$2 million invested in Charlottetown Metal Products' new food equipment facility, more jobs coming

By - Thinh Nguyen

Trevor Spinney, president of Charlottetown Metal Products, says the company’s new Innovation Centre operates separately from CMP's main operations and houses a distinct team of engineers. - Thinh Nguyen/SaltWire

MILTON, P.E.I. – Charlottetown Metal Products (CMP) has secured more than $2 million in funding from the federal and provincial governments for its new Innovation Centre.

Trevor Spinney, who is the company’s president, said the centre, which is expected to be fully operational by February 2024, is committed to the development of new products.

“It's looking at needs that our customers have stated over the years, taking those needs, working on those and trying to develop a solution, and then designing and building that solution in our centre here,” he told SaltWire in a recent interview.

The funding for the project includes more than $700,000 from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

Another federal agency, the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program, is offering CMP advisory services and nearly $1,300,000 for research and development funding.

The province is also contributing $150,000 through Innovation P.E.I.

“Certainly, the funding that we have moving forward allows us to take on a suite of new projects,” Spinney said.

In total, with CMP's own financial funds, the project's budget reaches close to $3 million, he said.

Efficient technology

CMP, which is a member of Food Process Solutions, has been manufacturing hygienic food equipment for food manufacturers around the world for more than six decades.

It's a significant employer in P.E.I., with a workforce of more than 165 employees, and the Innovation Centre is expected to generate about 33 additional jobs.

The facility operates separately from CMP's main operations and houses a separate team of engineers tasked with developing solutions to meet customer demands.

A recent project at the Innovation Centre features a system to efficiently feed food products into freezers. It features a smart belt system to automatically move the food products from one lane to three lanes on the belt before go they into a mock-up tunnel freezer. - Thinh Nguyen/SaltWire

To illustrate their creative problem-solving, Spinney cited a recent project at the Innovation Centre. It involves designing a system for efficiently feeding food products, like ready-to-eat meals, into freezers.

Part of the system involves a smart belt structure that automates the movement of food products from a single lane to three separate lanes before passing through a mock-up tunnel freezer.

This method optimizes the utilization of freezer space and enhances the freezing process, Spinney said.

“It's all about optimizing … so you’re making the best use of that freezer,” he said.

Upon exiting the mock-up freezer, the food products, now divided into three lanes, are reintegrated into a single lane for subsequent stages, such as packaging.

A number of projects are already underway at the Innovation Centre, and CMP's president Trevor Spinney says the funding will help in completing the building and taking on more projects. - Thinh Nguyen/SaltWire

This system addresses a common issue faced by many plants, which rely on manual labour and often encounter quality-related challenges. Meanwhile, the system designed by his team can move things around in a well-controlled and efficient manner, Spinney said.

“The end goal is to do that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, repeatedly, time and time again, without having product on the floor, without product mashing into products, in a controlled fashion.”

Creative challenges

For Spinney, the Innovation Centre is a personal passion project and a way to address the rising food prices of today.

“What we're hoping through some of our technologies is how do we automate some of these processes. How do we actually impact the bottom line of the customers that we serve? How can we have them produce food less expensive? And that's kind of a give back to society,” he said.

The centre will soon be posting job openings for various positions, including engineers and technicians. Spinney said over the years, they've hired many graduates from UPEI's Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering.

Chad Stewart, a junior design engineer at CMP and a UPEI graduate, is a part of the team working at CMP's Innovation Centre. - Thinh Nguyen/SaltWire

Chad Stewart, a junior design engineer at CMP and one of these graduates is already a part of the team working at the new Innovation Centre.

He finds the most enjoyable aspect of his job in the creative side of the work, which involves developing unique solutions for each customer’s specific issues.

“There's always challenges, but that's what makes work fun. And each job is different. Each job has its own challenges. One example is always keeping, like hygienic design in mind and cleanability of our solutions,” Stewart said.

“It's fun being over in the new product development area. We get to do a lot of hands-on stuff and get to see the results of our work. We designed something upstairs here and then it's built downstairs where you get to use it every day. So, I'd say that's a big plus being here.”