Although its 22,000 square foot facility has been open for only two months, Buffalo Manufacturing Works on Main Street is poised for a big expansion of services as it prepares to begin its second fiscal year next month.
Members of the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council held their monthly meeting inside the center Monday morning and got to observe some of the equipment already available to support local businesses with advanced manufacturing and development needs.
"This building can really be a test bed for the companies that we work with, the manufacturers, to understand what it takes to apply technologies from proof of concept to their shop floor," said Michael Ulbrich, president of Buffalo Manufacturing Works. "They'll work with us on specific projects where we help them identify how we can apply the technology to their production facility. This building will house $30 million of equipment we'll use to work with them over time."
The center is only 10% filled with machinery, but Ulbrich told WBFO more equipment will be moved in over the next five years.
Located on Main Street on the outer fringe of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, the Buffalo Manufacturing Works center aims to help ready a local workforce in the same spirit as the medical campus, bringing the business and educational sectors together.
"Between the robots that we have here and the 3D printers that we have in our additive manufacturing learning lab, we really want to help increase the awareness of STEM education," said Ulbrich, who noted Buffalo Manufacturing Works is currently working with Praxair on a program that exposes high school students to technology with the hope of encouraging more interest in careers in science, engieering and technology.
