David and Aaron Bush wanted to take their custom quartz countertop designs to the next level, but as Aaron noted, “We didn’t even know what questions to ask to get started.”
The father-son duo, along with founder Pat Malloy, own Quartz Impressions, an Iowa-based company that stands out as a leading source in the country for large, exceptionally detailed, or uniquely colored custom quartz slabs for countertops, tabletops, fireplace surrounds, and more.
Their existing process for creating custom inlays, such as company logos or detailed fonts within a quartz slab, was rather laborious. They wanted to find a way to reduce manufacturing time and improve the cost with a level of detail that no other custom quartz supplier has been able to achieve. “We want to further refine and improve a product concept to create a type of product that we don’t think exists anywhere else,” David Bush said.
David found CIRAS through a Google search and was intrigued. He especially liked that the primary goal of CIRAS is to help companies thrive. “We knew they weren’t in it just to make a sale. Their job is to help develop and foster companies in Iowa.”
They appreciated that CIRAS was enthusiastic about working through the trial-and-error process often required to develop a new process. “They were willing to test the waters with us to see what worked and what level of detail we could get in a project,” Aaron Bush said.
product with custom logo
applied in the material.
They connected with Jake Behrens, CIRAS project manager. “With some experimentation, we were able to help them create a highly customizable design with a 3D printer that basically makes a mold for a fraction of the cost of the old method,” Behrens said.
Previously, Quartz Impressions had to create a template, sandblast the quartz to create a void, and then fill that void with a different color, which took a relatively long time and limited the type of designs they could create. Now, says Behrens, “all it takes is some computer-aided design (CAD) time and a short print. With this workflow, the process is incredibly fast.”
Quartz Impressions is continuing to refine their process based on their newly found knowledge from CIRAS. “The next challenge is figuring out how to make the edges of the designs a little sharper,” Aaron Bush said.
“We are now so much closer to the final product. Without CIRAS insights, we never would have been able to quickly get through the “fail fast and fail quickly” stage, which is what you need to do to find out what works.”
For more information, contact Jake Behrens at jbehrens@iastate.edu or 515-815-5003.