{"id":3476,"date":"2026-07-15T15:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/3476\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T15:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T15:11:11","slug":"how-ben-machine-products-is-helping-power-canadas-defence-push-from-vaughan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/3476\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ben Machine Products is helping power Canada\u2019s defence push from Vaughan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The firm has supported Oscar-winning camera technology and fighter jet components.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the City of Vaughan, at the heart of the Toronto Region, a decades-old manufacturing firm is building components for some of the world\u2019s most advanced defence, aerospace and high-tech systems.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That company is Ben Machine Products<\/a>, based in Vaughan, ON. Its CEO, Michael Iacovelli, isn\u2019t the founder, but he grew up in the company.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have worked here since I was 11 years old,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of building, and Vaughan is a great place to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the outside, Ben Machine looks like a traditional, family-owned manufacturer in a Vaughan industrial park. But inside, the company has evolved into a hub for skilled trades, engineering and production technology that underpins safety-critical global supply chains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company started in 1973 as a tool-and-die shop for the casting industry. In 1977, Iacovelli\u2019s father partnered with the founder after they began working on the business together outside their day jobs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As mould-making manufacturing moved offshore in the early 1980s, the business transitioned to computer numerical control (CNC) manufacturing, which at the time relied on punch cards and paper tape. By the late 1980s, the company expanded into fabrication, sheet metal work, welding and a range of finishing processes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

From there, Ben Machine moved into increasingly advanced machining and assembly. Iacovelli, who trained and worked as a lawyer in Toronto during the 1990s, joined the company full-time in 2002.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, the company operates high-precision CNC equipment and supports complex optical and electromechanical assemblies. It manufactures parts for leading companies across aerospace, defence, industrial technology and nuclear energy. It has been a partner on Lockheed Martin\u2019s Joint Strike Fighter<\/a> program since 2001, manufacturing components for the F-35 fighter jet\u2019s power and control modules.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur customers own the design, but as an integrated manufacturer, we\u2019re more of a supplier-partner,\u201d Iacovelli said. \u201cWe help with the design work, manufacturing capabilities and how to actually make the parts.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the more unexpected threads in Ben Machine\u2019s work is electro-optical infrared (EO\/IR) systems, which use a combination of cameras and thermal sensors mounted onto planes and helicopters to track objects in darkness, smoke or heavy fog. Some of the underlying stabilization and imaging technologies were first developed for the film and sports broadcast industries to enable smooth aerial footage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Michael Iacovelli.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our main customers has an Oscar, has an Academy Award, that they won for developing that technology, which fundamentally changed the way that filming is done,\u201d Iacovelli added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over time, EO\/IR became far more capable, particularly with long-range imaging and tracking applications. The systems are now used to support search-and-rescue teams as well as military operations. Their role in detecting improvised explosive devices in conflict zones became clear to Iacovelli after he reconnected with a childhood friend who served in the Royal Marines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to see him once in 2016, and he said, \u2018You have no idea how many lives you saved over in Afghanistan,\u2019\u201d Iacovelli added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canada is in the middle of a major defence ramp-up, with the federal government recently unveiling its new $6.6-billion CAD<\/a> Defence Industrial Strategy. The strategy\u2019s \u2018Build-Partner-Buy\u2019 framework is part of a push to have roughly 70 percent of procurement value flow through Canadian industry, increasing pressure on manufacturers like Ben Machine.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the recent upswing in demand for Canadian-made defence innovation, high-tech manufacturers are now wrestling with how to meet it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonnel is the challenge now, and probably because we\u2019ve been losing manufacturing,\u201d Iacovelli said of the industry in Canada up to this point. \u201cThere was a significant amount of time where \u2026 if [someone was] in a trade, they\u2019d rather be a plumber than a machinist. They\u2019d rather be an electrician than an electrical technician.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ben Machine employs mechanical engineers who work directly with customers on what\u2019s called design-for-manufacturing processes, which involve refining components so they can be produced more efficiently and reliably.<\/p>\n

Beyond the engineering team, much of the company\u2019s technical expertise comes from specialized programmers who create the code that runs Ben Machine\u2019s CNC and Swiss-turn equipment. These programmers translate digital models and technical drawings into machining instructions for highly automated manufacturing systems capable of producing complex components with extreme precision.<\/p>\n

On the production floor, machinists, manufacturing technologists, and mechanical engineers work alongside these systems to configure machines, design fixtures, load programs, and troubleshoot issues to ensure parts meet high-performance standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cVaughan is a fantastic place to live. Its location is, from a number of different perspectives, ideal and in demand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capital, Iacovelli said, is not the constraint. Instead, it\u2019s filling the positions to keep the machines running. He added that the company\u2019s biggest hiring challenges are concentrated in those trade-oriented technical roles rather than traditional engineering positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely feeling the pinch of capacity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just one of the reasons Ben Machine continues to build in Vaughan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVaughan is a fantastic place to live,\u201d Iacovelli said. \u201cIts location is, from a number of different perspectives, ideal and in demand.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In hardtech, success often depends on what\u2019s within reach, and according to Iacovelli, Vaughan puts a lot within reach. The city is well connected to the Greater Toronto Area, with clear access to the highway system and multiple sophisticated transit systems.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vaughan is also close to several key colleges and universities, including York University and Humber College. That proximity has proven especially advantageous for Ben Machine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a really good selection of post-secondary education institutions that we can work with for the purposes of developing talent and bringing new people on board,\u201d Iacovelli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That talent pipeline will matter even more as Canada focuses on strengthening its sovereign defence capabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe work is there,\u201d Iacovelli said. \u201cIt\u2019s a matter of building, and Vaughan is a great place to be able to do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

PRESENTED BY<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Success has an address: Vaughan. Learn more<\/a>.<\/p>\n

All images courtesy City of Vaughan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The firm has supported Oscar-winning camera technology and fighter jet components. In the City of Vaughan, at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2243,14,39,2245,1605,2246,2244],"class_list":["post-3476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ben-machine-products","tag-defence-industry","tag-defence-tech","tag-michael-iacovelli","tag-ontario","tag-sponsored","tag-vaughan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}