MUKILTEO — ElectroImpact is getting bigger.
The aerospace supplier plans on adding a new building with a mix of offices and a soaring assembly bay to handle growing demand for the company’s robotic assembly machines.
ElectroImpact makes machines that make airplanes, and business is brisk. The company added a new assembly building last year and it is already feeling squeezed, said Peter Zieve, the company’s founder and owner.
The new site will add some breathing space.
“We’re trying to put as big a building there as we can,” he said. “We’re trying to put 10 pounds in an 8-pound bag.”
The company filed the first permit applications with Mukilteo earlier this year.
Zieve said he hopes to have the building finished sometime next year.
“We’re growing as fast as we can,” while still being a good neighbor, he said.
The company is cautious about its growth, though, said Ben Hempstead, one of its top engineers.
“We don’t build anything until we have the work to fill it” and the cash to cover the construction, he said.
Most of ElectroImpact’s property is already built out. The company is based in Mukilteo, where it has about 600 workers. It has about 750 workers around the world.
The new work and new building will mean more hiring, Zieve said.
“The new building means we’ll be able to keep expanding for awhile,” he said.
The company has started work in one of its cavernous assembly buildings making the machines Boeing will use to help make and assemble the composite-material wings on its new 777X jetliner. It will take the company two and a half years to finish that work.
It recently made three riveting machines ordered by Boeing suppliers in Japan for 777X fuselage assembly. Two machines were for Kawasaki Heavy Industries and one was for Fuji Heavy Industries.
ElectroImpact is also working on robotic assembly machines and assembly fixtures — to hold components in place during assembly — for Brazilian planemaker Embraer’s E2 regional jets. Embraer is the third biggest airplane maker in the world. It competes with Canada’s Bombardier in the regional jet market. The E2 is big enough to compete with the smallest Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.
No single work contract alone is huge for ElectroImpact, Zieve said. “They’re all just part of a bigger picture.”
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