Some Burlington technologies are easy to miss because the companies sell to utilities, laboratories, broadcasters and manufacturers rather than directly to consumers. Their systems and materials are used far beyond the city.
Water systems shipped around the world
Aslan Technologies designs and builds packaged water and wastewater systems in Burlington. Burlington Economic Development says the company has supplied more than 3,000 turnkey, packaged and modular systems around the world.
They include drinking-water treatment, sewage treatment and chemical-injection systems. Aslan has also supplied packaged purified-water systems to communities hit by natural disasters.
Because the equipment is packaged and modular, the treatment system can be assembled as a unit and shipped to the site instead of being built entirely there.
A robotics company that started in a Burlington home
In 1982, four McMaster engineering students formed CRS Robotic Inc. and began working from a family home on Lakeshore Road. The company later became CRS Robotics.
Thermo Electron acquired it in 2002. Today, Thermo Fisher Scientific's laboratory-automation operation at 5250 Mainway designs, assembles, distributes and services robotic laboratory systems.
The systems move samples and lab plates between instruments for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and research organizations. Burlington Economic Development says the lab-automation systems are shipped worldwide.
Broadcast equipment used on every continent
Evertz is headquartered in Burlington and has a major manufacturing operation here. Its hardware and software move television and digital video through broadcast facilities, telecom networks, streaming systems and mobile platforms.
Evertz says its equipment is used in major broadcast facilities on every continent.
Plant-based chemistry inside everyday materials
EcoSynthetix is headquartered in Burlington and makes bio-based polymers used by manufacturers of particleboard, oriented strand board, paper, paperboard and tissue.
The company develops materials intended to replace or reduce conventional fossil-based chemicals, including formaldehyde- and styrene-based materials. EcoSynthetix says it works with customers around the world and has production capacity in North America and Europe.
A Burlington-developed material can therefore end up inside a sheet of paper, a wood panel or a tissue product without the buyer ever seeing the company name.
Why these companies are easy to miss
All four mostly sell systems, equipment or materials to other organizations. They are not consumer brands, even when their technology reaches consumers indirectly.
Burlington News has found the same pattern in construction. SEKISUI's Burlington factory says up to 90% of a building can be made indoors before the modules reach a construction site.