Hat firms reach for the sky
Form-Tech Machining and Atlantis Research Labs announce collaboration
The people behind FormTech Machining and Atlantic Research Laboratories said in 2015 that their partnership could be the start of something big.
This week they said a merger of the two firms in Medicine Hat is the start of something even bigger.
The firms have jointly developed emissions reduction equipment for oilpatch applications that will eventually be fabricated in Medicine Hat.
The combination, announced at a noon-hour barbecue for dignitaries, workers and suppliers in Brier Park, would make a stronger case in bidding for aerospace contracts and perhaps a substantial increase to its local workforce.
“In practical terms it means much larger contracts for our regional facility,” said Vladimir Mravcak, CEO of Atlantis, which operates Avro Aircraft as a separate division.
“We knew that we had to establish some manufacturing capability, so looked at buying equipment on our own.
“Working with over two years with Form-Tech, it’s all set up, established. (Now) we’re in a position to procure and service much larger contracts.”
The new corporate structure forms a seamless company with both research and manufacturing capability, said Mravcak, to work with defence and aerospace contractors that prefer to deal with one company in partnerships.
The Brier Park campus will feature R&D in one building on one side of the complex’s parking lot and manufacturing in the other.
The terms of the merger will not be released, though Mravcak said Form-Tech founder Brian Hallick, who started the company 25 years ago, will retain a senior role.
All employees will also stay on and recent hiring has brought the staff to 40. Dependent on business conditions, it could be incrementally increased to 200, said Mravcak.
Mravcak had discussed basing the company’s aerospace operations in Medicine Hat during a media event last year that featured Alberta Trade Minister Deron Bilous.
Plans then involved experimental jet engine technology and testing.
“They had one piece of the puzzle and we had the other, so we put our heads together,” said Hallick, who credited city contractor Invest Medicine Hat for its help making original introductions and assistance along the way.
The largest portion of the business is currently building prototypes of a system that reportedly could eliminate methane from escaping during traditional flaring.
That would greatly reduce the potency of greenhouse gas-causing agents in exhaust.
Field tests are ongoing with Cenovus and Husky Energy as part of a provincial emissions reduction grant.
Applied across the oilpatch at well sites and remote batteries, the cumulative effect could go far toward reaching international climate goals.
Medicine Hat MLA Bob Wanner said private investment and government support for clean-tech and high-tech industries is coming to the area.
“It’s about good jobs,” he told the crowd. “There is huge opportunity. It’s good jobs coming that we need and investment, and we’re going to see that happening.”
“Regardless of whether you think that’s good or bad, environmental and green energy projects are coming to the area.”
Praise for the enterprise crossed three levels of government and across party lines.
MP Glen Motz said the energy sector was key in Western Canada, and “cutting-edge technology will help keep our energy sector the cleanest in the world and provide numerous economic benefits.”
Mayor Ted Clugston said the energy sector is something “we’re very proud of, and this is a move toward diversification.”
MLA Drew Barnes, of CypressMedicine Hat, agreed, saying private sector investment is crucial in economic growth.
“Everywhere I go in Alberta, people are unaware what we have here — workers, land, opportunity,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for all of us to build on.”