A total of 1,284 companies exhibited at the show, in a number Pennwell reported today. Here are the statistics we’ve been recording.

Power-Gen International Expo, 2004-11

LAI International’s 10-foot by 20-foot corner booth drew steady traffic at the world’s largest power generation event, and the Strategic Markets Group met many old and new friends alike.

The marketing department has already made hotel reservations for Power-Gen International at Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Fla., Dec. 11-13, 2012. Mark your calendars to meet the LAI International team at Booth 5430. LAI plans to showcase a new exhibit, featuring a close-up, hands-on view of precision components manufactured using its advanced machining processes for make-complete precision turbine components.

WGME CBS-13 TV News goes behind the scenes on the production floor of LAI International's precision contract-manufacturing facility in Scarborough, Maine.

Brad Rogers, reporter for WGME CBS-13 TV News, Portland, Maine, offers a preview of a special report on manufacturing, technology and skilled jobs scheduled for broadcast on the station’s news broadcast today and on www.WGME.com.

Rogers and the news crew were on location at LAI International’s Scarborough, Maine, production facility Dec. 15 to interview company leaders on the future of manufacturing.

Here’s a script of the news segment set for broadcast as it was being edited hours before the newscast:

((TAKE SHOT/JEFF)) WITH MAINE’S UNEMPLOYMENT RATE NOW AT SEVEN PERCENT— THOUSANDS OF MAINERS REMAIN IN NEED OF A JOB. GOOD EVENING AND THANKS FOR JOINING US TONIGHT FOR NEWS 13 LIVE AT FIVE-THIRTY. I’M JEFF PETERSON.

((ADDY ON CAM)) AND I’M ADRIENNE STEIN…. JOBS MOST IN DEMAND RIGHT NOW IN MAINE INCLUDE THOSE IN I-T, THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY AND HIGH TECH MANUFACTURING.

((OPEN/SURVIVING THE ECONOMY)) TONIGHT, NEWS 13′S BRAD ROGERS GOES INSIDE ONE OF MAINE’S TOP HIGH-TECH MANUFACTURERS, WHERE JOBS ARE IN HIGH DEMAND.

((TAKE PKG))
Tucked away in a corner of Scarborough is a manufacturing plant on the cutting edge of technology.  Here at LAI International’s largest plant, machinists use some of the latest high tech equipment on the market. Working with titanium and metals with a high nickle content, they manufacture precise parts, components and subassemblies for jet engines, power generators, defense systems and more.

Caliendo
“It’s really interesting stuff.  And they’re really high-paying jobs.”

LAI’s Chief Financial Officer, Vinnie Caliendo, says with their products in such high demand, he’s always hiring. Many hired are machinist students here at Southern Maine and Central Maine community colleges.

Caliendo
“If you’re under 35 and you’re working within this company, a good chunk of those people came through one of the two year programs at the schools. Really, really important.  We’d really like to drive that down into the high schools.”

Carey
“It’s a trade that is absolutely growing.”

Manufacturing manager Ed Carey says machinists getting two-year degrees in Maine also get a lot of expertise on high tech equipment.

Carey

“So the kids that are coming to us, and adults as well, are coming with more knowledge and understanding of the proper code that it takes to run a machine, and what the actual machine is doing.”

Brad Rogers Stand-up
“Forbes Magazine recently ranked Maine the worst state for business in the U.S., due in part to its poor forecast for job growth.  Vinnie Caliendo believes, at least when it comes to high tech jobs, that Maine is on the right track.”

Caliendo
“Because of what we’re doing in the educational system, we’re on the right path. It’s just a very, very, very slow boat.”

Maine’s mills used to manufacture and export all kinds of products, jobs now overseas. Caliendo says defense contractors and other original manufacturers prefer working with high tech companies in the U.S. to protect their designs from being copied overseas.

Caliendo
“The high tech manufacturing of the OEMs is not going to go overseas.”

Caliendo says these jobs are here to stay in Maine.  In Scarborough, Brad Rogers, News 13.

See the special broadcast news report on WGME CBS-13 TV News, Portland, Maine.

Editor’s note:  Brian Webb, reporter for ABC-15 TV News, wrote this report for ABC15.com for a special in-depth segment of Made in Arizona broadcast during the TV station’s newscast 10 p.m. Dec. 2, 2011.

Brian Webb | ABC-15 TV News | Originally posted Dec. 2, 2011 at 9:46 p.m. on ABC15.com

PHOENIX – Manufacturing jobs are on the rise in Arizona with 2000 new jobs in the past year.

We are seventh in the country for high tech manufacturing jobs with an average pay of $74,000 a year.

LAI International manufactures all kinds of items from medical to military equipment. We went the company’s manufacturing plant in Phoenix to see their operation.
The one thing they have in common is the things they make are fairly high tech.  For example, they produce products that go on the F-35 fighter jet and armored vehicles.

Bryan Repan is a process engineer at LAI. He lost his old manufacturing job when it was shipped overseas to Asia.
With four mouths to feed, Bryan decided to go back to school.  “That is something I worried about, being laid off at old jobs,” says Bryan.
He has worked at LAI for 12 years now.

His little brother is in the military. He and other soldiers are being protected by Bryan’s handiwork.

“We do things others can’t do,” says Stewart Cramer, who is President of LAI.  He spoke to us from their headquarters in Scottsdale.
He is a former engineer turned businessman who is bullish on manufacturing for Arizona and America.
“America is still at the top of the list for manufacturing because of our innovative workers,” he said.

One of LAI’s specialties is using high powered waterjets to drill holes.

Their machines can punch a hole the size of a human hair through titanium.
Some of their products, like medical equipment, is shipped overseas to places like Asia, the same place Bryan’s old job disappeared to more than a decade ago.

See the special broadcast news segment on ABC15.com.

Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved.  Used with permission. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Made in Arizona series is modeled after the parent network’s popular Made in America series broadcast on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer earlier this year, according to Brian Webb, news reporter, for the ABC 15 affiliate in Phoenix. Webb interviewed LAI employees in the segment taped on location at LAI International’s Corporate Headquarters in the Scottsdale Airpark, Scottsdale, and at LAI International production facility in Phoenix, in October 2011.

Webb interviewed Stewart Cramer, president of LAI International, on the importance of supporting employment and maintaining a strong manufacturing base in the United States. Webb also interviewed employees at LAI’s manufacturing facility located in an industrial area of south Phoenix to capture the human element of the work and the complex nature of precision contract manufacturing at LAI.

The photographer used a broadcast-quality video camera set-ups and a compact, shockproof, water-proof, wide-angle unit to shoot close-up video of several manufacturing operations, including five-axis waterjet cutting. The production crew also shot footage of  finishing and assembly operations in the facility.

The piece in the Made in Arizona series is scheduled to air on ABC-15 TV, Phoenix, during sweeps month — the week of November 7, 2011 — and is expected to be available on-line. LAI International will provide a link to the final broadcast production after it goes on line. Stay tuned.

— Matt Kalina | Strategic Marketing Director, LAI International

1. LAI International was the only industrial manufacturer to receive an award.

2. LAI ranked as the 44th largest private company based in Arizona.

3. This marks the fourth year in a row LAI won an ACE.

LAI International was recognized Sept. 20 as an ACE Top-50 Private Company ranked by revenue at the 17th Annual Arizona Corporate Excellence awards ceremony at Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Scottsdale, Ariz. Stewart Cramer, president, LAI International, was joined at the event by John Rogers, vice president and chief operating officer, Matt Kalina, Director of Strategic Marketing, and Cindy Schropp, executive assistant.

“We greatly appreciate that the Phoenix Business Journal and other leaders of our business community put together this program to highlight the best in Arizona business,” Cramer  said. “We are proud to be one of the companies to be recognized among its peers.”
LAI has won ACE awards each year since 2008, including two ACE awards — one for top-25 fastest-growing private company and a second for top-50 private company — in both 2008 and 2009.

Other notable 2011 ACE Award winners last night include Discount Tire at number 1; StandardAero, 2; Go Daddy, 8; LifeLock, 21; American Traffic Solutions, 23; Phoenix Group Metals, 30; and Copper State Bolt & Nut Co., 35.

The largest private companies in Arizona recognized by ACE generate revenues of more than $15 billion per year, according to the Phoenix Business Journal. They employ more than 40,000 employees in Arizona and more than 56,000 worldwide.

For more information on ACE Awards, see: www2.bizjournals.com/phoenix/events/2011/ace_awards/index.html.

A 9/11 granite monument, designed and manufactured by employees of LAI International, Westminster, Md., is displayed in the lobby of the Westminster Police Department. An identical monument is housed in the Westminster Fire Department. Photo by Kym Byrnes, editor, WestminsterPatch

LAI International takes a look back to the events following the 9/11 attacks ten years ago and to its employees who reached out to memorialize the victims on Sept. 11, 2011.

A waterjet-cut stone monument stands in the lobby of the Westminster Police Department, Westminster, Md., home to LAI International’s second-largest manufacturing facility. An identical monument is housed in the city’s fire department.

The one-foot-tall monuments, designed and constructed by LAI International employees, was donated to the police and fire departments ten years ago, and was dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives in the attacks, Sept. 11, 2001.

The inscription reads, “Made by the employees of LAI International, Inc. Dedicated to the memory of those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.” Employees of LAI International designed, waterjet cut and assembled the memorials from a large granite block recycled from a dismantled laser machining center at LAI’s 40,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Westminster. LAI International, which now has five U.S. locations and a corporate office in Scottsdale, Ariz., was established in Maryland in 1979.

See the full story with photos by Kym Byrnes, editor of the WestminsterPatch at http://bit.ly/olWTf1.

LAI International was recognized by the Aerospace Industries Association for its support of the Second to None campaign, which seeks to preserve U.S. leadership in aerospace and defense industries.

“Now more than ever we must educate the public and decision-makers about the national and economic security consequences of ill-considered cuts to vital aerospace and defense programs,” Marion Blakely, president and CEO, AIA, said in a letter to AIA members Aug. 5.

The campaign urges supporters to sign up on AIA’s Second to None campaign to express concerns over proposed cuts to our defense and aerospace budgets:

“Our defense and aerospace primacy allows us to defend our interests while minimizing risk to our servicemen and women. This is fundamental to America’s security in a time of terrorists and rogue states.

Predator drones, cruise missiles, air superior aircraft and spy satellites are technologies allowing the United States to deal with modern threats without committing ourselves to another costly ground war that nobody wants and we cannot afford.  Send a letter to your representatives in Congress now about supporting America’s defense programs.  Help preserve American leadership in aerospace and defense. ”

LAI International was one of 29 companies, including Boeing, GE Aviation, Goodrich, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce North America, Textron and Triumph, that the AIA recognized as supporters of the effort.

The Aerospace Industries Association is urging supporters to send a message to Congress to protect defense and aerospace budgets from the chopping block:

Express your concern over proposed cuts to the defense and aerospace budgets. Act now to urge Congress to maintain the programs. Our defense and aerospace primacy allows us to defend our interests while minimizing risk to our servicemen and women. This is fundamental to America’s security in a time of terrorists and rogue states.

Predator drones, cruise missiles, air superior aircraft and spy satellites are technologies  allowing the United States to deal with modern threats without committing ourselves to another costly ground war that nobody wants and we cannot afford.

Send a letter to your representatives in Congress now about supporting America’s defense programs.  Help preserve American leadership in aerospace and defense.  Sign up on Aerospace Industry Association’s Second to None campaign.

Attendees from around the world visit LAI International's exhibit at Turbo Expo 2011, Vancouver, Canada, June 7-9, 2011.

LAI International’s Strategic Markets Team welcomed turbomachinery professionals from around the world at the company’s exhibit at Turbo Expo in Vancouver, Canada, earlier this month.

Turbo Expo, an event operated by the Gas Turbine Institute of the American of Society of Mechanical Engineers, attracted 2,380 registered attendees and 120 exhibiting companies June 6-10, 2011, according to Kristin Barranger, manager of the event.

The five-day event features a technical conference,  an exhibition of turbine products and services supported by leading companies in the industry and a keynote session with prominent industry leaders.

Next year’s Turbo Expo takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark, June 11-15, 2012.