The whirring sounds of a metal 3D printer fill a small factory floor. Just blocks away are the boarded-up brick mill buildings in an old industrial neighborhood of Worcester, once the home of some of the country’s leading manufacturers.
The company, Multiscale Systems, makes custom machine parts used for precision manufacturing — a process where exact specifications are critical and measurements need to be accurate to within the width of a human hair. Those highly customized pieces form molds for making maple syrup containers and parts needed to make components for nuclear reactors.
Jesse Silverberg, the company’s chief executive, says he is eager to see his seven-year-old business grow. But he now has a “shelf of worry” because much of what his company depends on — from raw materials to tools — includes minerals and specialized metals that come from other countries.
“The reality is that supply chains are global,” Silverberg said. “There is an important interaction there that gets overlooked by something as coarse as just a flat tariff across the board.”
President Donald Trump and his administration are implementing worldwide tariffs — in part, officials say, to drive manufacturing back to the United States. But business leaders in this city, the second largest in New England, say tariffs, instead, could destroy the global supply chain they rely on to survive.
John Brown, an economic historian at Clark University in Worcester, worries Trump’s economic policy could destroy the very businesses seen as the future of this city.
“There is no sense behind it,” he said. “You have different suppliers in different countries specializing in producing elements of sophisticated supply chains. You impose these kinds of tariffs and try to incite a trade war, you’re basically assuming that the world doesn’t work like it actually does.’’
Worcester was long famous for making things. Back in the mid-1800s, the city was the leading producer of wire, used for everything from telegraphs and pianos to fencing on the Great Plains. Later, the city cranked out parts and machinery for paper-making and textiles. The hulking freight trains that supplied those industries still crisscross the city going over rusting bridges, some with slogans like “Building America.”
But by the mid-1960s, Worcester — outpaced by innovations in machinery, global competition and cheaper labor elsewhere — saw its manufacturing shrink.
The city still has traditional manufacturing like Polar Beverages and Table Talk Pies, but in recent years has attracted new advanced manufacturing for the semiconductor industry and biomanufacturing.
Timothy Murray, CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, says what’s needed is more workforce development, not widespread tariffs and uncertainty.
“There is a real nervousness and, I think, caution that is taking place among our manufacturers, which is not likely to lead to significant growth in jobs,’’ Murray said, “ until there is better clarity on what the end result is here, which is anybody’s guess.”
Silverberg said he started his business with research and design contracts in 2018 for the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA. He went on to purchase an old machining business — not far from the city’s train tracks — keeping the equipment and investing in advanced machinery.
Employee Paul Lavallee says he’s worked in manufacturing for over 40 years and doesn’t think people realize how much things have changed.
“I don’t think they always think of how many things it takes to make a product,” Lavallee said, taking a break from his job refining metal parts at one of the older machines. “Things are coming across the world. It wasn’t always that way.”
Nearby, manufacturing engineer Ray Cerro strives to perfect a part made with an advanced metal 3D printer, one of several the company uses for its manufacturing that demands the highest accuracy.
To do his work, Cerro says he needs special alloys — or combinations of metals - and often they include an element which is hard to find in the United States.
“You have these other alloys that often have a primary component that America might do fine with but still relying on other countries for that little piece of the puzzle that makes those materials unique,” Cerro said. “It’s hard to get around that.”
A major metal needed by U.S. manufacturers is called tungsten, a metal known for its hardness and ability to withstand extreme temperatures. About 80% of the world’s tungsten comes from China, which began restricting exports in February in response to Trump’s tariffs.
Silverberg says the metal is essential to many of the tools his company buys. Picking up a special cutting tool made partly from tungsten, he said he worries about doing without. “Are we going to have enough of these?” he asked.
He also worries about the price of nickel, a metal essential to making parts for aerospace and energy manufacturing. Much of the world’s supply of nickel comes from Indonesia and the Philippines.
And Silverberg worries about having to pass on new costs to customers. Facing uncertainty, he’s holding off on stocking up on some tools until he needs them, hoping the tariffs go down.
“At the end of the day we can’t put all of our money onto the shelf to collect dust,’’ he said. “In manufacturing, especially capital intensive manufacturing, you have to pick and choose your battles.”
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