The Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre’s soon-to-be-built advanced manufacturing lab will allow inventors to build their prototypes within the city.
MPP Michael Gravelle (Lib. Thunder Bay – Superior North) made an announcement at the Victoria Inn Friday that the province will provide half a million dollars for the project. The federal government also provided funding for the project, which totaled more than $300,000.
The new lab will create five new permanent jobs and will be the only advanced manufacturing lab in Northwestern Ontario.
Innovation Centre manager Judy Sander said the new lab will allow them to break into a niche market and fill a void that was needed in the region.
Sander explained that most inventors have to outsource their designs out of the region in order to build a prototype.
“This is machinery that will do high tolerance manufacturing for prototype development,” she said.
“It can accommodate medical device manufacturing and aviation level tolerances. It brings in and services a number of different users from the small inventor who is doing a prototype to someone who is gearing up to build 10 to 50 units to test a market.”
The majority of the work will be done electronically. The lab will allow inventors to design their prototypes in 3D on a computer. The lab will need two key pieces of equipment, which haven’t arrived yet.
Sander said they will make an announcement next month when those equipment arrive and will also have a location picked out. She expected the lab to be up and running by late summer or early fall.
The total cost of the project is around $1 million.
In order to keep the lab financially sustainable, the Innovation Centre partnered with a private sector developer.
The lab will earn revenue by charging users a rate to use the equipment, she said.
The Innovation Centre also partnered with Confederation College to allow students to use the lab. Sander said they want to allow students to work with innovators to get hands-on experience.
Gravelle, who is also the chair of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, said the lab is a good investment for the North.
“There’s a number of businesses that are being compelled to sometimes outsource the needs they have,” he said. “This way we’re going to be able to keep those businesses in Northwestern Ontario. It’s probably almost the definition of what the NOHFC should be doing.”
He added the lab will help create jobs in the region.
