Bothell company MTorres counts Boeing as prime client

By Aaron Kunker

Bothell Reporter

During the past two decades the Spain-based company MTorreshas been supplying manufacturing equipment to Puget Sound aerospace titans.

Formed in the 1970s, the company quickly expanded across Europe and developed automated composite and metal manufacturing machines capable of pumping out aircraft components. The American branch of the company is based out of Bothell, with a manufacturing location in Everett.

Eduardo Torres, chairman of MTorres America, said their decision to locate their business in the Seattle area was deliberate.

“For us, it was very important to increase our presence in the American market,” Torres said. “We thought the best place to be would be in the state of Washington and as close as we could be to Boeing.”

While Boeing is a prime client, MTorres also sells their machines to a wide variety of buyers, including Airbus and Cormac, as well as for military applications on the Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin F35, helicopters and many more aircraft.

In total, MTorres’s designs and machines are used by 55 customers in more than 25 countries, according to their website.

MTorres acquired Pacifica Engineering in 2013 and rapidly expanded their payroll from 40 employees to 125 across their two locations.

Two of the company’s hottest composite products are the Automated Tap Layer (ATL) and the Automated Fiber Placement (AFP).

The ATL is used to create relatively flat aircraft panels, like those found on an airplane’s tail fin, while the AFP is used for more geometrically complex designs like curved pieces of the hull.

And Vice President of Business Development Mark Cumm said the company is looking to expand.

“We have a growth plan that is very positive in terms of bringing on new business,” he said.

Mtorres is finalizing plans for a single consolidated facility in Everett which will combine the office, manufacturing, research and development and prototyping operations under the same roof.

Concurrent with with these planned expansions, Cumm said MTorres has several job openings they are recruiting to fill.

As the commercial space industry expands, Torres said his company is looking for inroads into the emerging sector.

Torres has been in discussions with unspecified space companies in the Seattle area, which he sees as becoming a major space technology hub. “It’s a market of our interest,” he said.