In a small workshop on the campus of Saddleback College, Ed Tackett and Ken Patton believe they’re molding the future of manufacturing.
Their rapid prototyping machines take computer designs and transform them into products forged from ceramics, plastic and other materials.
Plastic hearts for surgeons to train with, models of buildings for architects and just about any object you can name can be built with their machines.
“The technology can do for manufacturing what digital printing did for Kinko’s,” said Tackett, director of Saddleback College Advanced Technology Center.
Students learn out of a workshop not much bigger than a two-car garage, with about a half-dozen prototyping machines that range in size from an office copier to an industrial-sized water boiler. Their cost ranges from less than $20,000 to $750,000.
The machines build objects by adding layers of material according to their designs. Rather than carving from a block, the material is added in sprays, like how an inkjet printer puts images on paper. Lasers are used for cut details.
Since the program’s start four years ago, Saddleback has received $6 million in grants from the National Science Foundation and the state of California.
Saddleback also gets donations from companies averaging about a $500,000 a year.
The school works with companies around the country, including about 400 in Orange County, to provide them with rapid prototyping services.
The lab has made figurines for the animators of the movie “Shrek” and model planes for Boeing Co.
For more on this story, see the Aug. 6 edition of the Business Journal.
