T-SEC’s Mission
T-SEC helps grow small to medium-sized manufacturers and startups. We provide access to equipment to help businesses prosper so they can create jobs, create community wealth, and improve the regional economy.
“T-SEC is the voice of manufacturing experience & expertise, which is provided free of charge so it is unbiased by a profit motive. T-SEC understands manufacturing processes and practices, and we can provide help both to established manufacturers and emerging entrepreneurs. Over our 10-year history, T-SEC has gained a high level of credibility by providing grant-funded capital equipment and technical and business support to manufacturers and entrepreneurs.”
Partner Organizations Funded by T-SEC:
The Haverstraw Center’s 3D Printing Lab
T-SEC’s Academic Partner, SUNY Rockland’s Haverstraw Center, is home to the 3D Printing SMARTT Lab. The lab offers regional manufacturers and entrepreneurs a low-cost opportunity to take CAD classes, create a design on a Solidworks software station, and print a finished prototype using one of the highest-quality printers available anywhere, the Stratasys 3D printer.
T-SEC’s Microscopy Lab at Sono-Tek
T-SEC and Sono-Tek partnered to create a SMARTT Lab with a benchtop scanning electron microscope (SEM) system and an industrial microscope for users to process characterizations.
A Sewing Center at The Accelerator, New Windsor
State-of-the-art pattern-making and sewing labs are available at low cost to users pursuing new business opportunities at The Accelerator in New Windsor, New York. Clients of The Accelerator have access to over a dozen sewing machines, as well as Tukatech software, a computer program used for pattern making and fashion design.
SMARTT LABS
SMARTT PODS
T-SEC’s recent focus has been on exploring innovative partnerships with entrepreneurs and regional manufacturers, as well as with regional community colleges and economic development agencies, principally The Orange County Accelerator.
The goal of these labs is twofold: to enable manufacturers and entrepreneurs to grow and create jobs and to overcome the current skills gap in high-tech manufacturing. We want to help create a workforce pipeline equipped with the skills that are in demand in Hudson Valley high-tech manufacturing companies.
Our other goal is to extend support to startup entrepreneurs, especially in the area of textiles, food and beverage, software development, and creative maker businesses, such as the type found selling their wares on Etsy.
To meet these goals T-SEC has accessed a New York State SUNY 2020 grant, as well as capital funding from Empire State Development to create the unique concept of SMARTT Labs. The acronym stands for SUNY Manufacturing Alliance for Research and Technology Transfer.
Essentially, T-SEC created a lab network distributed among both community colleges and manufacturers ( facilitated by economic development agencies, principally NYS Empire State Development and The Accelerator) to help both schools and manufacturers overcome the current skills gap in manufacturing.
By offering access to costly technology, skills training, and the nurturing of relationships between employers and future employees -the students- we believe we can truly be innovation partners.
Complementary to SMARTT Labs, the SMARTT PODs are “production on demand centers” where startups and small businesses can locate their production facilities in fitted-up, co-working spaces available at below-market, affordable rates.
The spaces also offer access to equipment that an entrepreneur would likely not be able to afford, such as commercial kitchen canning and cookware equipment, or sewing machines and pattern-making technology.
SMARTT PODS are currently located at two main sites throughout Orange County: The Orange County Accelerator’s Middletown Campus and its New Windsor Campus. A third campus focused on textiles is currently in development in Newburgh.
Public Information
TAX INFORMATION & POLICY
Tax Information
T-SEC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our funding comes from federal, state, and local grants, allowing us to purchase and provide equipment to our SUNY system and industry partners at no cost to the partner organization.
FUNDING SOURCES
TSEC has a long history of receiving funding support from both New York State and the federal government.
These funding partners support T-SEC’s mission in the form of grants. T-SEC uses these grants to encourage business attraction/retention and workforce development via T-SEC’s unique partnerships with manufacturing firms, SMEs, economic development agencies, and SUNY community colleges located in the Hudson Valley.
RESOURCES
Need some one-on-one guidance and support?
Working with The Orange County Accelerator as well as The Council of Industry, T-SEC is able to offer resources to the student interested in an apprenticeship training program, or an entrepreneur or manufacturer in need of a co-working space or mentoring.
MENTORING
Are you on your own but faced with an engineering or even just a business problem or question or two or three?
The Accelerator Without Walls program is just what you need. T-SEC’s partner, The Accelerator, makes seasoned pros available (like incredibly knowledgeable engineers) to help you wrangle those difficult questions. They are standing by!
APPRENTICESHIP
T-SEC’s partner organizations, Fala Industries and The Council of Industry, have been hard at work on a specialized training Intermediary Apprenticeship Program. This program fits interested young people with a program of study that includes six lower Hudson Valley schools, lower Hudson Valley manufacturers, and an unbelievable opportunity to learn job skills.
COWORKING SPACE
T-SEC partner The Accelerator offers T-SEC funded, S.M.A.R.T.T. pods that enable an entrepreneur to make the move from the dining room table to a co-working space, and from there (after coaching by our mentors) to storefront retail or mixed-use space in the city of Newburgh, Middletown, or perhaps one of the smaller burghs in the lower Hudson Valley. Think you’re a fit?
