VAI Member Spotlight: Concepts NREC, Vermont, USA Turbomachinery expert offers a range of services for aviation manufacturers. By Jen Boyer When you’ve got a challenge but lack the bandwidth to take a deep dive into creating a solution, it’s wise to call an expert. Since 1956, Concepts NREC has endeavored to be the expert manufacturers and makers of other specialized products call for their turbomachinery needs. Based in White River Junction, Vermont, the engineering, software, manufacturing, and training company has partnered to improve the performance of turbomachines at some of the world’s leading OEMs. The company’s in-house capabilities cover the entire turbomachinery process—from conceptual design through manufacturing, testing, and installation. This focus on the entire process enables Concepts NREC to take a big-picture perspective throughout a project, leading to insights that help save time and money. Patents and Certifications Concepts NREC’s in-house research and development program has achieved more than 70 patents worldwide, with numerous others pending. The team works by partnering with companies to help design and engineer an ideal solution, including reverse-engineering services, if necessary. The company’s software helps optimize design and analysis features, and aviation clients can design and manufacture their own turbomachinery with the software. Concepts NREC’s facility, certified to ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100:2016 standards, can manufacture everything from aircraft parts and prototypes to full turbine machinery. Training and Support Concepts NREC regularly conducts industry-sponsored consortia programs and internally funded projects to continue expanding its knowledge and applied-technology expertise. Program sponsors include equipment users, equipment manufacturers, government agencies, and independent research organizations. These collaborative programs generate technical information and data on turbomachinery performance and reliability that help improve product designs and resolve operational problems. The programs also help Concepts NREC leverage research and development funds, stay on top of advancing technology, and obtain patent rights. Concepts NREC offers professional development and advanced design courses on turbines, compressors, pumps, and turbochargers. The courses, open to the public, are taught by industry professionals. The company has also published a series of college-level textbooks on turbomachinery design and performance that are academically rigorous but design oriented. The company developed the textbooks for industry, universities, and colleges. In addition to supporting aerospace and aviation companies, Concepts NREC provides services for the industrial, oil-and-gas, refrigeration, transportation, renewable energy, and space propulsion industries. Jen Boyer is a journalist and marketing communicator specializing in aviation. She holds commercial, instrument, flight instructor, and instrument instructor ratings in helicopters and a private rating in airplanes.
