In a cluster of unassuming warehouses in a Brewer industrial park, engineers and skilled tradespeople design and craft custom machinery and metal components that help countless industries throughout New England function.
In one area on Thursday, workers built a steel roof canopy that will sit above the entrance to a courthouse in Georgia.
Next to that, a welder worked on a piece of a stainless steel burner drum for a New York company that’s designed to clean contaminated dirt.
On the opposite end of the warehouse, the base of a fire pit into which the company cut Maine-themed designs, including a moose and lighthouse, waited to dry after getting a fresh coat of paint.
All of these are customized pieces of equipment other companies have trusted Troy Industrial Solutions in Brewer to craft.
“People send us a drawing and we manufacture something to fill a specific need for a customer,” said Dave Barcomb, senior business adviser for Troy Industrial Solutions. “What we do and make, you can’t buy it out of a catalog.”
The company recently received a grant that will help pay for a piece of equipment that will allow it to take on more work and larger projects, propelling it along its long-term growth plan. The $260,000 grant recently awarded by the Maine Technology Institute will go toward a new, more advanced plasma cutting table that can cut metal to exact measurements and designs using hot, pressurized gas.
Headquartered in New York, Troy Industrial Solutions has locations in Brewer as well as New Hampshire and Connecticut. The company began in the 1800s by making conveyor systems with leather belting made from cowhide.
The company’s past and present clients range from companies in Maine’s paper and lumber industries to blueberry and potato farmers and fishermen. Versant Power and Bath Iron Works have also purchased items from Troy Industrial Solutions.
“We make custom products for clients that solve their problems,” Barcomb said. “They may have an issue or a conveyor system that can’t handle their capacity or continues to break down. That equipment may need to be improved to keep up with what a business needs, and that’s where we come in.”
Troy Industrial Solutions will also sell or alter pieces of metal that local customers need customized for homemade projects, according to Brett MacLean, general manager of the company’s Brewer location.
“You’d be surprised how many people come in off the street with something drawn on a piece of cardboard or pizza box and ask if we can make it for them,” MacLean said. “Most of the time, we can.”
In addition to cutting, shaping, welding and painting metal to build custom pieces of equipment, the Brewer facility has engineers and designers who help customers create machinery they need.
Troy Industrial Solutions recently received a $260,000 matching grant from the Maine Technology Institute, which will help the company purchase a new $500,000 plasma table, a piece of computerized equipment that can cut metal based on a design and measurements a technician programs into the machine.
The Maine Technology Institute is a state entity aimed at supporting economic innovation and entrepreneurship.
The $260,000 grant is a small piece of $39 million in federal funding the Maine Technology Institute is distributing to help various small Maine businesses bounce back after the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new, more advanced machine will replace a 25-year old table that is slower and less precise. The change may also require the company to hire two to three new technicians, fabricators and welders.
“It will improve our efficiency and the quality of our work while reducing the amount of rework we currently do to maintain the standards we hold as a company,” Barcomb said.
The company also expects the new machine will boost its revenue by 10 percent, clearing the way for Troy Industrial Solutions to continue its longer-term growth plan. The next step of the growth strategy is to modify the fabrication facility to allow the company to take on larger projects in the future.
