In Farmington, Trumpf Inc. plans $40 million expansion for ‘smart factory’

Amidst a major sales surge, Trumpf Inc. on Thursday announced a nearly 56,000-square-foot expansion of its Farmington plant to create a so-called smart factory.

Trumpf, a high-tech manufacturer, has long been one of the town’s top taxpayers, but its importance extends far beyond Farmington, Gov. Ned Lamont said at a ceremony marking the expansion.

“Trumpf makes the most sophisticated precision equipment in the world including a lot of the equipment that goes into ASML, a Wilton-based Connecticut company, to help make the most sophisticated (computer) chips in the world,” Lamont said.

Trumpf’s new initiative will be the seventh time the company has expanded since setting up operations in Farmington 53 years ago.

“Last year was very busy for us, we achieved more than $1 billion in order intake in North America for the very first time in our history. This was a 50 percent increase compared to the prior year,” President ad Chief Executive Officer Lutz Labisch told Lamont, employees, local officials and business leaders on the lawn of the company’s Farmington campus.

Overall Trumpf has about 350,000 square feet of office, production and research space in Farmington. and employs roughly 620 workers there. Part of the new space will be a smart factory, where digital technologies are incorporated into manufacturing to provide far more automation than in standard assembly centers.

“What you’re going to see in May of 2024 is a $40 million expansion that enables our customers to compete in a decoupled world where reshoring is real in manufacturing,” company Executive Vice President Burke Doar said. “We can do it competitively and cost effectively, and create good jobs for people in manufacturing.”

Trumpf, the North American subsidiary of the German Trumpf Group, will also use the new building to manufacture laser cutting, bending and welding machinery. Its clients include manufacturers in a variety of industries.

Production capacity in Farmington was severely reduced two years ago when a Cessna business jet taking off from nearby Robertson Airport hit the side of one of its buildings.

“Everyone on our team has been working very hard in the past months to rebuild after the devastating plane crash in September of 2021. We persevered,” Labisch said.

“Looking into the future, we are very confident. We see a continued high demand by North American manufacturers for our equipment,” Labisch said. “We anticipate further growth of our business. We are taking a step forward into the future of manufacturing not just for Trumpf but also for our customers here in Connecticut and across the U.S.

“This production facility is a fully operational role model for our customers who manufacture sheet metal parts used in so many industries from electronics to aerospace, from communications to appliances, from automotive to energy,” he said.

Lamont cited ASML as one of the beneficiaries of Trumpf’s success. Last September, ASML announced it was embarking on a $200 million expansion of its Wilton plant with plans to hire as many as 1,000 more employees. The company manufacturers semiconductor equipment and is Wilton’s biggest employer.

“What oil was to the 1980s, chips are to the 21st century,” Lamont said.

Trumpf’s building expansion was designed by Barkow Leibinger and Tecton Architects.