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30 SEP 2026

KCC Manufacturing And Transaera Partner To Scale U.S. Production Of High-Efficiency Cooling Systems

KCC Manufacturing and Transaera have formed a manufacturing and engineering partnership to scale U.S. production of Transaera’s next-generation dedicated outdoor air systems, which use Metal Organic Framework materials to remove moisture before cooling.

The systems will be manufactured at KCC’s employee-owned facilities in Kentucky, with KCC responsible for the equipment cabinet, implementation support for Transaera’s proprietary controls, systems integration, and the platform’s domestic production capacity. Multiple units have already been manufactured, with additional systems in production.

The partnership is intended to address one of the more energy-intensive aspects of commercial building cooling: humidity control.

Traditional packaged rooftop equipment often manages humidity by cooling the air well below the required indoor temperature and then reheating it. That process consumes energy during both cooling and reheating.

Conventional desiccant systems can avoid that cycle but require significant energy to regenerate, or dry out, the desiccant so it can be reused.

Transaera’s approach uses Metal Organic Frameworks, or MOFs, engineered to release captured moisture at much lower regeneration temperatures, allowing the system to combine desiccant-based moisture removal with an all-electric heat-pump architecture.

The system is also designed to fit within existing rooftop equipment footprints, potentially making adoption easier for commercial building owners replacing or upgrading conventional systems.

Transaera said its platform has demonstrated approximately 40% energy savings compared with conventional packaged direct-expansion-only systems and has achieved more than twice the current federal minimum efficiency standard for moisture removal.

KCC’s role centers on turning Transaera’s materials technology into equipment that can be produced, installed, controlled, and serviced at commercial scale.

The company adapted its existing dedicated outdoor air system cabinet for Transaera’s first-generation unit and is now working with Transaera’s engineering organization on the next-generation cabinet.

KCC is also supporting implementation of the electronics associated with Transaera’s proprietary control sequences and integrating the desiccant and refrigeration portions of the system so they operate together.

The arrangement allows Transaera to expand production without building its own cabinet fabrication and manufacturing infrastructure.

The production partnership follows growing commercial activity for Transaera.

In May 2026, Transaera announced a multi-year collaboration with Amazon to expand deployment of its high-efficiency heat pump technology following a six-month field trial at an Amazon logistics facility operating in hot and humid conditions.

Warehouse, logistics, commercial, and multifamily facilities in high-humidity climates represent potential markets for the technology because moisture removal can account for a significant portion of their cooling load.

The companies believe lowering the temperature needed to regenerate the desiccant could improve the economics of all-electric humidity control while reducing energy consumption.

Under the partnership, Transaera will continue developing the MOF-based sorbent materials and overall system architecture, while KCC will use its established dedicated outdoor air manufacturing lines to build and ship finished systems.

Additional units are already in production, and the companies expect manufacturing volumes to grow as adoption of high-efficiency, all-electric humidity-control systems expands across commercial and multifamily properties.

KCC Companies was founded in 1977 and is a 100% employee-owned company headquartered in Jeffersontown, Kentucky.

The company employs more than 1,000 people and operates approximately 800,000 square feet of manufacturing space across four facilities in Jeffersontown and Simpsonville, Kentucky.

Its products include dedicated outdoor air systems, air handling equipment, roof curbs and adapters, dehumidification technology, and energy recovery systems for commercial buildings and specialized applications.

KCC has operated as an employee stock ownership plan since 2008 and ranks as the 13th-largest private company in Louisville, according to the announcement.

Transaera was founded in 2017 by MIT engineers and materials scientists and is headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts.

The company’s technology applies MOF materials to cooling and dehumidification systems, with the KCC partnership providing a pathway for scaling those systems through established U.S. manufacturing infrastructure.

KEY QUOTES:

“Materials science wins in a lab. Products win on a roof, and getting from one to the other is a manufacturing problem. Transaera solved the hard chemistry. Our job was to put that core inside a cabinet that can be built repeatably, controlled reliably, and serviced by a normal technician, and to build it here. That is the work that turns a breakthrough into something a building owner can actually buy.”

Joel Strieter, President Of KCC Manufacturing

“We were never going to scale this by building cabinets ourselves. KCC has been making dedicated outdoor air systems for decades, and they brought a production platform, a controls organization, and real manufacturing capacity to a company our size. Having that behind us in the United States is what lets us commit to customers on volume and on timing.”

Sorin Grama, CEO And Co-Founder Of Transaera

“Latent load is where a lot of rooftop equipment quietly loses. The conventional answer is to overcool and reheat. The conventional desiccant answer trades that penalty for a regeneration penalty. What makes the MOF approach interesting is that it removes moisture at a much lower regeneration temperature, which is what puts an all-electric path to humidity control genuinely in reach. Our role has been to make sure the system around that core performs the way the material does.”

Kevin Muldoon, Director Of Research & Development At KCC

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admin Precision Manufacturing News 75M Apex fund Industrial Joins manufacturing OSS scale Software Teknor U.S Ventures

Teknor Apex Joins OSS Ventures €75M Fund to Scale Industrial Software Across U.S. Manufacturing

PR Newswire

BOSTON, April 28, 2026

BOSTON, April 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Teknor Apex Company, a global leader in material science solutions, today announced it has joined as a founding partner in OSS Ventures’ new investment fund, targeting €75M million to scale proven industrial software companies across North America and Europe.

Building Software Where It Matters: On the Manufacturing Floor

Founded in 2019 by Renan Devillieres, OSS Ventures is a venture studio building next-generation industrial software that operates at the intersection of software development and manufacturing operations. The firm’s thesis is straightforward: industrial software only drives lasting change when it’s built from the manufacturing floor up – alongside the operators, supervisors, and engineers who use it daily.

With OSS Ventures now expanding operations beyond Europe to its new office in Boston, MA, Teknor Apex will serve as the regional industrial anchor partner, becoming the first U.S. manufacturer to both invest in and operate OSS portfolio software at scale.

“This partnership reflects a shared view that the future advancements in industry will be innovated by people and technology working in tandem to create measurable impacts” said Donald Wiseman, CEO, Teknor Apex.

Teknor Apex: From Co-Builder to Co-Investor

This partnership started on the factory floor. Teknor Apex deployed three of OSS Ventures’ portfolio companies in their Rhode Island and Tennessee sites. The impact was immediate:

Oplit allows Teknor Apex to set their plants up for success through a reduction in changeovers, improved yield, and a stronger foundation for more automated planning over time.
Fabriq helps to strengthen a culture of continuous improvement, with problem-solving embedded at every level of the manufacturing organization.
Mercateam supports operators, mechanics, and lab technicians in building critical skills and advancing their careers – helping Teknor Apex better invest in its most valuable resource: its people.

Teknor Apex and OSS Ventures are aligned as both core business partners and venture partners, with Teknor Apex joining as a founding partner in the €75M amplification fund alongside DECATHLON PULSE, the investment and innovation arm of global sports company DECATHLON, and Peugeot Family Group.

“As we shape our next 100 years of manufacturing, digital transformation is the sole viable path to not only short-term efficiency, but long-term competitiveness,” said Michael Roberts, CIO, Teknor Apex.

Contact:
Faustine Ladeiro Levent, Head of Marketing
faustine@oss.ventures

Photo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2965406/OSS_Ventures_x_Teknor_Apex.jpg

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/teknor-apex-joins-oss-ventures-75m-fund-to-scale-industrial-software-across-us-manufacturing-302754013.html

SOURCE OSS Ventures; Teknor Apex

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admin Precision Manufacturing News Biologics manufacturing Maryland Samsung scale U.S

Samsung Biologics looks to scale up U.S. manufacturing in Maryland

Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim delivers his keynote speech outlining the company’s future roadmap at the 44th J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference held at Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on Jan. 13. [SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS]

SAN FRANCISCO — Samsung Biologics is seeking to strengthen its U.S. footprint by expanding capacity at its recently acquired manufacturing facility in Rockville, Maryland, as it seeks to meet growing customer demand for U.S.-based production amid shifting trade policies.

“The GSK facility acquisition is anticipated to close in March this year, giving us regional presentation in the United States,” said CEO John Rim at the 44th J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference on Tuesday. “It will have flexibility to take on additional products beyond the GSK product line.”

Samsung Biologics announced in December 2025 that it would acquire the Rockville facility from GlaxoSmithKline for $280 million. The plant has an annual production capacity of 60,000 liters (15,850 gallons).

“It [the U.S. factory] has always been a higher cost area and everybody knows that, but for us, the U.S. was critical and the reason for that is we’ve lost customers because we didn’t have a U.S. presence,” Rim said, adding that clients wanted supply chain resiliency.

While the Rockville facility is modest in scale compared to Samsung Biologics’ five plants in Songdo, Korea — which together have a combined capacity of 785,000 liters — the company said the U.S. site can be expanded by an additional 20,000 to 40,000 liters.

“Everybody understands that there’s some pricing flexibility, so we’ll have to work through,” Rim said. “But we do see that having the Rockfield facility will open up new venues of growth for us.”

Initially, the plant will continue manufacturing existing GSK products, including Benlysta, a monoclonal antibody treatment for lupus. Over time, the facility is expected to be upgraded to support multiple modalities, particularly antibody production.

Samsung Biologics CEO John Rim delivers his keynote speech outlining the company's future roadmap at the 44th J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference held at Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco on Jan. 13. [SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS]

“Whether antibody drug conjugate [ADC] capabilities are added in the future will depend on demand,” Rim added at a separate press conference held with the Korean press on Monday.

With the facility, the Korean company will have more than 500 employees working at the site, and plans to recruit more U.S talent in the future.

The company’s main production site, however, remains rooted in its Songdo campus as U.S. tariffs on biopharmaceutical imports have largely dissolved. While tariffs were previously discussed at levels as high as 250 percent, subsequent bilateral negotiations have capped potential tariffs at 15 percent, significantly reducing trade-related risk.

In parallel, Samsung Biologics is continuing to expand domestically. Construction of a sixth plant is expected to begin between 2026 and 2027, and the company has secured land for a third phase of its Songdo manufacturing campus. It plans to invest approximately 7 trillion won ($4.7 billion) through 2034 to build additional production facilities.

Looking ahead, Rim said the company’s investment strategy, including mergers and acquisitions, will remain focused on antibody manufacturing.

The global biopharmaceutical market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10 percent, from $565 billion in 2025 to $921 billion in 2030, according to market researcher Evaluate Pharma, driven in particular by monoclonal antibodies, multispecific antibodies, ADCs and fusion proteins.

“The antibody market is so large that even single-digit growth translates into meaningful demand,” Rim said. “Other segments may grow faster in percentage terms, but their overall impact is limited by smaller market size.”

Samsung Biologics is also closely monitoring developments in GLP-1 therapies — particularly the shift toward oral formulations — as well as opportunities in peptide manufacturing.

The company has rebranded its contract manufacturing offering under the name ExcellenS, a move that reflects its emphasis on tailored production and operational efficiency, based on standardized and scalable manufacturing processes.

Samsung Biologics is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings on Jan. 21. The company recorded a record annual order intake of 6.8 trillion won in 2025, with cumulative orders surpassing $21 billion.