Headwall's Bolton expansion paying off
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Chris Van Veen, marketing manager, Headwall Photonics.
Headwall Photonics added a facility in Bolton earlier this year, allowing for easier access to Boston. The Fitchburg company makes imaging spectrometers that can detect things beyond the surface level. Marketing manager Christopher Van Veen spoke about the expansion and the company’s presence in the medical market.
Why did you open a facility in Bolton?
The move allowed us to expand key areas of our business, namely sales, engineering, and marketing. Plus, it’s more closely located for visitors coming from Boston Logan International Airport.
How does the extra space help your operations?
It has allowed us also to do some test flying of our UAV-based airborne solutions within strict Federal Aviation Administration guidelines because we now have very nice grounds. And the space affords us room to develop new spectral imaging solutions for other parts of the business having to do with medical/biotech and advanced machine vision.
Last year, you mentioned you're pushing into the medical market space. Why are your products useful for that industry?
In the medical market, scientists need more highly-resolved views of cells and tissues. Once example is brain cancer, where the good cells are almost indistinguishable from the bad ones. Since brain cells do not regenerate, care must be taken to identify the cancerous cells while leaving the healthy ones alone.
How do your products then help patients with brain cancer?
Our hyperspectral imaging sensors provide a very highly resolved view because they see into the infrared ranges that are well beyond human vision.
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by Laura Finaldi, WBJ staff writer.
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