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HMF has about 25 employees and generally works on contracts ranging from $250,000 to $2.0 million. It counts Mirro, Caterpillar and Kohler among its larger customers. "Our systems make other companies look impressive, but we kind of have to remain in the background," Wage said. HMF is currently half way through a year-long, $1.5 million automation project for a Milwaukee based company which manufactures seats for vehicles like motorcycles and riding lawn mowers. It is designing and manufacturing a process that injects foam and plastic into the seats, and will allow the company to produce one seat every 30 seconds, with a huge improvement over current output. The project is too large for HMF's main facility at 2214 Franklin Street, so the company is leasing the former Jagemann Stamping facility on Meadow Lane for a period of one year. The project is using robot technology and a series of carousels. When finished in September, the automation equipment will be dismantled and shipped via 15 semi trucks to the Milwaukee company's satellite plant in Georgia. Wisconsin Commerce Secretary Brenda Blanchard toured the operation when state government officials spent a day in Manitowoc last Tuesday. Wage purchased the assets of the former HMF, Inc. last August. Tom Haug, an engineer and sole proprietor of HMF since opening the company in 1972, remains a consultant. HMF Innovations has customers in four major market segments - food processing, press automation, foundries and foam-in-place automation. Wage said his goal is to grow the business, but he admits that may be tough in the short term. A sluggish economy has many manufacturers taking a hard look at larger capital expenditures of the kind HMF provides. "We've seen a little of the impact of a slower economy," Wage said.