I admit it; I’m a nerd.

Normal people ask for nice slippers or a new smartphone for Christmas. I asked my lovely for a 3D printer.

Mind you, when I received it, a part was broken, so I had to fabricate it. Then, when I finished fixing it, I was off to my next nerdy project.

Someday, though, I will make a cool smartphone case for myself with it.

My nerdicity is most excited about the partnership between SUNY Polytechnic and Norsk. This team will build a facility in Clinton County that rivals the best in the world.

The new technology can reduce the construction costs of a high-technology airplane like the Airbus A380 or Boeing’s Dreamliner by millions of dollars. It will also surely have applications in space.

In some sense, the technology is merely a glorified 3D printer. But while I play with wisps of plastic, Norsk uses titanium.

Its partnership has figured out how to do additive manufacturing by building parts up — and at very close tolerances.

Titanium is a relatively abundant and very light metal that is, pound for pound, stronger than steel. However, it is a bit more difficult to mold and recycle.

Hence, to build a part up by depositing layers, one layer at a time, there is little or no wastage, and the finished piece requires little polishing or machining.

In a fraction of the time that traditional and wasteful machining takes, parts are ready to be installed in jet engines, fittings and other areas where high strength and low weight are essential.

There is a local company that works with a similar technology through a recently purchased subsidiary. Of course, I lament that, when ALCOA curtailed much of its operations here in the North Country, even after tens of millions of dollars of government subsidies, it could have, and perhaps even should have, made a similar additive manufacturing investment here.

It did not, and Norsk did, and I am most grateful.

This will mean hundreds of direct jobs in the North Country. For an industry of this sort, each direct job will account for about one indirect or induced job. This could then total almost a thousand jobs.

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