A growing Moline-based company was the focus of a tour Thursday, Oct. 29 for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-Moline).
Applied Science and Technology Research Organization of America (ASTRO America) held an Advanced Manufacturing Open House with the two elected officials, and leaders from the aerospace and defense manufacturing community.
ASTRO leaders and employees displayed parts of the existing Moline facility, showed examples of large-scale metal additive manufacturing, and talked of the plans for a new 25,000-square-foot Center for Solid State Manufacturing, currently under development in Milan.
The Quad Cities was also hailed for its growing role as a hub for advanced manufacturing, highlighting ASTRO America’s work with the U.S. Army to develop next-generation production technologies and strengthen the nation's defense.
Since January 2023, ASTRO America Midwest has operated in a 5,500-square-foot warehouse building, 3200 69th Ave., near the QC International Airport, Moline. The company plans to invest $20 million to open in a 25,000-square-foot building in Milan this February, said Neal Orringer, CEO of ASTRO America and a former Department of Defense Director of Manufacturing.
“We needed a true manufacturing hub to demonstrate technology's utility to our warfighter. And there's no better place to do that than Rock Island, and there's no better folks to do it than the Rock Island personnel, the folks who work in manufacturing,” Orringer said Thursday. “There's also no better champion than Senator Durbin. for Rock Island Arsenal.
Through his legislation, the Army Arsenal Strategic Workload Enhancement Act, which was incorporated into the 2013 Defense Authorization Act, Centers of Industrial and Technical Excellence were created, and Rock Island was designated as the Army's Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence.”
In 2020, ASTRO (which operates nationwide) partnered with RIA “to jumpstart an entire ecosystem that's now pioneering new advanced manufacturing technologies for defense production,” he said.
“Rock Island Arsenal personnel are deploying this technology with their characteristic talents. And I want to thank our Rock Island partners for being here today,” Orringer said. “They're our most valued partner, and it takes a lot of hard work and patience to transition developmental machines for production, and nobody does it better. And we're not alone. Secretary Ash Carter, my, my old boss, used to say, DOD doesn't design and make our weapon systems, they come from our defense industry.
"And together with our men and women in uniform, that's what makes the U.S. military power unrivaled. So in 2021, ASTRO turned to the defense industry to demonstrate viability of additive friction stir deposition for weapon system production.”
ASTRO produces parts for General Dynamics, Boeing, and BAE Systems for military planes, helicopters, tanks and other ground vehicles.
“Quad Cities is now a hub for 3D aerospace production. Make no mistake about that,” Orringer said, noting that’s based on four facts -- Rock Island Arsenal's part producers; ASTRO’s manufacturing research engineers; metal fabrication companies in the area, and “the nation's leading aerospace producers, all convening here in the Quad Cities, driving innovation, economic development, and more and more high-skilled jobs,” he said.
ASTRO America supports collaborations by government agencies and companies to address supply chain challenges in highly regulated industries, including aerospace and defense.
What’s the need for expansion?
Driving the need for expansion (moving to a much bigger facility) is to have the whole process (design, build, test) under one roof, to be able to produce and test larger parts and more of them, Orringer said.
“One of the most important things that we're trying to establish is we're not just building experimental 3D printing technology just to advance the science. The goal is to really validate this technology and make sure that it can be repeatable and actually get it into a supply chain,” he said.
“In order to do that, you need to test the heck out of these parts. It's hard to find metrology tools and other kinds of characterization tools that are large enough to actually handle. So we have to have ultrasound, X-ray, CT scanners, and other kinds of technology to validate the quality of the build.
“So we're not only going to have production capability, but we're now building some of the largest metrology equipment. So we're going to have a massive ultrasound immersion tank. It'll be one of the biggest in the country,” Orringer said. “Now you'll have to get a big forklift to get it over there and put it in that immersion tank, but that won't fit in a space like this. So we had to grow into something a little bigger.”
“Think of ASTRO America as a corporate laboratory. We are helping develop the process for manufacturing,” he said. “The JMTC, the Rock Island Arsenal, they are a critical production plant. So our job is to make sure that this technology is ready for primetime, ready for folks to actually use this technology to get parts into the field. And that's why we're really grateful for the opportunity to partner with JMTC.”
ASTRO perfects the parts, which are mass produced at the Arsenal.
“They’re doing higher-scale part production, and our job is to run through the process development, figure out a roadmap for how to do production right,” Orringer said. “We're trying to figure out what is the right kind of data to collect as you're building the parts so that we can figure out how to course correct when there's a need.”
ASTRO is filling a key manufacturing need since there’s very limited amount of metal forging capacity in the U.S., declining by 50% in the last several years.
“How do we make up for that? We're not going to necessarily be able to foot the bill to the tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, build more forging capacity in the United States,” Orringer said. “And it's critical that we have domestic capabilities, particularly for U.S. defense needs, but also for aerospace and other things. So being able to get a replacement for forging, whether it's for aerospace or for rockets or for any other kind— shipbuilding— that's what we're really gearing towards.”
There are a number of metal 3D printing companies across the country, and ASTRO is unique since this technology, “instead of using a heat source, it's using friction to actually combine different layers. And so this particular kind of metal system is uniquely suited for large-scale metal that will hopefully be a suitable alternative,” he said.
“Our goal is to figure out how to transition this equipment from being something that's been generally used in a laboratory into a production environment. And that's what we're hoping we can do with critical partners like Boeing and the Army,” Orringer said, noting ASTRO will hire new employees for Milan, though he didn’t know exactly how many (there are 15 now in Moline).
“We've already begun a new project where we're not only working with Boeing on helicopter components, but also Sikorsky, who's another big helicopter company, and Bell,” Orringer said. “So you could potentially see us hopefully finding a way for making parts for the Apache helicopter, the Black Hawk helicopter, and some next-generation helicopter. And then also maybe there's some commercial opportunities beyond the Army, maybe some other kinds of aerospace.”
Back from Romania
Congressman Eric Sorensen, a member of the Armed Services Committee, recently returned from Romania and the Black Sea, where Ukrainian fighter pilots are being trained by American fighter pilots. They said they can’t use all their F-16s because they sometimes need to swap out parts from one plane to the other.
“That's how important what we do here in the Quad Cities is. not just for us as an economic driver in the Quad Cities and in the state of Illinois, but it's about how we support our warfighters for peace around the world,” Sorensen said.
“Being here at ASTRO shows that our commitment to the Quad Cities being forever connected to the Rock Island Arsenal and the United States Army,” he said, crediting Durbin’s legacy of service and support for national defense. “When you're Dick Durbin, everybody knows your commitment to the Arsenal. So we get to do some really, really great things for this community. And quite literally, we would not have JMTC (at the Arsenal) and advanced manufacturing here if you, Dick Durbin, didn't champion it for years and years and years.”
“Today we're pushing the bounds of what we considered impossible just years ago, and that's why I'm excited about what's coming next and for what will happen soon in the city of Milan,” Sorensen said. “The new facility will only further cement the Quad Cities region as a nation-driving innovator for 3D printing and advanced manufacturing.”
Honoring Durbin’s legacy
Orringer presented Sen. Durbin (who’s retiring effective January 2027, after 44 years in Congress) an ASTRO-produced replica of a vehicle wheel hub that goes on a combat vehicle, in thanks for his work.
“I was told at the outset that the Arsenal was doomed. It wasn't going to last. But it turned out they were wrong,” Durbin said Thursday. “It wasn't enough to have a clout-heavy senator in Washington or even have the local communities all together. We had to do something that would defend the United States, because that ultimately is why the Arsenal exists, to make sure that we are a safer country.
“What you see here was beyond anything I could have even described when I started in this effort,” he said of ASTRO. “I knew that innovation in manufacturing and innovation in processing could make us unique, and we're proving that we have been. As I talked to some of our friends from the military about situation at the Arsenal. I talked about this process and we're talking and I said, is this unique? And you said yes, there's no other Arsenal in the United States that has this.”
“Thank you for this award. And I hope the good work of the Arsenal does more than create a good story for history. I hope it creates a path for the future that makes us a safer nation,” Durbin added.
“Astro is a recognized entity that tests for the very best, and the Arsenal is tied to that testing,” he said later. “Today, this tour that I took would have been unthinkable back then, 40 years ago. Some of the things we discussed today weren't even in the realm of possibility.
“But now they're in the realm of not only for the possibility, but timeliness in terms of the future of the Arsenal,” Durbin said. “We have a unique production facility on the island for the Arsenal. It's going to be used to make parts for aircraft and submarines. It's going to keep them functional and keep our troops safe. That's what we need more than ever.”
Durbin honored at Arsenal lunch
During an earlier lunch Thursday convened by Quad Cities elected officials, Army leaders, and local defense industry partners, the Rock Island Arsenal Defense Alliance (RIADA) and the Quad Cities Manufacturing Institute (QCMI) each presented Durbin with an award in honor of his decades of public service and his support for the Rock Island Arsenal and local defense community.
Durbin has been a strong partner to both RIADA and QCMI in securing federal funding for the region’s defense manufacturing industry, including in support of QCMI research with the Army in fiscal years 2024 and 2026. He has been integral in securing federal funding for the Arsenal’s 3D jointless hull printer, which is the largest metal 3D printer in the world.
“I’m grateful to the Rock Island Arsenal Defense Alliance, the Quad Cities Manufacturing Institute, and ASTRO America for this recognition, and more importantly, being my partner in supporting the men and women at the Rock Island Arsenal,” Durbin said in a Thursday release from his office.
“You all help ensure the Arsenal and the Quad Cities remain an integral part of helping Illinois lead the future of manufacturing, using cutting-edge technology at crisis speed,” he said.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to do my part over the years in Congress, working side by side with you to secure hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federal investments to modernize Rock Island Arsenal and safeguard its future. I know that when the next call comes from our nation and our military, the Arsenal will once again be ready to answer.”
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