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NICK GUERTIN more. We farmed a lot of that work out. hands, is an important part of America today. We’re not all in

However, the good news is that today there are technolo- the service industry. Not every kid has to go to college to live gies that can create physical objects that up until now would be a successful, happy life. Building ships for the United States done through older manufacturing methods. By using advanced Navy and Marine Corps is great work, there’s great opportuni- manufacturing technologies like additive manufacturing, com- ties to learn new skills, and the work of building these ships puter numerical control (CNC) machining, robotic welding, au- is going to continue to improve and evolve. We’re going to be tomated non-destructive testing, and using arti? cial intelligence using more robots. We’re going to be using more ways of us- to evaluate completed components, we’re improving the capac- ing automation for test and evaluation. There it is a growing, ity and the technology for manufacturing throughput. thriving market. We’re going we are buying ships like crazy.

We just need to ? nish building them as fast as we’re buying

How does innovation ? t into this? them, and we need more people for that work.

Innovation is happening at places like the Navy laboratories, I’m particularly enthusiastic about ATDM in Danville spe- warfare centers and in industry. I’m particularly enthusiastic ci? cally, and the other training environments we have in plac- about the Naval Innovation Center at the Naval Postgraduate es like Maine and Michigan.

School in Monterey, as well as the NavalX TechBridges we have around the country to ? nd new and exciting technolo- You’ve accomplished a lot in a year: gies and concepts. NavalX is one of those entities that helps I’ve done my very best at it. I had kind of a fairly long list us open up our perspective for working with industry in new of things that I wanted to do if I had just a few more years to ways on how we might do our work better. do it. But my job changed after the election, and it changed to setting up my successor for success and to position the orga-

What can you tell us about the Ships for nization so that the transition will be done with excellence. I

America Act?

think we achieved that goal.

The Ships for America Act is bi-partisan legislation that acknowledges that countries that compete with U.S.-? agged merchant ships and ships built in U.S. shipyards nations have an unfair competitive advantage over the U.S.

If it were truly an open market it would be a different story.

But we see countries that are plowing their national wealth into industrial capacity -- especially China. China has really thrown a whole lot of money into industrial capacity for ship

Our premium refrigeration system is crafted building, and right now, more than 70% of the ships that are from durable #304 stainless steel, with CFC- on order are to be built in Chinese yards. We are a maritime free insulation and spill-proof shelves. It includes nation -- 90% of our goods and services move by sea. But we a 2” thermometer, don’t build ships, except those required under the Jones Act.

The Jones Act is not the problem. The problem is we don’t secure locking, and compete on an international level, on the same playing ? eld interior lighting for with countries that are spending their money on industrial ca- added convenience. pacity. We need to get back into the business of building ships,

Designed for energy and that will require a public investment. And that goes for ef¿ ciency, it uses our public shipyards as well as industry.

R-134A refrigerant

Shipyards thrive on stability and predictability. When our and features a pull- shipyards have a backlog--years’ worth of work—they can out cooling system. plan, and make the appropriate investments to improve ca- pacity and improve pro? tability. We also have to look at our

Built for lasting repair yards. We should probably be thinking about how we performance and do business with them differently so that they have something convenience!

akin to a robust backlog, and can also make investments and improve capacity and improve pro? tability, which will also

CONTACT US TODAY help those yards be in a position to better support the Ships for 518-828-2180

America Act, should that get passed.

[email protected]

Workforce development, which I mentioned earlier, is part www.rtfmanufacturing.com of the equation. Skilled tradecraft, and working with your www.marinelink.com 21

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