Environmentally friendly O.C. firms…What’s your business fiscal score?

The National Science Foundation has just named Saddleback College in Mission Viejo the first national center for rapid prototyping, a multi-year contract that could be worth more than $4 million.

Rapid prototyping is a computerized process to transform an idea into a usable product in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional engineering and metal tooling processes. .

The center, named RAPIDTech, will be led by business dean Ken Patton  and Ed Tackett, one of the best experts in the technnology nationwide.

Being named a national center is the NSF’s top award, but for Orange County, the boon is having the technology so near to our entrepreneurs and new-product startups.

It also means jobs.  The center will immediately hire a program coordinator and three technicians.

RAPIDTech will receive $4 million over four years, and the contract is renewable as long as the center meets NSF expectations, Patton said.

The center will focus on rapid prototyping, rapid tooling, reverse engineering and direct digital manufacturing and research, all processes involved in speeding up new product development.

Most of us don’t have a clue what those techniques are, but this photo  gives a sample of what the result is. The model of the hand is created on computer, then replicated in real life in any size the product developer or doctor needs. Thanks to Register photographer Jebb Harris for the photo taken at Saddleback College in 2005.

Saddleback College previously received two three-year grants, which run through this year, totaling $1.4 million from NSF and shared a $500,000 grant with two other colleges.

Those grants paid for the development of curriculum and national standards for additive manufacturing (building a part by adding material instead of cutting it away), the training of college teachers and researchers, and the education of companies to use rapid prototyping in their manufacturing process.

In the past two years, the Saddleback center worked with more than 75 colleges and universities and 500 companies in this technology, Patton said.

“We’ve worked with everyone from startups to large corporations like Boeing, Proctor & Gamble and Ford (Motor Co.)…in both product design and manufacture,” he said.

As a national center, RAPIDTech will partner with Honolulu Community College, Edmonds Community College, Portland Community College, St. Louis Community College, University of Louisville, Georgia Tech and Milwaukee School of Engineering, Patton said adding, “These are the top universities in this technology.”

Posted in: Technology |

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.