Former Unity subsidiary to land in W.Va.

May 6—Veloxint, a former subsidiary of Unity Aluminum, announced Thursday that it will be moving its operations to a research laboratory outside of Wheeling, West Virginia, creating between 200 and 300 jobs over the next four years.

Gov. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) and U.S. Representative David McKinley (W.Va. 1st-R) made the announcement, along with Baby Dog — Justice's English Bulldog and the unofficial mascot of the Mountain State. The company will be hiring research engineers, lab techs, metallurgists and machinists, according to a press release.

Veloxint is an alloy start-up purchased in 2018 by then-Braidy Industries with the hopes of using its technology in tool-making. After purchasing it for $29 million, sinking another $21 million into the venture, the company was sold off for approximately $1.8 million in late 2020, following the ouster of Braidy founder Craig Bouchard.

While the company was sold to hedge fund Clearbrook Financial in November 2020, SEC records also show Touchstone Research Laboratory CEO Brian E. Joseph was also a party to the sale. Touchstone is a research lab in Triadelphia, West Virginia, that's been in operation going back to the 1980s.

According to the announcement put out by Justice's office, Veloxint's move to the Northern Panhandle will allow the company to commercialize its alloys for chemical, solar and the aircraft industries.

Touchstone has worked with the private sector, universities and the federal government over the years. According to federal procurement records, roughly 200 defense contracts and 85 NASA contracts have been awarded to the company over the years.

Its latest government contracts includes a $3.39 million award from the Missile Defense Agency for the development of a prototype in missile defense technology as well as a $750,000 contract from NASA to develop lightweight tooling.

In the past, Veloxint entered into several cooperative agreements with NASA on developing technology.

Last year, Veloxint also saw another partnership come online, with the announcement in March 2021 that ARC Group Worldwide, a developer of advance metallurgic manufacturing, stated it would enter into an ownership investment of the startup.

That company's CEO, Jed Rust, was also listed on SEC records at the time of the Veloxint sale.

At the time of that announcement, ARC Global stated that Veloxint Hard Metal could complement its existing manufacturing processes for aerospace, medical and defense industries.

(606) 326-2653 — henry@dailyindependent.com