Press-Telegram Article CTC
$1.4 million Grant Does to Norwalk Site
Cerritos College to aid conversion of defense firms
By James R. Carroll
WASHINGTON - There are a lot of Southern California
companies making missile parts and fighter-jet
components. Now, with the defense business kind of slow,
some of them are hoping to make parts for cars and
sporting equipment.
The conversion from defense to the commercial market
could be a lot smoother with the help of a new project
under way at Cerritos College and given a high-profile
salute by President Bill Clinton on Wednesday.
The president announced that the 19,000-student
Cerritos College in Norwalk would be the site of a
composites technology center. College officials expect
the center to begin soon but could not name a date.
The center will show 16,000 small defense and
commercial companies in Southern California the latest
techniques in manufacturing and using high-strength,
lightweight materials in everything from cars to sporting
equipment.
The $1.4 million federal matching grant to Cerritos
College is part of a Clinton initiative to help the
defense industry nationwide adjust to life after the Cold
War. In all, 50 projects received $190 million in federal
grants Wednesday, bringing the total to $605 million
since the initiative was launched last year.
"The (grants are) of special interest to the
people of California because California has been on the
leading edge of military technology," Clinton said
during a ceremony at the White House. "And
converting this know-how for dual use in commercial
applications will help our country move into the next
century as the economic leader of the world."
Clinton singled out the Cerritos project and two
others in the state before an audience of California
members of Congress and visiting state legislators from
Sacramento.
The Cerritos College center will involve a host of
companies, headed by the GreatLakes Composites Consortium
Inc., a Kenosha, Wis.-based group of companies,
universities and colleges that wants to make the use of
once-exotic materials more wide-spread.
Composites are materials made from a blend of fibers
and resins that can have the same or even greater
strength than conventional metals but are much lighter.
Composites have been used in military and civilian
aircraft for some time now, and are showing up more and
more in everyday items, from tennis racquets to
bulletproof vests.
Randy Peebles, instructional dean of technology at
Cerritos College and overall manager of the new center,
said his school is sitting in the midst of the largest
concentration of composite manufacturers in the nation.
The aim of the new center will be to show companies
how "to make composites more feasible, more
cost-effective and to make their use more diverse,"
Peebles said.
"We hope to convert and use materials where they
may not have been thought of before," said project
director Terry Price.
The center plans to teach and pass on information to
Southern California companies through workshops, seminars
and job-training.
Some area firms participating in the center include
Advanced Composite Products & Technology Inc. of
Huntington Beach; Airtech International Inc. of Carson;
Bondline Products of Norwalk; Northrop Corp. of
Hawthorne; Reinhold Industries of Santa Fe Springs and
Richmond Aircraft Products of Norwalk.
Among the other grants Wednesday, TRW Space and
Electronic Group of Redondo Beach will receive $6.4
million to organize a group of companies, including
McDonnell Douglas Aerospace in Long Beach, to develop a
new all-weather navigation system for commercial and
military planes.
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Web Author: Terry Price (tprice@cerritos.edu)
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Last update: 11/14/01 |
