ThermAvant Technologies opening manufacturing facility in Columbia

ThermAvant Technologies opened a new 33,000-square-foot facility in Columbia Thursday.

According to a press release from the company, the new space will more than quadruple its engineering and manufacturing space.

The new facility is at 2508 Paris Road in Columbia. Many know the location as what was formerly the Silver Bullet.

Joe Boswell, CEO and co-founder of ThermAvant Technologies, explained what the company makes.

“ThermAvant Technologies makes aerospace quality thermal mechanic solutions,” he said.

In simple terms, the company finds ways to prevent technology like computer chips, lasers, lithium batteries, and more from overheating when they get more power. It also makes more accessible products like mugs that use the same technology to keep liquids warm.

Columbia Mayor Brian Treece attended the opening.

“This is one of the first launches out of the College of Engineering where research and technology that was developed on the University of Missouri campus has transitioned into a private company with a line of consumer products,” he said.

Treece called ThermAvant Technologies one of the best-kept secrets in Columbia.

“I first heard about it two or three years ago that a lot of people didn’t realize that operating out of a metal building was a company developing these types of products,” Treece said.

ThermAvant currently has 30 employees and hopes to have around 60 in about a year. At the opening, Boswell said he hopes to double the workforce year after year. The new facility can hold around 100 employees.

It has the technology to simulate a space environment which allows workers to test all of the products in the environement in which they will be used.

Treece said the work the company and university are doing with the St. Louis Geospatial-Intelligence Agency puts Columbia and the university on the map.

“That’s the type of innovation that we want to attract and retain here in Columbia,” he said.

He said the company’s presense and growth would attract jobs, but would also attract jobs at the university.

The company’s research and development in the past was primarily supported by Department of Defense agencies like NASA, the Air Force research laboratory, the Army research laboratory, etc.

Now the company is beginning to work with those departments’ prime contractors, like Boeing.

ThermAvant also got $400,000 from the Missouri Technology Corp., a public-private partnership created by the Missouri General Assembly to promote growth of new technologies.

The money is a loan, but not in the typical way. The company does not need to repay the money unless it moves out of Missouri. The MTC invested in the company with the hopes it would raise money the MTC could buy back as shares.

The company has private and public investments, which Boswell said allowed the company to grow.

Boswell started the company with several others at the University of Missouri in 2007. Now, he said it recruits a majority of its engineers from the university.

Boswell said they chose to keep ThermAvant in Columbia because of its central location, the university and it’s schools.

“One of the great draws about Columbia is that it’s got the university, it’s got a highly educated workforce. It’s also got great public schools,” he said.

He added this would help bring people who live in more expensive areas with good education to relocate to Columbia.