CONTRACT MACHINING IS ALIVE AND WELL IN LONG ISLAND

For many years now, Long Islanders have been bemoaning the demise of the defense industry. There is no question that major downsizing took place in that industry. There is also no question that this actually benefited Long Island by making it diverse enough to successfully weather several recessions. With the diversification of the LI economy away from defense, many of our small business machine shops were adversely affected, unable to make the shift away from defense. very pleasurable then to be able to report that, not only did many of our machine shops survive and thrive, but we have even seen the start of new machine shops on Long Island. One can ask why the excitement over machine shops? Well- its wonderful to have tourism, service industries, retail- but a successful, sustainable economy must be based around manufacturing as the core. With a strong manufacturing core and complimentary wholesale,service and retail, an economy becomes invincible.

One example of the renaissance in manufacturing on Long Island is the machine shop started just 10 short years ago by Peter and Daniel Hartman. Cubitek specializes in close tolerance contract machining to the specifications of blueprints provided by customers. Customers encompass numerous industries including defense, aerospace, medical, analytical instrumentation and seminconductor. Prominent defense prime contractors such as EDO and  EDL purchase from Cubitek along with tiremaker Goodrich. Cubitek is certainly an example of a contact machining shop which thrives on a diverse client base.

It is also exciting to be able to report that not only is contract machining alive and well on Long Island, but companies like Cubitek demonstrate the industry’s strength. Just recently Cubitek made plans to move from 6500 square feet of space to 12,500 square feet!  Their business has grown significantly over the years and they must add space and new machinery to keep up with the demand. In addition to providing sufficient space for operations, the new facility will enable Cubitek to stay modern and technologically advanced enough to remain competitive with overseas machine shop activity.  With the help of a low cost, low downpayment  SBA 504  second mortgage loan from Long Island Development Corporation, utility audits and abatements,  manufacturing efficiency assistance and financing from their bank- Cubitek is now poised for a solid future as a contract machiner here on Long Island- proof positive that manufacturing and machine shops can thrive in our economy.