Stanley Black & Decker Inc., betting that 3D printing can upend manufacturing, has opened its Hartford accelerator to promote research into the rapidly advancing technology.
The New Britain manufacturer of tools and storage, commercial electronic security and engineered fastening systems opened the Stanley + Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator this week to 10 startups and their founders.
Its partner, Techstars, is a 12-year-old Boulder, Colo.-based business accelerator program that provides seed funding and networks for tech startups. Among its alumni is PillPack, the online pharmacy recently acquired by Amazon.
Each of the startup businesses working at the accelerator’s 30,000-square-foot site at One Constitution Plaza is researching new applications for additive, or 3D manufacturing. Businesses are from Canada, Ireland, Israel and the United States.
Additive manufacturing makes products by adding layers. It’s increasingly used because it allows companies, engineers and designers to make products faster and easier.
Ross Lawless, one of three principals at Calt Dynamics, which is developing what it calls “socially beneficial” 3D printing technology, said his company is focused on how to “decentralize technology,” minimizing the importance of aptitude in making a product.
Just as solar power is storing and generating energy at sites far from large and centralized utilities and blockchain is moving finance from banks and finance companies, 3D manufacturing can shift manufacturing out of the factory, he said.
“3D printing can fit into a lot of sectors,” Lawless said.
For example, with 3D technology his company is developing, a consumer can fabricate a new hinge for a refrigerator door rather than rely on a repair service, Lawless said.
James Loree, the chief executive officer of Stanley Black & Decker, said 3D manufacturing could change the function of factories.
“When we sit here and we think about 10 years from now, how are hand tools going to be manufactured?” he said in a recent interview with Fox 61. “I think there’s a really good chance that they could be manufactured by remote 3D printers and not in these big factories that we have all over the world.”
The Stanley Black & Decker business accelerator is one of several efforts to bring startup businesses to downtown Hartford. Upward Hartford, which provides co-working space and access to conferences, business competitions and other gatherings, opened last year.
And Hartford’s first annual insurance accelerator ended in April with three startups relocating to Hartford and others announcing plans to raise money to expand their operations.
For Stanley Black & Decker, which has been a New Britain fixture since 1843, coming to Hartford was a way for the manufacturer to show its support for the financially struggling capital city.
The company has expressed its commitment “from a social responsibility perspective to being part of the solution,” Loree said when the decision was announced in December to establish the accelerator in Hartford.
Stanley Black & Decker operates three manufacturing facilities in Connecticut, 35 in the U.S. and more than 100 around the world.
The companies participating in the accelerator are:
Astroprint — Cloud platform designed to empower everyone to make, create and print with 3D Printers.
Calt Dynamics — Socially beneficial 3D Printing Technology.
Castor Technologies — An intelligent 3D printing software that allows manufacturers to decide whether to rely on printing or a traditional manufacturing method.
Distech Automation — Developing an affordable solution for metal additive manufacturing.
Inventaprint — Product development platform that connects businesses to a vetted network of designers and manufacturers to turn ideas into products.
Kwambio — 3D printing company that’s focused on ceramics for numerous applications and prototypes, final products and molds for metal and slip casting.
Mani.me — Focused on bringing together additive manufacturing, photogrammetric processing — the use of photography in surveying and mapping to measure distances — and designers from around the world to bring innovation to the consumer industry.
Micron3DP — Developing high-speed 3D metal printers.
NanoQuan — Embeds nano-material into plastics to provide electrical connectivity that could monitor body movements, health or the activities of athletes.
Structure3D Printing — Technology that prints with materials such as silicone and plastic.
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