FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DCC PREMIERS NEW HIGH-TECH

RAPID PROTOTYPING CAPABILITIES                                  To view photos  

Danville, VA, March 7, 2003  -- Good things are happening for Southside Virginia’s economic development efforts, and one of them will be premiering at the Dan River Business Development Center on March 17.  That’s when Danville Community College’s Regional Center for Applied Technology & Training (RCATT) will launch its new rapid prototyping facility.  The facility will enable businesses to quickly and affordably expand product lines and develop new parts. It also will allow local entrepreneurs to create real working prototypes of their inventions.

“If you can imagine it, we can create it,” promised Jerry Franklin, an engineering consultant for RCATT and project manager of the new facility.

The March 17 premier event will include an Open House, starting with a Kick-Off Ceremony at 10 a.m., and featuring local business and education leaders and elected officials from around the state.  Equipment demonstrations, product samples, and application workshops will continue throughout the day.

Featured equipment includes a Selective Laser Sintering machine, which RCATT has purchased through a $483,500 grant from the U.S. Community Adjustment and Investment Program-North American Development Bank.  The NAD Bank money is a fund established to help create jobs and bolster economies in areas that have been hard hit by the North American Free Trade Agreement.  With over 15,000 jobs lost in the past 10 years, Southside Virginia has been especially hard hit as a result of NAFTA. 

In addition to the NAD Bank funding, RCATT has received $185,000 from the Tobacco Indemnification and Revitalization Commission to purchase a computer numerical control lathe/mill combination machine, a robotics flexible manufacturing training system, a thermoforming trainer, an injection molding trainer, and a vacuum-forming machine trainer.  RCATT also has a $98,000 grant pending with the National Science Foundation to fund a complement of injection molding equipment.

“This facility provides capabilities that for years Southside Virginia could only dream of,” DCC President Dr. Carlyle Ramsey said.  “Danville Community College is very pleased and proud to be bringing these capabilities to our region.  The SLS machine and related equipment will play an integral role in the new Polymer Processing Institute being developed in partnership with Virginia Tech and Averett University through the Institute for Advanced Learning & Research.  We’re confident these initiatives will help bring valuable new jobs to the region.”

  Selective Laser Sintering is an advanced technology that enables the user to fabricate parts directly from 3D computer drawings. 

Project manager Jerry Franklin noted that the feature that makes DCC’s equipment so unique is its ability to work with metal materials as well as plastics. 

Joe Shenberger, Strategic Account Manager of Government & Education at 3D Systems in Valencia, CA, said that it is this feature that makes DCC’s equipment so state-of-the-art. 

“With its advanced digital manufacturing capabilities, DCC’s solid imaging equipment is the most powerful in our nation’s college system,” Shenberger said.

While SLS equipment is known as being a powerful tool in the polymers industry, Franklin pointed out that polymers is not the only application.

“This technology can help any type of manufacturing business,” Franklin explained.  “We can produce parts from a number of materials, including polyamide (nylon), elastomers, even metals.  This technology enables us to help businesses test parts and develop new product lines for a fraction of the cost and time required using traditional methods.  Our goal is to help infuse this exciting technology into Virginia and neighboring industries to help them become competitively World Class.”

According to RCATT Director Scott Barnes, the biggest educational benefits will be for students in DCC’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology program as well as students in DCC’s Drafting & Design program.

“This strongly ties in to DCC’s Polymers Manufacturing Technology degree track in the Advanced Manufacturing Technology program,” Barnes explained.  “With this equipment, students now have the opportunity to work with the leading technology in mold-making, parts-making, and design.  They’ll become highly skilled in the use of rapid prototyping as a technique for developing new products.  And because Selective Laser Sintering is a platform for using 3D computer-aided design and drafting, this equipment gives DCC Drafting & Design students an opportunity to see their designs actually produced.  That is an opportunity students at most other schools never get.”

Both Barnes and Franklin noted that this new equipment will expand DCC’s drafting program giving it the potential of being a leader in the commonwealth of Virginia.

“This technology is an opportunity that students even at four-year institutions don’t get.  The fact that DCC was able to bring these technologies to its students and local businesses is really quite a coupe,” Barnes declared.

Franklin said the main areas of focus for use of the equipment, initially, will be on the manufacturing, motorsports, and medical sectors.

“This technology has a wide range of applications.  In motorsports, it can play an invaluable role in car design by enabling engineers to build an affordable miniature to test for wind resistance and other factors.  In the medical field, using CAT scans doctors can precisely replicate an injury or growth or deformity so they can see in 3D exactly what the problem looks like and fully plan their surgery before actually cutting into their patient,” Franklin explained.   

Franklin has already been helping local businesses with parts design using the new equipment, but the official grand opening will be the March 17 event. 

“After that, we are wide open for business,” Franklin said.