Tucked away in Canadore College’s Commerce Court quarters lies the Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Production (ICAMP), the school’s crown achievement in its arsenal of highly touted tools.
In just under two years, ICAMP, situated in the heart of Northern Ontario’s manufacturing playground, has solidified itself as the primary player when it comes driving innovation in the region.
Their importance lies as an incubator in business development and economic expansion, allowing companies to dream, conceptualize, design, prototype and test new products for the marketplace.
In other words, the living lab for product innovation offers unparalleled responsiveness to business needs in the region.
From mining and manufacturing to healthcare and aerospace, ICAMP has provided the year-round research services independent of the academic calendar that have helped propel some of the area’s highly regarded businesses to the next level.
By operating as a business themselves, ICAMP is merging equipment, expertise, project financing and anything else a company needs to optimize development efforts.
As a result, the Centre has worked hand-in-hand with small and medium manufacturers to improve products and production since its inception.
“We have a mission and it’s focused on businesses: what do they need and what can we do for them?” ICAMP’s applied research leader, Evan Butler-Jones, said simply. “There’s not a person I work with on a day-to-day basis that doesn’t have that mentality; it’s contagious.”
Since opening its doors in September 2013, the shared research and development facility has bridged the pivotal gap between the academic environment and leading industry.
To say the Centre houses the most modern technology and equipment would be a gross understatement.
With highly specialized services like precision 3D scanning, CNC manufacturing, robotics, microscopy, design and simulation software and additive manufacturing, ICAMP has lowered the barrier for manufacturers to maximize development.
Therein lies the pain point of those same industry leaders, who can’t often afford the latest tools with an unproven return on investment, not to mention the risk of re-working a project.
Perhaps most intriguingly of all, the companies who benefit from the ICAMP facility get to maximize their use of the cutting edge technology for research and product creation without the heavy investment.
“Everybody is talking about the availability of skilled labour. How you get your people to learn the new technologies, adopt them, and figure out how to get their technical expertise to match their business expertise; that’s where ICAMP comes in,” Butler-Jones explained.
“We work with the folks that can provide financing, business planning, management consulting, and we provide the technical side,” he added.
Thanks to ICAMP, Canadian companies competing at the top of the marketplace have never been better positioned to shatter conventional development standards, all while protecting the downside.
The 8,500 square-foot facility offers a plethora of services like product design, rapid prototype development, reverse engineering, 3D printing, material and product testing, machine, cutting, simulation, process design and automation.
Built on the strong foundation of four production pillars, ICAMP can be tapped into at any stage of a project, from concept and design to prototype and testing; if others can dream it, ICAMP has been collaborating with those budding businesses to help deliver it.
Acclaimed companies like Atlas Copco, WipWare Inc, and Pilot Diamond Tools Ltd. have partnered with ICAMP to reach new heights on the global stage.
Achieving a high quality yield that exceeds customers’ requirements regardless of the field is a challenge in itself; accomplishing that feat in a cost-effective, efficient and sustainable manner is another.
ICAMP’s solutions are all uniquely tailored to each and every client, while also exposing partners to multiple potential funding streams to reduce costs.
It goes without saying, then, that industry leaders have welcomed ICAMP’s services since earliest offer.
Since opening in September 2013, ICAMP has been the collaborative common ground for more than 150 projects with upwards of 50 companies.
Those flourishing collaborations have helped companies create more than 60 new jobs, 16 of which have been retained regionally.
And that’s just the beginning.
With its inception, the Canadore crew set three-year economic development goals with their partners. But after just the first year, those numbers were exceeded.
“The reception has been way bigger than I think anybody really planned for,” said Butler-Jones. “For the first year or so of operations, I think it’s gone beyond anybody’s expectations.
That strong contingent continues to grow almost as fast as the technology ICAMP uses, with prospective clients and service groups requesting tours of the facility on average of two to four times a week.
With the momentum that ICAMP has created, Canadore’s Commerce Court has morphed into the all-encompassing innovation hub of Northern Ontario.
The college is now the home of the regional Innovation Initiatives Ontario North (IION) and Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) offices, and as Butler-Jones explained, has quickly become the radiating source of innovation.
In addition to what ICAMP brings to the table, businesses can also use IION for mentoring services, guidance on public and private funding connections, access market intelligence and connect to experts, among other things.
“We are providing that access to technology and people that know the technology, the new processes and we can either supplement the research and development team or provide the training,” Butler-Jones said of the widespread effort.
“One of the fun things is we are never doing the same thing twice. We work with all different sectors and all kinds of different projects and needs,” he added.
And that trend is all-but-guaranteed to sustain as more and more companies begin to catch wind of the competitive edge that ICAMP’s resources provide.
