ITHACA — “I feel like it’s back to the future,” explains Sean Whittaker, CEO of the Incodema Group, Inc. in Ithaca. “3D printing was coming into its own, just as I was learning CAD at SUNY Delhi back in the early 1990s. My first job was with NCR working as a mechanical engineer with printers. […]
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ITHACA — “I feel like it’s back to the future,” explains Sean Whittaker, CEO of the Incodema Group, Inc. in Ithaca. “3D printing was coming into its own, just as I was learning CAD at SUNY Delhi back in the early 1990s. My first job was with NCR working as a mechanical engineer with printers. Later, I joined a startup, Ithaca Peripherals, where I was responsible for developing new printer products every year. Now, 25 years later, I’m building a new company dedicated to 3D printing.”
Incodema 3D, a division of the Incodema Group, was incorporated as an LLC in 2014. The first company accepted into the START-UP NY program, the new 3D printing enterprise moved to Freeville (about 10 miles northeast of Ithaca) in January of this year. It is situated in a 60,000-square-foot building, the former home of a furniture warehouse and showroom. The new operating company currently occupies 15,000 square feet and employs 15 people as it begins a $40 million capital investment over five years in additional 3D printers.
The business plan projects adding another 70 employees to the current 15. “We bought our first 3D metal printers in 2012 at $1 million each,” recalls Whittaker. “The goal is to have 100 machines lined up in this facility.” Whittaker projects Incodema 3D sales next year at $8 million and growing to $60 million by 2018. The building is sited on 24 acres, allowing for future expansion. Whittaker is one of four partners in the 3D company, each owning 25 percent.
Incodema is an acronym for the first two letters of four words — invent, concept, design, and manufacture. It’s a concept Whittaker developed to eventually become a single-source provider of the prototyping and manufacturing of metals and plastics. The launch of Incodema began in 2000, when the Ithaca native was frustrated by the long delay in creating metal prototypes, while plastic versions were produced quickly. In February 2001, he incorporated Incodema Group, mortgaged his house to buy a $400,000 metal-prototyping machine, and rented 2,000 square feet of space in Ithaca’s Technology Park.
Meteoric growth
Whittaker’s conviction that metal prototypes could be produced quickly paid off. Incodema’s growth has been meteoric, fueled both by organic sales and by acquisitions. The year after incorporating his first company, Whittaker moved to a 6,000-square-foot building and just two years later, bought a 30,000-square-foot plant in Ithaca, formerly Kohler Machines. In December 2007, he acquired Midway Metal-Forming Corp. in Cortland from the owner, Richard Cincotta. The company made metal parts from flat stock and wire; it also designed and built tooling. The next acquisition was Newcut. Located in Newark, New York (Wayne County), the company manufactured precision-metal parts by the photo-chemical machining (PCM) process, an industry alternative to the traditional stamping, punching, laser- or water-jet cutting, and wire electrical-discharge machining. Newcut was a supplier to Incodema. Whittaker’s efforts to buy the company took two years, largely because of environmental problems associated with the property.
In 2012, Whittaker bought the equipment of a plastics-prototyping company named DPT (Design Prototype Technologies) located in Syracuse. He also hired six employees of the company. This August, he moved the former supplier to Incodema 3D in Freeville. The most recent acquisition occurred in 2013, when the Incodema Group added EMT in Endicott, a company founded in 1946. Formerly known as the Endicott Machine & Tool Co., Inc. and now rebranded as Engineering Manufacturing Technology, EMT positions the Incodema Group for both short- and long-run production of metal parts, sheet-metal fabrication, assemblies, fulfillment, and wire fabrication. All of the acquisitions have been asset purchases.
“Today, the Incodema Group is four companies with one vision,” declares Whittaker. “The consolidated operation employs 240 people, and this year we’ll generate
$40 million in sales. The group currently owns 205,000 square feet of manufacturing, office, and shipping space to house more than 200 machine tools … My whole life has been spent around computers, and most of our equipment is computer controlled.”
The four companies
Together, the four companies make the Incodema Group a single-source provider. Incodema, located at 407 Cliff St. in downtown Ithaca, is an “S-corporation” owned 100 percent by Whittaker. It employs 75 people, running two shifts, in a 30,000-square-foot plant. The company specializes in sheet-metal and metal-stamping prototyping and in short-run production. It also produces plastic prototyping. In 2015, Incodema is spending $1.75 million to expand the sheet-metal and CNC machining at the plant. Newcut, also an “S-corporation” owned 100 percent by Whittaker, is located in Newark, New York, and specializes in photo-chemical machining (also called etching or milling). The plant contains 15,000 square feet with a $3 million, 20,000-square-foot addition scheduled for completion in October. Newcut operates with 25 employees.
EMT, situated in Endicott, is an LLC owned by three stockholders: Whittaker, Maynard Fahs, and James Kirkwood. Each owns one-third of the outstanding shares. The 80,000-square-foot facility is designed for long-run production of metal parts, metal fabrication, assembly, and fulfillment. EMT employs 125. Management has committed $5 million this year for expansion and equipment purchases. The newest member of the Group, Incodema 3D in Freeville, provides a facility dedicated to what Whittaker describes as the “wave of the future” — plastic 3D printing and additive manufacturing. “We are currently the third-largest producer of 3D metal parts in the country,” notes Whittaker. “It won’t be long before we are number one.” Incodema 3D presently manufactures in the 60,000-square-foot building with 15 employees. The equipment is designed to run 24/7/365. The stock ownership is divided equally among four partners: Whittaker, Fahs, Kirkwood, and Greg Galvin.
Incodema has assembled a strong team of employees. “These four companies contain a depth of experience,” affirms Whittaker, “starting with our 45 engineers, designers, and quality-control experts. [The Incodema Group currently has 12 patents pending.] The staff is highly trained, efficient, talented, dedicated, and focused on our customers. In fact, this team thrives on challenges … We have no problems attracting and retaining workers. For many positions, we start with just a strong work ethic, which fortunately is … [prevalent] in this area. Our job is to train those in entry-level positions and then move them into more skilled positions such as CNC machining. Because Incodema 3D is part of START-UP NY, we can offer new hires at that company a very attractive package that competes with any section of the country … Our proximity to Cornell University also gives us access to engineering graduates.” Whittaker also points out that Incodema 3D’s START-UP NY status is tied to Cornell University, which gives the company access to cutting-edge advances in metal technology.
Partners
Whittaker has also assembled a strong team of business partners. Galvin was the deputy director of Cornell Nanofabrication and director of corporate-research relations. In 1993, he was a co-founder of Kionix, formed to develop micro-mechanical technology and optical-switching technology. Galvin sold part of the company in 2000 to Calient Technologies Inc. and the remaining shares in 2009 to Rohm Co. for $233 million. He is the chairman and CEO of Rheonix Inc. (polymer-chip, micro-fluidic technology) and of Mezmeriz Inc. Galvin holds M.S., Ph.D., and MBA degrees and is the chief technology officer at Incodema 3D.
Kirkwood, who is a partner both in Incodema 3D and EMT, was formerly the executive VP of Kionix, CEO of Wilcox Press, and the controller of the Pyramid Companies. A CPA, he also served as the VP of finance at Scholler Technical Papers and as the executive VP of special projects at Calient Optical Components, Inc.
Fahs is the president and CEO of Fahs Construction Group, Inc., a privately held construction company headquartered in Binghamton with more than 250 employees. He is also the president and founder of Hearth Management LLC, a chain of senior-living facilities with 14 locations in New York, Indiana, Connecticut, and Tennessee. Fahs is a partner both in EMT and Incodema 3D.
In addition to his employees and partners, Whittaker credits the Incodema Group’s success to professional associates who support the four companies. Tompkins Trust Co. and Chemung Canal Trust Co. provide financial services; Pinnisi & Anderson provides legal intellectual-property advice; Hinman, Howard & Kattell, LLP and Klausner Law offer legal business advice; and Sciarabba, Walker & Co. LLP is its outside CPA firm.
Well-positioned
Even as they face stiff competition, Whittaker likes how the group’s four companies are currently positioned.
“With strong competitors in places like Texas and Florida, the group is finally positioned as a one-source provider,” he stresses. “This is very attractive to our customers who are concentrated in the aerospace, energy, medical, consumer-products, military, and motor-sports sectors. The parts we produce are lightweight, so transportation costs play a minor role in competing anywhere in the world, and overnight shipping allows us to deliver quickly. Put these considerations together with our employee team, capital investment, technology, and the fact that our current 3D parts are as good or better than the parts manufactured using the existing [industry] gold-standard processes, and it’s not surprising that customers are beating on our door…. ”
Despite the multiple projects on his plate, Whittaker is not slowing down. “I’m a believer in change,” he says. “In fact, I thrive on change. Yes, we have multiple projects underway in all four companies, but progress doesn’t come [by waiting on my timetable]. The Newcut Company is working on proprietary technology to produce conductive fabric utilizing the chemical-etching process. Our engineering department has produced a 4 mm. nylon, tin-copper-silver, conductive fabric which selectively removes sections of metal from the nylon, creating specific designs within the body of the material. The process allows us more definition to the finished design, the ability to make micro-sized components with precision placement, and removal of the conductive properties. The technology has multiple applications: resistive heating, sensors, patch antennas, and flexible circuit boards, to name a few. We have created a new company around this product called ‘SensAttire’.”
Putting together the Incodema Group has been a vision of Whittaker’s since he first saw the need for rapid metal prototyping. It took him 14 years to grow to the current consolidated sales volume of $40 million. His growth projections call for at least tripling sales just in the next five years. “Everything in the business world is vision and timing,” says the Ithaca entrepreneur. At age 47, he has both.