M7 Technologies, Spinoff Get National Defense Award

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Technology developed by M7 Technologies and a subsidiary could save the defense industry supply chain up to $20 billion a year, the president of M7 says.

M7 and its spinoff, Grale Technologies, received the Defense Manufacturing Excellence Team Award for 2015 for the automated integrated metrology – or AIM — technology the companies developed.

Ralph Resnick, founding director of America Makes, presented the award Tuesday to M7 President Mike Garvey and Grale Technologies President Jim Osterloh at NDIA’s national conference.

“It’s an incredibly prestigious award [that recognizes] the most significant contributions to defense manufacturing for the year,” Garvey remarked. Depending on how widely AIM is adopted, he said, the technology is projected to save the national defense industry supply chain between $5 billion and $20 billion annually through increased throughput.

“Where previous state of the art required the machine tool to come to a resting position to allow the accurate special registration of the metrology sensor readings, the AIM solution allows the machine tool to scan over a production article at high speeds and register metrology instrument data with an uncertainty of one micron at scan speeds of six meters per minute,” Resnick said before he presented the award.

“This process is an example of the digital data capabilities which will help in delivering the promises of the digital thread, connecting design and development all the way through to the factory floor,” he added.

Last February, M7 and Grale representatives gave a presentation on the technology to NDIA, which subsequently invited them to apply for the award.

“To survive in today’s business climate, companies need to be able to change and adapt fast, but they also need to be smart about it.  By making very strategic, well-defined investments in research, [M7 and Grale] been able to launch themselves in an entirely new market,” said Barb Ewing, chief operating officer at the Youngstown Business Incubator. Grale is a YBI portfolio company.

“This award is really a validation of the strength of their research capabilities, their technology, and their leadership team,” she continued.

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