PORT ANGELES — An Advanced Composites Center is envisioned as a Port Angeles office to offer marketing and other services for a regional “composites corridor,” said the organizers who are seeking funding for it.
Such an office could help bring more jobs to the Olympic Peninsula, according to Michael Fancher, senior program manager of the National Center of Manufacturing Sciences based in Bremerton, who talked to about 60 people at the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce on Monday.
The Bremerton organization is one of the partners in the Olympic Composites Corridor, which is identified as an area stretching from Port Angeles to Bremerton.
The regional partnership among private business and governmental entities, which includes several organizations on the North Olympic Peninsula, formed to allow all to share resources.
The office for the corridor, called the Advanced Composites Center, has been described by the Port of Port Angeles — one of the partners in the effort — as a “not-for-profit collaborative center that will help ‘fast track’ innovative technologies to full-scale manufacturing and be a training resource closely aligned with regional composites training programs.”
There is no funding to build the center, but having letters and offers of support will help when a grant becomes available, Fancher said.
Business owners can contribute through in-kind donations, such as offering landscaping for the proposed center, he said.
Letters of support, in-kind donations and partnerships are sought, he said.
A similar concept in England has proven itself successful, Fancher said.
No timeline was offered.
Local businesses may need to be patient, Fancher said, but he feels the composites industry is on its way to making a foothold in the national and local economy, and providing living-wage jobs.
Locating the manufacturing center in a location near where the products are used, or near transportation, and education for a highly trained composites workforce are key to a successful new industry hub, Fancher said.
Peninsula College leads the community colleges in vocational training for manufacturing composites, he said.
Fancher said that what started as a simple certificate course is now a two-year associate degree in applied science that prepares students for a career in the family-wage industry.
Not far away in Everett, a new generation of Boeing aircraft is being designed with additional components made of composites, which can be lighter and stronger than metals, he said.
Fancher said the state is fighting to keep the Boeing 777 construction business in Washington, and Gov. Jay Inslee has identified the Olympic Composites Corridor as part of the state strategy to do so.
Boeing has had difficulty with the quality of parts manufactured overseas and intends to award more contracts in the U.S., he said.
Fancher described Port Angeles as being in a strong position to enter the growing industry, citing its hundreds of acres of commercial property available near the William R. Fairchild International Airport and access to Port Angeles Harbor, a deep-water port where a barge dock could be built to transport larger components to the barge dock near the Boeing aircraft facility in Everett.
Also, other industries such as auto manufacturers are incorporating composites into their products, he said.
One such industry is deep-water electrical generation.
There are more deep-water options off the Washington coast than there are available off the coast of Europe, where the industry is being developed, Fancher said.
Fancher added that Port Angeles is located strategically to provide a base to manufacture the giant turbine blades required for deep-water power generation.
Among the Peninsula partners in the Olympic Composites Corridor are the cities of Port Angeles and Sequim, Battelle Marine Sciences Laboratory, Peninsula College, Angeles Composite Technologies Inc., Westport Shipyards, Platypus Marine and the Clallam County Economic Development Council.
For more information, visit www.olympiccomposites.org.
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
