Avans Machine and Tool celebrated over 20 years of growth and success at the ribbon cutting for their 15,000 sq. ft. expansion last Wednesday. Located in Hytop, the company began in 1989 with Jeff Avans, his father and two brothers, Tom and Steve. Since that time they have added nearly 50 employees, many who studied at the Earnest Pruitt Center of Technology.

Avans’s recent expansion comes just as they are finishing a two year NASA Mentor-Protégé program with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. Avans is the first certified HUBZone, Historically Under-Utilized Business, to participate in a Mentor-Protégé agreement with a NASA prime contractor. According to a press release the program “encourages prime contractors to help eligible small businesses enhance their technical and business capabilities to better compete for NASA contracts and subcontracts.”  Through the program Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne mentored Avans while they produced precision valves for NASA’s J-2X rocket engine. The Avans team was joined in their celebration Wednesday by representatives from both NASA and Pratt &Whitney Rocketdyne.

Besides manufacturing products for aerospace and defense, Avans also manufactures commercial and industrial equipment, medical instruments, medical implants and pharmaceutical equipment.

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