FuzeHub spoke with Extreme Molding’s Joanne Moon Duncan for this interview. The Arsenal Business & Technology Partnership in Watervliet, New York was the applicant for the FuzeHub Manufacturing Grant.

How did Extreme Molding work with RPI under a FuzeHub Manufacturing Grant?

Extreme Molding and RPI have always had a close working relationship. Lynn Momrow-Zielinski, one of our owners, and Mike Fil, our General Manager, are both RPI graduates. Since Extreme’s founding in 2002, we have employed many RPI students as interns throughout the school year. The grant that we co-wrote with RPI was to support the purchase of a new molding machine and its complementary equipment. RPI students were able to observe the new machine from installation to start-up to full production. We replaced a used machine with this purchase and donated the used machine and excess raw material to RPI and their Manufacturing Lab so that students there could get more hands-on experience.

What’s changed in your industry since then?

Our industry has changed in that new types of molding machines and auxiliary equipment, such as robotics, have been introduced. In light of labor shortages, automation is getting a great deal more attention than in the past. There are also new grades of silicones and plastics available for us to work with to meet customer needs.

What’s changed at your business since then?

The post-Covid economy has afforded us more opportunities to quote on jobs that are currently in Asia because many companies want to re-shore their production to the United States. Target and Wal-Mart are two notable players seeking to offer more Made in the USA items. The challenge for us, as a U.S. manufacturer, is to be able to compete on price with labor that is (sadly) so inexpensive in Asia and on steel molds there that cost a third of what we can produce domestically.

Tell us about your recent move from Watervliet Arsenal to Menands and the new location. 

After 22 years, the Watervliet Arsenal gave us 14 months to move all of our operations because they say they needed more production space. In the end, we made lemonade out of lemons and found a one-story building to lease about a mile away in Menands. The move was costly, but we are getting settled into our new location and see many benefits to being here.

We spoke to Joel Dzekciorios, CEO of Centrotherm, about that engagement and how it has helped Centrotherm get where it is today.
 

How did you work with FuzeHub and CEG eight years ago?

We were looking for a more efficient way to make some custom parts that were being fabricated by hand. We thought 3D printing might be an option for these short-run parts. Through FuzeHub, we joined an ongoing 3D printing project with Rochester Institute of Technology and XEROX on the use of alternative print materials. Our goal was to 3D print with polyolefins.

While the collaboration did not yield the desired result, we ended up pivoting and using 3D printing for R&D and the manufacture of prototypes. That gives us the ability to touch and feel including fit and function checks. Our systems have gasketed connections, so it is nice to be able to test and make sure we have the proper seal. Using 3D printing allows us to quickly evaluate a design concept.

FuzeHub and CEG connected us to the 3D printing program at SUNY New Paltz and we partnered with them.

Do you still use 3D printing?

Yes, but we have since brought those capabilities in-house. In addition to prototyping, we 3D print the majority of our jigs and fixtures for manufacturing. That was a direct byproduct of investigating 3D printing for short-run production parts. Not only are we using it as an R&D tool, but we are using it to produce really cost effective and time effective jigs and fixtures.

To me that has certainly been a big win for us.

You have grown quite a bit since 2014

We have probably tripled or quadrupled our business since then. We have grown 120% just in the past two years. We employ about 80 people in Albany. In 2014 we had fewer than 20. We run 24 hours a day. We do extrusion, thermoforming and fabrication here so the majority of the products we sell are of U.S. origin, made in Albany.

Certainly, we have transitioned from a small business into a mid-market business. For us that is certainly exciting.

Clearly the pandemic didn’t slow you down.

We launched an additional product during the pandemic—Air Excellent, a dedicated system for heat recovery ventilation (HRV) and energy recovery ventilation (ERV) that allows you to independently control the air quality in each room of a residential or commercial building. We launched with the help of CEG and have been gaining traction in the U.S. and Canada.

Air distribution is a growing market with the trend toward electrification. New York is aggressively pushing decarbonization. Our initial product, the InnoFlue Polypropylene Vent System, is dependent on gas appliances. As you move toward higher efficiency homes that are better insolated—actually airtight—you need an HRV or an ERV. They are the lungs of your house. So, as demand for HRVs and ERVs grow so does the demand for our Air Excellent ducts.