Thursday, August 14, 2008

Electrochem opens new battery and sensor facility in Raynham tomorrow

By Mass High Tech Staff

New York-based customized battery power and wireless sensor company Electrochem Solutions Inc. is expected to cut the ribbon on its new $30 million facility in Raynham tomorrow morning.

The event caps a year of construction and development on the 82,000-square-foot facility, which will hold some 230 employees and be home to the company’s local manufacturing, engineering and research and development teams. The move represents a tripling of space for the company’s local operations, previously located in Canton.

Headquartered outside Buffalo, Electrochem is the commercial segment of the Greatbatch Inc., a $320 million technology company. Electrochem was originally launched to provide lithium batteries for pacemakers but has since moved into customized battery power and wireless sensor products. The company targets the oil and gas, military, aerospace and seismic surveying industries, and reported $80 million in revenue in 2007. 

According to a company statement, the company’s move was precipitated by three years of double digit growth, which caused the firm to outgrow its Canton facility.

Officials also point out the company has focused on making its newest facility as environmentally friendly as possibly, including the addition of “high efficiency HVAC and lighting systems, state-of-the-art building automation and control systems and a 10,000-square-foot ‘green roof’ (covered in desert plants), which will reduce stormwater runoff, improve heating and cooling energy usage of the building and help filter pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air.”

Electrochem’s new facility is part of the Raynham Woods Commerce Center, a new industrial park aimed at attracting large businesses to the area. While the Electrochem facility has already been built, the DePuy Orthopedics medical education facility, being built by Johnson & Johnson, broke ground on its facility in the same center yesterday.