherst as a center of research and engineering activities; the  school was awarded $24 million in Life Sciences research grants in 2005.
• Baystate Health, a teaching hospital affiliated with Tufts University, is the largest health services provider in Western Massachusetts and has an active clinical trials program. Baystate is also home to an extensive tissue bank that contains more than 50 years of samples.
• Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute, a partnership between Baystate Health and UMass Amherst; the Springfield-based research institution has developed a strong focus on apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

The Regional Technology Corporation (originally the Regional Technology Alliance, formed in 2001, by UMass Amherst with a $600,000 National Science Foundation grant), has strong working relationships with the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council. It provides staff support to three business networks – the Materials & Manufacturing Technology Network, the Technology Enterprise Council, and the BioEconomic Technology Alliance.

In addition, the project will work with a consulting team lead by the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The project’s goal is to create a successful strategy to develop a niche market opportunity within the Life Sciences cluster, with Springfield as the global center.

 

Western Massachusetts Connect

PITTSFIELD – To forge a public-private solution for all the under-served communities of the region, the John Adams Innovation Institute has invested $300,000 in a joint Regional Priority Grant award to Berkshire Connect and Pioneer Valley Connect.

The goal of the project, Western Massachusetts Connect, will be to achieve a broadband solution for at least one sub-region and based upon that model define the requirements for implementing a solution throughout Western Massachusetts.

Of the 101 communities in the region, one-third lack broadband services and another one-third have only very limited access. The inadequate broadband services are a major barrier to economic development to growing the region’s economy, according to elected officials and regional government entities. In addition, a recent study of three small, under-served communities showed that there are significant engineering and business model challenges to achieve 100 percent penetration of broadband at speeds of at least 1 megabit.

The focus of the project will be to assess the technology needs and the business models necessary to improve broadband deployment and implement a strategy to achieve deployment.

Without a robust telecommunications infrastructure, according to the project’s sponsors, entrepreneurs and firms in Western Massachusetts will not have the full capability to grow the businesses and create the high-wage jobs associated with the Commonwealth’s Innovation Economy.

 

High-performance fibers, commercialization focus of new initiative

NATICK – An investment of $207,708 to the Massachusetts Defense Technology Initiative by the John Adams Innovation Institute will develop a nine-month technology exchange demonstration pilot at the Natick Soldier Systems Center (SSC), which has an estimated $254 million annual economic impact on the state’s economy.

The goals of the effort are to validate the opportunity to create a sustainable mechanism to commercialize the SSC-Natick intellectual property. In addition, the project will seek to leverage the Massachusetts technology development community to meet the current and future mission requirements of the Defense Department installation.

Based on the results of the pilot project, the initiative will also explore the opportunity to create one more Centers of Excellence to enhance the technology research base at the Soldiers Systems Center.

The focus on technology transfer and commercialization of new products has the potential to lead to new business formation and serve as a catalyst for moving technology that is “stuck” in the military pipeline into commercial opportunities.

By enhancing the mission at the Soldier Systems Center, it will also directly enhance the perceived value of the base by the U.S. Army.

Return to front page of Convergence.

"High-Speed Direct . . ."

"About half of the 34 major textile facilities operating in Massachusetts will benefit from the new technology. Further, more than 100 other companies in the textile sector would benefit through the switch from screen-printing to digital-printing technology."

 

"Micro-machining . . ."

"The promise of a ‘lab-on-a-chip’ has driven development in academia, and crated a number of spin-off start-up companies, such as Claros Diagnostics, who are attempting to commercialize new technologies for this market."

--- Professor Lamar Bullock at ATMC

"Growing Life Sciences . . ."

"The project’s goal is to create a successful strategy to develop a niche market opportunity within the Life Sciences cluster, with Springfield as the global center."

 

"High-performance fibers . . ."

"Based on the results of the pilot project, the initiative will also explore the opportunity to create one or more Centers of Excellence to enhance the technology research base at the Soldiers Systems Center."