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This Week in Manufacturing

Elections come and go while the US manufacturing industry continues to produce and innovate. This week’s feature company is not only thriving but doing so by tackling complex challenges other companies don’t want. Let’s dive in!

Our feature company is Preece Machining and Assembly out of Boulder, Colorado. Preece and its founder are driven by projects that test their capabilities and help them deliver products that meet engineers’ exacting specifications, especially in the aerospace industry.

This week’s first podcast, from a16z, mixes Preece’s main industry of aerospace with burgeoning autonomous tech: autonomous drones. The second podcast, from The Manufacturing Report, showcases the growth of an American-made products company.

Our headlines run the gamut of innovations in aerospace, robotics, cold storage, and more. Plenty of complex challenges for Preece to tackle!

This week’s Fun Fact and Social Video each highlight features of Preece’s favorite industry: aerospace.

Thanks for joining us!

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⚙ Manufacturing Headlines

• TACTILE Program Achieves First Missile Launch w/ 3D Printed Propellant [3D Print.com]

• AI Startup Lands $400 Million to Make Robots Handle Objects More Like Humans [PYMNTS]

• Colorado machinist strives for complex projects [CompanyWeek]

• Solarcycle Inc. Planning Biggest US Solar Recycling Plant [Financial Post]

• Lineage completes fully automated cold storage warehouse [Meat + Poultry]

• Tackling the energy revolution, one sector at a time [MIT News]

INDUSTRIAL & EQUIPMENT

♨️ Preece Machining and Assembly

From an early age, Nick Preece, the Founder and President of Preece Machining and Assembly, has been fascinated with the idea of tools, and making things.

While an engineering student, Nick kept acquiring more and more tools and equipment to the point that he ran out of room for it all at his home, and had to rent a space to put it all. He then had to start taking in work to pay for the space rental, and a business was born in 2018.

Recently, Preece went through a 5-axis machine and expansion, and will possibly do away with 3-axis machines going forward. Currently, the company occupies 3500 square feet and they’re looking to grow to 10,000.

Upshot: “Where we are competitive is when there's a lot of back and forth with engineers, and you have to have a really, really detailed QC plan, that's where we're really good.”

FROM THE FEED

📱Aerospace part CNC machining

 🤨 Did You Know?

The aerospace and defense workforce increased by

4.8%

outpacing the national average of 1.7%.

^{Source: Aerospace Industries Association}

🎧 Podcasts Worth A Listen

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