Robots To Help Build Robots At New Brooklyn Navy Yard Factory

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — A new high-tech factory opening in one of the Brooklyn Navy Yard's oldest buildings is perhaps the best symbol for how the borough's history as a manufacturing powerhouse is taking on a new life, Navy Yard CEO David Ehrenberg said Thursday.

The 25,000-square-foot space, known as Building 20, was once a bustling indoor factory that outfitted U.S. Navy battleships with armored plating when it was built more than 150 years ago.

And while that type of manufacturing dwindled decades ago — turning the building into a rarely used storage space — a new face of the industry is moving in, Ehrenberg said.

Nanotronics, which has been working out of the Navy Yard's New Lab, officially broke ground in Building 20 Thursday on what will become the city's first "smart factory," or a factory that uses largely digital production rather than a traditional assembly line. The company manufactures a line of tools armed with cutting-edge artificial intelligence used to make manufacturing more efficient.

"Nanotronics represent to us the new breed of manufacturers that are beginning to grow and expand here at the yard," Ehrenberg said. "Growth of companies like Nanotronics proves that manufacturing continues to be an important part of New York City's economy even if it is changing and what it really needs is an enabling environment."

(Anna Quinn/Patch)

Thursday's groundbreaking was joined by Nanotronics' leaders, Navy Yard staff and New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who was at the event to represent Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who announced Thursday that the state would invest $2.25 million into the new factory through a grant.

Hochul, who called Nanotronics' new space the start of a "new industrial revolution," said the company and others at the Yard are bringing back the sort of high-paying, quality jobs that Brooklynites were once used to at the manufacturing industry's peak.

"I see a rebirth in this complex," she said. "Every single business that comes here gives a new opportunity for people to come and work and regain that industrial legacy — that heritage — we are proud to call our own here in Brooklyn."

The smart factory will be up and running as early as next spring, Nanotronics Chief of Staff James J. Williams III said. The company plans to build out the first half of the space by the end of the year and will likely finish by March.

When it's done, the space will more than double Nanotronics Brooklyn staff of 65 people to up to 190, Williams said.

The build-out will include creating mezzanine-level spaces and lower-level "pods" to house both the company's manufacturers and the research, development and administrative staff, architects said.

(Anna Quinn/Patch)

The design is based on Nanotronics' emphasis on bringing together its engineers with those who produce its high-tech machines so they can continue to evolve. The machines, like the nSpec microscope, are used for inspections in Nanotronics customers, which range from medical companies to autonomous vehicles manufacturers.

The "smart technology" in the machines means that it uses less energy, produces more and makes it so staff is spending time more efficiently, co-founder Matthew Putman said.

"The way a regular factory worked was that you would have a lot of people doing a lot of manual tasks or working with what I would call crude robotics ... a smart factory uses a lot of incredibly new technology ... so not only are people speaking with people about how to build something, they're telling a machine how to do it," Putman said. "It frees the humans to come up with new ideas."