Spin-offs from a unique technology incubator

The Montérégie is home to a one-of-a-kind support centre for business startups. Established in 2003 with the financial assistance of Canada Economic Development and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), the Carrefour d’innovation en matériaux industriels ( CIMI) houses startups in an effort to stimulate the growth of entrepreneurship.

Located in the NRC’s Industrial Materials Institute (NRC-IMI) in Boucherville, CIMI offers its incubated firms state-of-the-art facilities for the development of materials and manufacturing processes. Entrepreneurs are also able to benefit from the expertise and know-how of the Institute’s scientists and engineers, giving them considerable credibility in their pre-commercialization efforts and significantly speeding up their entry into the market.

Metafoam Technologies Inc. and AS Composite are two of the fledgling firms that have benefited from this good start to life and received financial support from Canada Economic Development for projects over the past few years.

Knowing how to boost profits

Metafoam Technologies manufactures and sells light-weight open-cell metal foams using an exclusive process developed in collaboration with NRC-IMI researchers. The metal foams the company manufactures at relatively low cost have numerous industrial applications, notably in the areas of thermal management and electrochemistry.

Canada Economic Development helped fund the commercialization activities of Metafoam Technologies. Since 1995, the company has created nine jobs and developed exclusive Canadian expertise in a sector that, until recently, has been completely untapped. Now there’s something to take to the international marketplace!

The signs are all there

Thanks to its cutting-edge material research, AS Composite has developed a type of light-weight ultra-rigid sandwich panel for use in, among other things, the design of road signs, manufacture of truck trailer doors and development of bridge decks and mobile constructions.

How has AS Composite managed to set itself apart from the competition? The answer lies in its patented innovative automated process. The company uses equipment developed by CIMI for the large-scale production of thermoplastics at a cost far lower than that of conventional processes. The company’s already diversified and well-filled order book is a good sign of AS Composite’s excellent growth potential.

Canada Economic Development helped AS Composite develop its commercialization strategy, which resulted in the creation of three jobs, two of them full-time positions, in 2005.

Metafoam Technologies and AS Composite are prime examples of the spin-offs resulting from Canada Economic Development’s partnership with CIMI, an association that has enabled numerous pre-startups and startups to get off the ground.