GRPGuru: Leader in Marine and Industrial Structure Composites

Brunswick Training Facility: a 24,000 square foot building that has been renovated (at a cost of approx USD 800,000) to house:

- 3 large class rooms, providing seating for 25 to 40 students,
- Computer lab with 16 stations to teach all steps from design to automated manufacturing
- Composites Lab spaces and hands-on areas for open and closed molding;
- Communal space and offices
- Green room for DVD production and on-line training
- Clean room for teaching aircraft repair and other FAA composites courses;
- Areas for staging and prep, such as grinding, gel coating, assembly, etc.
- A 5 axis router, a CNC flat table cutter and other support equipment.

June 20 2007: Some members of the team that got us to where we are today came up for the Grand Opening: from left: Tom, Russell, Jason, Lydia, Ann, Andre, Eddy.


The new class room is a bit more sophisticated than our old digs, but the hospitality and great atmosphere is still there…even when things don’t go exactly right in the lab… and an infusion turns out to be a challenge…plan or accident? The Advanced CMT Course is always a steep learning curve!

The Brunswick Advanced Composites Training Center, acronym ATC, will be a model for Composites training facilities in the US. It is set up with significant funding for infrastructure and equipment,via federal grants, with the intent to develop industry curricula and certification standards for the USA.

In addition, the Center will continue to support and expand my efforts for an ongoing international educational exchange program about closed molding.

Focus of the course offerings will be on closed molding and advanced manufacturing techniques for composites.

This is truly the next step in helping the Composites Industry convert to closed molding: A fixed location, with state of the art equipment and skilled staff will allow us to formalize training and hand it over to the Vocational Institutions and Community Colleges after it has been dialed in.

In February of 2006 Maine was one of 13 successful applicants to receive a $15M WIRED grant from the United States Department of Labor. Maine’s mission for the grant was to establish Maine’s North Star Alliance Initiative and to further grow and enhance the regional economy of coastal Maine through technology advancement, workforce development and the creation of high-skilled, quality jobs in the boat building, marine trades, and composites industry sector. In December 2006, Maine received an additional $2M for a related grant from the United States Department of Labor, providing the start-up funds for an Advanced Technology Center.

The establishment of the Advanced Technology Center was made possible by the additional grant monies and the investment of WIRED funds in concert with the partners that make up the recently established Maine Composites Technology Training Initiative. They include the Southern Maine Community College, the Town of Brunswick, the AEWC Center at the University of Maine Orono, The Landing School, GRPguru, the Coastal Counties Workforce, Inc. and key industry Associations such as the Maine Composites Alliance.

* Training focused on the Composites Industry needs,
* Relieve the vendors of the burden of providing training,
* Provide an accredited college level Composites Science degree,
* Give the composites industry a relevant certification program that requires hands-on skills as part of the testing for certification.
* Incubator space and assistance for new companies.
* Certified Testing by an independent, well reputed, and well managed lab with state-of the art equipment and skilled faculty personnel.
* Support for laminate design and FEA modeling.

Where do I fit in? I have been contracted as the start-up guy (for lack of a more formal title) and I have transferred my Florida Training Facility, as well as my curricula and expertise. I will make the start-up of the Center my main focus for the next two years. To make sure I don't get bogged down in administrative stuff,we'll hire a director to run the center on a day-to-day basis. Seems like a win-win for all parties: the informal “GRPguru” group had grown to a size that needed more structure and more capacity to support the market demand, and Maine was looking for somebody with my profile and expertise.

The first task is to convert and add curriculum for Closed Molding, Mact Compliance, Best Practice and Shop Safety, Train the Trainer and QC/QA programs. The workload is shared between the Landing School, University of Maine and myself. Another assignment is to create a CCT-CMT module in cooperation with ACMA.

We did start in February with a selection of test-run courses, which will be gradually phased in over the next year.

The program is managed and monitored by an implementation board consisting of representatives from Industry, Government, Trade Associations, and Education.

You can Google info about this Initiative using descriptors such as: Maine Composites Center, North Star Alliance, WIRED Grant, or similar keywords, and get an idea of the funding and power behind the project. There have been several articles about this initiative recently, such as the one in the Harvard University Review, which gives a good overview; see link:

About the Composites Training Center