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Updated: 2 hours ago From the Editor

Editor's note: Manufacturing is a 12-month industry

By Peter Van Allen

October is Manufacturing Month, but the industry is very much a year-round focus in Maine.

The Manufacturers Association of Maine, which hosts events around Manufacturing Month, has a new leader, John Lewis, who is bringing energy to the job. Lewis, who has been a guest columnist for Mainebiz, makes a case for the changes in the industry. It’s not your father’s or mother’s or uncle’s manufacturing industry. There are biotech jobs, cleantech jobs and a range of skills needed. See Deputy Editor Renee Cordes' Q&A with Lewis.

Our cover story features surfer Mike Ballin, founder of Blueprint Surf, riding a surfboard made with a 3D printer. For surfing purists, who for decades have ridden foam-and-fiberglass surfboards “shaped” by an individual (in this case, known as a shaper), it’s a break from the past. But in her story Renee Cordes talks to people who are taking 3D printing to new heights. See “Cresting the third dimension."

In Orono, Senior Writer Laurie Schreiber checks in with the Advanced Manufacturing Center at the University of Maine. The center recently opened a robotics and automation center known as the B.O.T. Loft, for build, optimize, train. It’s the next stage in the center’s effort “to help companies trial and de-risk the adoption of these technologies and to train workers with the skills needed to operate them,” the center’s director tells Laurie.

Finally, if you’re paying more for coffee these days, staff writer Tina Fischer offers a few reasons why. She talks with the owner of one of Maine’s largest coffee roasting companies to find out how tariffs, changes in growing patterns and labor shortages are all contributing to the higher cost of a cup of coffee. See "Storm brewing: Coffee roasters tackle tariffs, inflation and labor costs."

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