Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur was onhand as Imaging Systems Technology (IST) celebrated obtaining patent No. 50 from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with an open house Jan. 28.

Carol Ann Wedding and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur

“Most patents are filed by very large companies; we have a company here today that has been celebrating a threshold of 50 patents. It’s not a large company, it’s a home-grown company and it’s a credit to the intelligence, the dedication and the vision of the Wedding family and all of the people who have come to be part of the broader Wedding family,” Kaptur said.

“We know that innovation translates into real wealth, in the broadest sense and ultimately into jobs. That’s where America has to go and this firm of IST is helping to lead the way.”

As she thanked those present for staying in Toledo, she said, “You are really rare and you are crucial to us as we try to build a new future in this 21st century.”

Kaptur told Toledo Free Press, “Patents are critical to our economy; innovations equals patents which equals material wealth.”

Carol Ann Wedding, president of IST, took Toledo Free Press on a tour of the facility where several labs are located dealing with optics, electronics, materials processing and a production area where furnaces are located that create the hollow chambers.

A spinoff company of IST, Deep Springs Technology (DST) received notification on Jan. 11 it had been invited to participate in the DARPA Vehicle Armor Challenge. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the research and development office for the U.S. Department of Defense.

The DARPA Vehicle Armor Challenge focuses on new armor concepts for military vehicles. DST stated in a release that during the next 6 months, DST will be delivering 10 armor panels based on the hollow shell technology to DARPA for testing and evaluation. The DST armor panels feature silicon carbide hollow shells developed by DST embedded in a metal matrix. The strong and lightweight design offers protection for current vehicles, as well as for future land, air, sea, and space platforms.

“Although hollow silicon carbide shells are new to DST, we have much experience fabricating hollow shells of other materials” said Oliver Strbik, Executive Vice President of DST in a press release.

Strbik told Toledo Free Press on Jan. 28 that much of the research they had done with silicon was based on what they had learned with creating other hollow shells from glass and other materials. He also said that no funding for research is provided for in the DARPA Armor Challenge, if they are selected as winners of this phase of the challenge, it could lead to a future contract award.

Steve Katich, chief of staff for Congresswoman Kaptur, said, “One federal investment in the research let Deep Springs invest in a half-million dollar furnace from Maumee’s Surface Combustion — a longtime Toledo-area company.  Deep Springs and IST are creating spin off in other Toledo area industries.”

Tags: Deep Springs Technology, Imaging Systems Technology, Marcy Kaptur, Military, technology

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 29th, 2011 at 8:09 am and is filed under Technology, Toledo Business Link.
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