A Louisville tech company has earned recognition from a national publication.
Recently, CRG Automation was named to Time magazine’s list of "The 200 Best Innovations of 2023,” for its creation of the Improved Cavity Access Machine, or ICAM for short, under the category of “Robotics.”
As I reported in July, the machine was used to destroy the last chemical weapons in the U.S. The last of the weapons were disassembled and destroyed at the Blue Grass Army Depot near Richmond, Kentucky. But part of the mission took place near Pueblo, Colorado at the Pueblo Chemical Agent Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP) where several ICAMs were used to disassemble, power-wash and vacuum out approximately 47,000 mustard gas mortars in the period of 10 months.
“We were very pleased,” said James DeSmet, the CEO of CRG Automation. “It was a great project. … It was very complex, technically. The schedule was insane. The regulatory approvals required to get this machine into the facility were daunting. All those things combined, it was very rewarding. It felt like a solid pat on the back, and recognition for a lot of people’s hard work.”
DeSmet said conversations about the chemical weapon destruction operation started in September 2021, after the Pueblo leadership team said “their current path to process those munitions wasn’t going to work.” The machine that was originally chosen to be used was built to remove chemical weapons from the lower end of the munition, whereas the ICAM approached the mortar shell from the top, which proved to be effective. It took less than three months to build the ICAM.
“One of the big differences on this project is we invited the plant personnel to CRG while we were building the machines and commissioning them,” DeSmet said. “So imagine you’ve got a plant operator looking over your shoulder while you’re doing the actual programming and setting up the machine. That allowed us instantaneous feedback.”
Per Time’s site, nominations were chosen both by solicitations from the magazine’s editors and global correspondents, as well as through online application process (CRG had put in a self-nomination). The 200 chosen selections fit one of 21 categories. In addition, there were 50 inventions that were selected for a “special mention.”
Going forward, CRG is working on two main verticals out of its location at 1700 Watterson Trail in Jeffersontown. One of those is finding ways to create automotive processes to increase capacity for the manufacturing of munitions for the U.S. military forces — while modernizing the process as a whole.
CRG’s other focal point is “doubling down on our commercial business,” said DeSmet, who added that his company was actively entertaining 30 to 40 different requests right now for automation within local and regional manufacturing facilities.
“We want people in the area to know that we can solve really hard problems,” he added, “or we can do the bread-and-butter packaging automation for them… Virtually every one of our customers, there’s really two reasons they come to us: They can’t get [workers] to make their products to keep going, or they need to increase output — or sometimes, in some cases, both.”
In many cases, these potential clients are hoping to replace the absence of third-shift workers with automation and robotics.
DeSmet, who was named as one our 2022 Most Admired CEOs, said that CRG will gladly accept clients anywhere in the country, but its preference is to have a majority of its clientele be located regionally.
“Especially when companies are just getting into automation — as many, many are — you want to keep them local, so that you can provide that immediate assistance and training over the long haul,” he said.
