CIRAS Helps American Pop Corn Company Overcome Industry Challenges
The maker of JOLLY TIME® Pop Corn turned 100 last year, but with eyes focused as much on the future as on the past.
Consortium Hopes Better Packaging Will Help Companies Cut Costs, Increase Sales, Improve Sustainability
Keith Vorst doesn’t think outside the box so much as he thinks about the box—and how it affects everything around it.
Vorst, an associate professor in Iowa State University’s Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, also is director of the university’s new Polymer and Food Protection Consortium. He has spent the last year working to build a national center for packaging research and expertise—a place where companies in Iowa and elsewhere can go to assess the design, safety, function, and value of the packaging that envelops their products.
CIRAS’ Metal Additive Manufacturing Machine on Campus, Being Prepped for Early 2016 Debut
Iowa industry leaders should be able to launch test projects early next year with a new metal 3-D printer that CIRAS has obtained to educate manufacturers about the enormous, groundbreaking possibilities of additive manufacturing technology.
Iowa Animation Firm Draws New Future for Itself—With Help from CIRAS and Government Contracts
It was supposed to be a boom time for Grasshorse Studios.
Kathy Buxton and her brother, Stephen Jennings, relocated Grasshorse, their television animation and visual effects business, from California to Iowa in 2007 to expand the company. Iowa’s film industry was roaring, and the projects were lucrative, thanks to a generous state tax credit program for the film industry.
But it all changed drastically in a matter of months.
ICYM THE PRESS RELEASE: Iowa Area Development Groups Honored with USDA National Award
WASHINGTON D.C., November 5, 2015 – Iowa Area Development Group (IADG) received the USDA Abraham Lincoln Honor Award at a ceremony held today in Washington D.C. IADG was honored for expanding rural economic development opportunities in Iowa and across the nation by being a national advocate of USDA’s Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant (REDL&G) Program, as well as other contributions and accomplishments of its rural sponsored economic development mission.
With Help from CIRAS, Dur-A-Lift Designs a New Home
A George, Iowa, manufacturer of farm equipment, scooters, and hydraulic lift equipment is ramping up production in a new 26,000-square-foot building that was designed, with CIRAS’ help, to take the entire operation to a higher level.
Diversified Technologies Inc. (DTI) traces its founding back to the 1888 blacksmith shop of a German immigrant. The company has evolved over the intervening decades to become a diverse corporate family that includes Sudenga Industries Inc. agricultural equipment, Ranger All-Season Electric Scooters, and the popular Dur-A-Lift line of mounted aerial lifts.
CIRAS & SBDC Help Frozen Food Company Grow Rapidly
The numbers tell the story. In less than four years, Sisters Home Style Entrées went from preparing 200 frozen meals a month for families and individuals to roughly 41,000.
The one-woman, Humboldt, Iowa, company started by Deb Davis swelled to employing 37 people. And, with help from CIRAS and the Iowa Small Business Development Center (SBDC), it moved from a 2,500-square-foot facility to a new 30,000-square-foot manufacturing plant.
Iowans Turn Out in Droves to Celebrate Manufacturing Day
U.S. Manufacturing Day technically was Oct. 2. But thanks to a long list of organizers and promoters (including CIRAS, Elevate Iowa, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, and community colleges around the state) the celebration in Iowa continues throughout the rest of October.
Accumold Proves Proficiency, Wins Business Thanks to CIRAS-arranged Tests
An Ankeny-based plastics injection molder landed new business and launched new growth after the firm was able to prove its capabilities via testing arranged last year at Iowa State University.
Accumold, a company that makes small plastic parts for a variety of technology and medical devices, announced plans in February for a $12 million expansion that will add 200 jobs at its Ankeny plant over the next three years.
NEWS RELEASE: Iowa Celebration of Manufacturing Day will cover all 99 Counties
AMES – An unprecedented and heavily coordinated educational campaign means Iowans throughout the state will have easy access in October to a wide variety of events touting the benefits of a career in manufacturing.
So far, more than 2,000 happenings have been scheduled across the U.S. to celebrate National Manufacturing Day on Oct. 2. Events such as factory tours and educational seminars will be held both on Friday and beyond in a bid to tout the extraordinary opportunities available in American manufacturing.