OMIC announces center partners


Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center unveils seven company partnerships.

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The Scappoose-based manufacturing training center has been quietly working to secure its partners for the last several months. Until today, Boeing was the only known company to partner with OMIC (as a founding partner of the center). Portland State University, Oregon State University and Oregon Tech were also known partners.

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New partners include Daimler Trucks North America, ATI, Blount International, Hangsterfer’s Laboratories, Inc., Silver Eagle Manufacturing and Vigor. The announcement comes just more than a year after OMIC itself was created thanks to a $14.5 million investment by Portland Community College, which is running the workforce training program. The legislature also approved $7.5 million in funding last May to create the training center.

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Initial projects are expected to launch later this year. “The facility will support new supply chain linkages, provide a critical mass of innovation, and promote the region as a major source of engineering and manufacturing expertise,” according to a press release. “Membership within OMIC R&D is expected to grow with several national and international companies already expressing interest in becoming part of the collaboration.”

The training center is scheduled to open in the fall of 2019.

“The university research and industry members are in this for the long run, expecting to create economic value for the partners, the state, and further afield,” Laura McKinney, vice president of Oregon Tech’s Portland-Metro Campus and a lead on OMIC R&D development said in the release.