Prototype Field Deployment for Energy & Aerospace Hardware
Great engineering teams can design almost anything. Getting it fabricated, assembled, shipped, installed and running at a windy test site is a different skill. That is our job, so your engineers can stay on the product.
Ashtonco, LLC brings a builder's discipline to first-of-a-kind hardware: real schedules, real budgets, and someone in the field who has done heavy lifts, remote sites and international logistics before.
What we do
- Design for buildabilityReview drawings early with the engineers so parts can actually be made, moved and installed.
- Fabrication and assemblyFind and manage machine shops, fabricators and assembly crews; track parts, quality and schedule.
- Test site developmentSite selection, permits, foundations, utilities and access for prototype installations.
- LogisticsOversize and heavy-haul transport, ocean shipping and international moves to remote sites.
- Field installation and testingCrane lifts, erection, commissioning support and field crews during test campaigns.
- Facility managementKeep test facilities and equipment running safely between campaigns.
Industries
Airborne wind ground stations and offshore wind measurement buoy deployment.
Support services for a developer of lightweight, movable hydrogen production facilities (confidential client).
Full-scale crash test design, rigging and test site support.
Test site setup and support services for a rocket prototype developer (confidential client).
Also taking on: data center power and infrastructure; energy test and demonstration facilities, including geothermal, carbon capture and storage, and other new power technologies; and drone programs for fire response and replanting.
Selected work
Makani, a project within Google
Energy kite ground stations
Managed fabrication, assembly, shipping and installation of ground stations weighing up to 57,000 lbs, at test sites from California to Hawaii to Norway.
A complex, demanding program requiring international travel. Finished ahead of schedule and on budget.
Aviation · Airworthiness
eVTOL passenger survivability crash test
Project management in support of airworthiness for passengers, specifically whether passengers survive a crash.
We designed a full-scale test using two cranes, one side-boom loaded, to drop the aircraft into a controlled impact. High-speed cameras recorded the crash, and a crash test dummy fitted with highly sensitive sensors measured the forces passengers would experience.
Offshore wind buoy deploymentAdvance logistics for deploying wind measurement buoys at multiple locations along the Pacific coast: identified possible sites and deployment methods, and lined up local labor, vessel hauling, dock support and haul-out services. The work supported the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in quantifying deepwater Pacific offshore wind call areas.
Shipyard workEight-plus years at a Bay Area shipyard, rising from project manager to senior PM and industrial sales program manager, including work on the battleship USS Iowa.
Why bring in a builder
Hardware startups are staffed for design, not for crane schedules, heavy-haul permits and test-site foundations. Ashtonco, LLC fills that gap for the length of the program, so your engineers spend their time on the product and your hardware gets to the field on schedule.
Ashtonco, LLC · Licensed California General Contractor #1058186 · (510) 773-0622
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