Cobot Unboxed
Here’s an update on the current state of the Digital Manufacturing Lab Powered by Alliant Energy.
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ISBF and IEDA Help Iowa Facilities Managers get a CEM
One key step toward making Iowa buildings more energy efficient is to place them into the hands of people who know how to find savings. Toward that end, two CIRAS partners have joined forces to help Iowa companies interested in reducing their energy costs.
[Read More ...]Grover Joins CIRAS to Oversee Digital Manufacturing Lab
Abhay Grover has joined CIRAS as a project manager focused on new technologies.
[Read More ...]Cy-Hawk Partnership Helps TAP Extend Technology
Charles Romans sees tremendous possibility in the relationship he’s building with his counterparts on the other side of Iowa.
Romans is the 3D design prototype director for ProtoStudios, a University of Iowa rapid prototyping facility that’s part of the MERGE innovation lab in downtown Iowa City. Despite his black-and-gold employer, Romans and his staff have been working closely with CIRAS project manager Mark Williamson and Chris Hill, director of the CIRAS Technology Assistance Program (TAP), for more than a year as part of a joint effort to learn from each other and give taxpayers the maximum benefit from the equipment each agency controls.
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!” Hill said with a chuckle. “It is possible for Hawkeyes and Cyclones to work together.”
[Read More ...]Tortilleria Sonora Steps Out on Path to Food Safety Certification
Life began moving faster after Betty Garcia got the phone call.
It was the fall of 2017, and a Des Moines-area produce company was planning to launch a line of ready-to-eat meals. The company was wondering whether Tortilleria Sonora would be interested in supplying tortillas. First, there were a few questions about the business. Would Garcia mind filling out a questionnaire?
[Read More ...]CIRAS Will Help You Get Ready for the “Future of Manufacturing”
CIRAS is on a journey to help Iowa manufacturers discover and implement the future of manufacturing.
[Read More ...]Birmingham Manufacturing gets Reawakened to the Value of Innovation
Michael Nunn hasn’t yet found the product improvement idea he was searching for, but at least he now knows that he’s on the correct path.
Nunn is the owner of Birmingham Manufacturing, a four-person shop in Birmingham, Iowa, that makes condensated evaporating pans for use in commercial coolers. The pans, which contain a heating element and sit below refrigeration units, work to evaporate the water that drips from inside coolers.
[Read More ...]Artistic Manufacturing—A Business Bringing New Ideas to Church
The shelves in Randy Monk’s Altoona, Iowa, office are lined with the artifacts of decades past. At one corner sits a stack of the stamped metal ashtrays Artistic Manufacturing Corporation once produced as a sideline. A few feet to the right, you’ll find one of the small, decorative metal pots that the company made and sold to florist shops until the 1960s. In between those historical outposts sit older versions of the crosses, cups, and communion plates that have been the bulk of Artistic’s sales for more than 50 years.
[Read More ...]Our Third Annual All-Iowa Holiday Gift List
Every year around this time, we like to take a minute to remind everybody that we make great things here in Iowa.
[Read More ...]Legacy Manufacturing Reshores Jobs Using Robot Turntable
Legacy Manufacturing in Marion has added seven new employees (with at least three more coming soon) after a CIRAS-assisted automation program helped the company reshore production of one of its most popular products.
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