Tech firm moving to bwtech@UMBC after 29 years in Prince George's

A 31-year-old Prince George’s County tech company is moving to bwtech@UMBC, the incubator at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Potomac Photonics focuses on digital manufacturing and it provides its customers with small hole drilling, laser micromachining, 3D printing and micromarking. The company started in Alexandria, Va., and relocated to Prince George's County in 1984.

Potomac Photonics CEO Mike Adelstein describes the company as a machine shop that does really small things.

“Think of the size of a human hair follicle, it’s roughly 75 microns,” he said. “What we deal with at times is smaller than that.”

Adelstein is a 1996 graduate of UMBC and he sees the move as a potential recruiting tool. Potomac will be utilizing interns as well as graduate students for some of its work, he said. It will give Potomac a good way to try the students out and see if it would like to bring them on as full-time employees.

Meanwhile, the company can also add guidance to some of the younger companies at UMBC.

Potomac has about 20 employees and nearly $2.5 million in revenue, he said. With this move, Adelstein said it will allow Potomac to grow for the future. The company expects to hire at least five people within the next year and that’s not including interns and graduate students.

Adelstein is part owner of the company after being a part of a $1.8 million buyout in December 2012.

The move will allow Potomac to be in a more tech-centric community, he said.