Animax Designs looks to the future as they prepare to expand their 80,000 sq. ft. facility and have begun the process of relocating older equipment to make room for state-of-the-art equipment upgrades. Chris Lee, who serves as the Director of Technical Design and was one of the original founders of Make Nashville, encouraged Animax to pass along any unused equipment to the local non-profit who has a small army of creative-minds ready to put the equipment to good use.
Founded in 2012, Make Nashville is a volunteer-led organization that became a focal point of the maker movement in the region and in 2019 more than doubled its facility size moving into its current 12,000 sq. ft. facility in East Nashville after three years of fundraising. Make Nashville is a space to build projects, collaborate with other creative minds, explore other hobbies that pique interests, and much more. Moving into a larger facility afforded them the ability to now host workshops, events, and provide it’s 100+ members with even better spaces and equipment than before.
Animax Designs understands all too well the excitement of moving into a larger facility, having moved into their current 80,000 sq. ft. facility in 2017. Due to rapid growth in the past three years, the company now prepares for facility expansions to keep up with industry demand for their highly-sophisticated animatronics and expertise in puppetry.
“The continued growth of our business and the constantly increasing scale of our projects has consumed space in our “new” facility at a fantastic rate! We are continuously working to optimize our internal layout and equipment selection to improve space utilization and support efficient operations. These changes have provided us the opportunity to make this wonderfully synergistic contribution to the local community and encourage further development of Nashville’s ‘Maker Culture’.”
- Steve Andersen, VP of Operations, Animax Designs
To help fill Make Nashville’s newly acquired space and upgrade its capabilities, Animax donated two commercial-grade 3D printers along with emergency stops for equipment, a sandblast cabinet filter, and as many industrial rated power outlets and fuse boxes that could fit onto a pallet.
“We are incredibly grateful here at Make Nashville for Animax’ donation and excited to see the many ways our members will put everything to use. We also can’t wait to see the educational ways we’ll be able to utilize both of the 3D printers at our public workshops as we continue to expose the local maker community to technology available to them through Make Nashville.”
- William Harper, Executive Director, Make Nashville
Interested in more information on Make Nashville? Head on over to their website for a calendar of events, ways to donate, and information on becoming a member.
