YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Amiel Bernal descends an industrial staircase headed to a workspace like no other in the Mahoning Valley.
Here, in what is known as Tech Block Building No. 5, some of the most sophisticated machines used in advanced manufacturing hum along, ranging from large 3D printers to lab equipment used to conduct research and development on materials that could one day transform the metals industry.
That’s exactly why Bernal, the chief operating officer for Tailored Alloys LLC, is here.
“When we do alloys research, we’re making novel compositions,” he says. “There are combinations of metals that haven’t ever really been experimented with. The name Tailored Alloys came basically from our patent-pending process for alloys evaluation.”
The company moved into manufacturing, lab and office space at the Youngstown Business Incubator’s Tech Block Building in downtown Youngstown approximately two and a half years ago. The building is a renovated complex that once served as offices for The Vindicator and was acquired by YBI in 2015 to provide a space to house companies doing business and research in additive manufacturing, or 3D printing.
Companies such as JuggerBot 3D and Ursa Major have already outgrown their space in the complex and are expanding along with YBI. Others, such as Tailored Alloys, hope to do the same.
It’s just one facet of the YBI’s continuing mission to support young companies engaged in technology-related services for a variety of industries. The YBI also supports traditional businesses owned by women, minorities and veterans through the Minority Business Assistance Center.
Pioneering R&D
Tailored Alloys works with exotic metals compositions that are highly resilient in the face of sudden changes, Bernal says. For example, these novel metals could apply to a component on a spacecraft exiting or reentering the earth’s atmosphere, or an equipment part designed to function in extreme conditions, he says.
The company tests these new alloys to determine how the materials would react and behave under volatile circumstances, and how these metals could be used to produce components that must meet stringent requirements.
“One of the nice things about 3D printing is you can do parts with complex geometries,” he says. In Tailored Alloys’ case, the company uses a laser powdered bed fusion, or LPBD, additive manufacturing process, in which a laser beam is programmed to follow a digital scheme and fuse metal powder – layer-by-layer – into a finished component.
“We’re trying to get the technology to a point where there’s the ability to do what you imagine printers would do – and that’s just send in a digital file and the part comes out just the way you want it,” using these complex materials, Bernal says. Recently, Tailored Alloys secured funding through America Makes, the national additive manufacturing hub, based downtown that is part of the YBI’s downtown campus.
Aside from its research and development arm, the company also produces metallic wedding bands through its Tailored Rings division, he says. Moreover, the company has tapped into the talent available across the region, hiring several from Youngstown State University as interns and full-time employees.
The YBI in Growth Mode
Founded during the late 1980s, the YBI began as a traditional business incubator at 241 W. Federal St. in Youngstown, providing low-cost resources to early-stage and startup companies, says CEO Barb Ewing. By the 1990s, the YBI focused its attention to supporting companies engaged in software development for industries such as health care, manufacturing and other disciplines. Today, that focus is concentrated on developing the YBI campus into a center for advanced manufacturing research and production.
“The program is shifting,” Ewing says. “We still have expertise in health care and software, and we will continue to develop that to a degree. But the resources are being shifted to focus more on advanced manufacturing.”
The change was first apparent with the addition of America Makes in 2012, the first innovation center for Manufacturing USA, a network of advanced manufacturing institutes driven by the U.S. Department of Defense and Energy. America Makes helps direct funding to additive manufacturing research projects that include, for example, the U.S. Department of Defense, local companies, larger defense contractors and academic institutions, including YSU.
As such, the YBI has expanded from its single location and has added five more. These include America Makes, Taft Technology Center, the Semple Building, Tech Block Building No. 5, and the recently designated Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense, bound for the former Vindicator printing building on Front Street. The project is funded with $26 million from the Ohio Innovation Hubs program and another $36 million in local, federal and private investment.
Indeed, the YBI’s overall economic impact is significant. In 2023, the organization’s funding and services generated an estimated $396 million in economic activity. Of this number, $59 million in economic impact was generated by companies led by women, $19 million from Black entrepreneurs, and another $2 million generated from Hispanic-owned businesses. Together, these companies supported approximately 3,017 direct, indirect and induced jobs.
At present, the YBI boasts approximately 65 portfolio companies engaged in the entrepreneurial software program across northern Ohio, Ewing says. However, there are likely another 150 or so clients that YBI has helped support through the Minority Business Assistance Center, she says. Other events, such as the annual Shark Tank competition and this year’s Advanced Manufacturing Users Experience, or AMUX, program, help raise both the profile of the YBI and those companies that participate.
Rory Kale, program support coordinator at the YBI, says AMUX, for example, will help introduce the YBI to those who might not be familiar with the organization. “People don’t realize this is here,” he says. “This event will help us get in front of people. I think that’s how it’s going to have a greater impact on the manufacturing community.”
Ewing says that today, the YBI is neither an incubator nor an accelerator. “We’re an economic development organization,” she explains. The innovation hub, for example, will first house JuggerBot 3D – which manufactures 3D printers – and Ursa Major, which uses additive technology to build components for hypersonic use, as its first tenants.
Both have outgrown their office space at Tech Block No. 5.
The entire project was the result of a collaboration between YBI, America Makes, Youngstown State University, the city of Youngstown, and the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber. Other partners included Lake to River Economic Development, the Western Reserve Port Authority, the Mahoning County Board of Commissioners, and the Youngstown Foundation.
YBI currently has a lease-to-own agreement in place on the building, Ewing says, and the project – first announced in February – is in the early stages of design and engineering. The former Vindicator building would allow for 75,000 square feet of manufacturing space and another 30,000 square feet for demonstration equipment, office space and collaboration areas. By 2029, the project is expected to create 450 jobs at the site.
The expansion also opens the potential of workshops and networking events on the building’s top floor, which would also include space for visiting professors. The hub also involves creating programming to increase funding for the commercialization of intellectual property, building a pipeline for area manufacturers, and strengthening programs to bring products to market faster.
Other initiatives include attracting companies that specialize in aerospace and defense to the region, securing capital for early-stage business development and new equipment, and establishing opportunities for small- and medium-size businesses to enter the defense and aerospace markets.
“When the building is complete, I would hope to have probably four or five more mature companies in there focused on meeting the Department of Defense needs,” Ewing says, such as how 3D printing can help in the deployment of troops and for 3D printed components in the field. “We’re already having conversations with other companies,” she says.
Still, much of the building would be divided among smaller startups as well, she says. “We plan to have as many smaller manufacturing bays as we can,” she says. “Companies that are one to two people that would be able to lease smaller areas as incubation space.”
Yet Ewing says this effort is more than supporting research in additive and 3D printing. Advanced manufacturing, she emphasizes, could also include companies that specialize in software development, artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced welding, and data gathering that would be used to support defense and aerospace applications.
“We try to tailor our program to truly fit the needs of that company walking through the door,” Ewing says. Some companies might require help with their business models, or digital marketing, a go-to-market strategy, or need additional technical skills to help launch a software product, she says.
“The backbone of our program is our entrepreneurs-in-residence,” she says. “We have 11 or 12 different technical and business consultants who offer those companies guidance in the way they need them.”
Pictured at top: Amiel Bernal, chief operating officer at Tailored Alloys LLC, stands next to the company’s metals testing equipment in the Youngstown Business Incubator’s Tech Block Building No. 5.