‘Factory’ is no longer a dirty word to cities

NANOTRONICS, housed in Building 20, 63 Flushing Avenue, boasts all the familiar features of a Brooklyn-based business: exposed brick and wood, steel stairs, giant iron beams and a Steinway piano. The chief executive officer, Matthew Putman, is a poet, pianist and film producer; his chief operating officer, James Williams, is a much-exhibited artist. Yet Nanotronics is a science and technology company that manufactures real things, not just ideas.

Think of factories and you tend to think of mass and mess: crowds of people doing low-paid work amid noise and pollution. Nanotronics is the opposite. There are only a handful of people around and everything is neat and tidy – and pin-drop quiet (except, presumably, when the Steinway is played).

Nanotronics specialises in applying artificial intelligence (AI) to the manufacturing process in order to eliminate defects and reduce waste. The company designs and produces machines that can detect minuscule variations in products and processes. This means that it depends on having researchers and technicians working side by side. It also produces what it calls “Cubefabs”, modular chip manufacturing facilities that Nanotronics then ships around the world. “We like to build things in city centres,” says Williams.