PowerPhotonic celebrated an unofficial opening of its new, US manufacturing facility in Sahuarita, Southern Arizona on Friday 27th January, with a group of staff and members of Sahuarita Town Council. The US facility enables the company to supply wafer-scale optics for US defence projects, from within the country. As a duplicate of its UK facility, it also brings essential, supply chain resilience and a much-needed increase in capacity, to meet growing global demand.
Mark McElhinney, CEO of PowerPhotonic Inc., said, “Opening PowerPhotonic in the US is an exciting time for the business and a major step completed on our ambitious, expansion plan. We have been welcomed by the town of Sahuarita with Mayor Tom Murphy, stating it is a huge win, bringing skilled employment to boost the local economy. Our location in SAMTEC, the Sahuarita Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center, built specifically for advanced engineering companies, is a great fit. It is part of Arizona’s ‘optics valley’, with a reputation for innovation, research, technology, and advanced manufacturing. Additionally, it is part of the photonics cluster in Arizona, with the University of Arizona, in nearby Tucson, developing the calibre of specialist optical engineers we need.”
Photo, left to right are PowerPhotonic staff Steve Kidd, Austin Letsinger, Victor Gonzalez*, Mitch Soufleris, Mark McElhinney, Roy McBride, Deborah Morales*, Tom Murphy*, Michael Dubinovsky, Emma Modrate, Mark Wilson and Matt Roth.
* Sahuarita town representatives