By TOM MARINER //
Last month, the new generation of Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid robot walked onto the scene, heralding the rapidly growing robotics industry.
Although it’s not directly their product, the nation’s leading designer and manufacturer of the small electromechanical motion-control parts enabling the Atlas and similar cutting-edge robotics is headquartered here on Long Island. Even more vital is how this firm enables its employees and customers.
Hicksville-based Designatronics was born in New Hyde Park in 1950 as Automatic Coil, a supplier of mechanical components to the Island’s then-enormous aerospace industry. In the 74 years since, through acquisitions and great management, it has blossomed into one of the nation’s (and planet’s) most complete solutions for “a world in motion.”
The dazzling innovation that’s always driven its growth is energized by a unique understanding of “the future,” clear in the equipment and services it provides and its selection and retention of quality employees.
Tom Mariner: By design.
Chief Executive Officer Robert Kufner is a visionary who not only updates his overall enterprise to match customer needs but understands intrinsically that localizing manufacturing does a bottom line good.
In 2013, Designatronics lured Kufner from an Upstate New York medical-device firm, where he’d accumulated tons of experience running quality-oriented organizations in two industries very familiar to Long Island: aerospace and medical devices.
His experience shows in Designatronics’ current makeup: Three of the current brands under the company’s umbrella (Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instrument, QTC Metric Gears and Quality Bearings & Components) are based on Long Island, with a fourth (Wybur Tools) based in Wyoming. Each is essentially its own organization, leveraging modern technologies and local expertise to create individual excellence.
Once Kufner had consolidated the directions of the Island-based firms, he brought them together in a modern, custom-designed, 96,000-square-foot facility in Hicksville, where the synergies and precision machining – and Designatronics’ historical high quality – could better meld.
The building’s production floor is striking: not just the rows of Computer Numerical Control machines (with the cutting-edge software automating their exacting movements, as demanded by National Quality Assurance AS9100 Certification), but the pristine condition of the place. This ain’t your grandfather’s metalworks.
Kufner’s emphases on CNC and on hiring quality interns to learn the next-generation ropes come together as an advisor to Suffolk County Community College’s Advanced Manufacturing Training Center. His service as chairman of the American Gear Manufacturers Association’s Emerging Technology Committee on Robotics and Automation highlights his value to the national industry. And his frequent appearances at manufacturing-organization board meetings – always sporting a shirt with his companies’ logos – illustrates his branding loyalty and deep understanding of community-based service.
He’s a vital component of Manufacturing Day Long Island, wherein local educators and students discover opportunities with local manufacturers. Designatronics hosts facility visits to get future manufacturers excited about the industry and see how things work now – and will work in the future.
Robert Kufner: Futurist.
“We tried to recruit from off-Island, but couldn’t get them to stay,” Kufner told me. “But those from Long Island have the perfect DNA for Designatronics.”
For all that Designatronics has done in the past, this is a man who clearly sees the future – and where Long Island must go to stay a step ahead on Atlas and similar robotics advances.
“Investing in automated high-performance machining centers and Industry 4.0, with the integration of intelligent digital technologies into manufacturing and industrial processes, would be key to meet the future gear demand for robotics,” Kufner says. “We also see continued growth in our complete assembly business in medical devices, most recently in an advanced bone drill for orthopedic surgery.
“All are built,” he adds, “upon our Long Island-grown talents.”
Tom Mariner is the executive director of Bayport-based Long Island Bio.
