Source: The Montana Standard, ButteJan.mini storage 12--When you have a contract with NASA, you know you're on the right track.That's the groove that Sam Park, 27, finds himself in these days, at Imperium Tool & Instrument, Inc.His chosen profession comes as no surprise because he has worked full-time in machine shops since he was a Helena High School student. He then studied engineering and consulted with Bozeman manufacturing and biotechnology firms before the creative itch nagged him to build his own projects.Armed with a natural business sense, he's now king of his own specialty machine shop: Imperium Tool & Instrument.It produces computer-controlled milling and turning machinery in the Mike Mansfield Advanced Technology Center in the Industrial Park, south of Butte. Park started the company in 2007."I like to design, build and solve problems," said Park, who prefers designing research hardware that requires low volume output rather than mass-produced tools.He and his two-man staff are creating a genetics research hardware tool to be used in fruit fly studies on the 2014 International Space Station. NASA plans to launch both in March.It's the biggest contract Imperium & Tool has ever landed.While he refuses to specify the amount of the NASA contract, Park says "it's a good chunk" of Imperium's annual gross of $250,000.Naturally, the NASA project is top priority. Park and his staff pump every fiber into it, working 20-hour man hours five days a week to meet the March deadline."It's going pretty good," Park says. "I'm mentally exhausted at the moment, but we're making ground."RISING QUICKLYLike the constant fast-paced changes in technology, Park rose quickly to hisself-propelled station in manufacturing.Startlingly left-brained due to his high-level technical skills, he's unpredictably right-brained, too, because he seeks originality in his tool-making."I'm obsessed with the quality of it from a craftsman's perspective," said Park. "There's room to do a very good job on it and there's not quite as many economic walls. There's always a problem to be solved."His undying passion led him to quit the mechanical engineering program at Montana State University-Bozeman after three years of study.Earlier he had transferred from Montana Tech, where he studied general engineering, but first he took refresher math courses at two-year Highlands College, which he calls "money well-spent."However, the stinging cost of college, plus a burning desire to create pushed him to start his own company in 2007.HIS MENTORSMentors with whom he worked in Bozeman laud his passion and self-direction.Tom Jungst makes protoype injections and teaches computer-aided machining and welding courses in MSU's mechanical enginee迷你倉ing technology program. He is impressed by Sam's rocket-fueled leap in the industry."Sam is quoting projects for NASA that I would have had to travel thousands of miles to even look at and he is doing it digitally," says Jungst. "He has taken risks but he thinks things through. He has become a great listener."Paul Taylor, founder of GeneSearch, Inc., in Bozeman, sees the young visionary as "quite unique.""The main thing that sets him apart in his work is the fact that he is a world-class problem-solver," says Taylor. "He is obsessive in a good way about learning exactly what is possible and pushing the envelope to make it happen."Park consults with Taylor on the development of the Dracula Pipette, a device Taylor invented while manipulating freezing llama and alpaca embryos.The device allows scientists to analyze pre-pregnancy DNA in the animals. Park provides machinery and prototypes for the embryonic device, which GeneSearch has begun testing on mice.On behalf of GeneSearch, Park traveled to clinics and labs nationwide to unveil the breakthrough device to other embryologists."He was able to show them things they had never thought possible," added Taylor, "and he obtained good biopsies from these mouse embryos in each case."FUTURE PLANSMeanwhile, Park aims to launch a high-precision tool for the sustainability energy sector, but he won't elaborate."One of our goals is to stay real close to the scientific and cutting-edge high tech industry," Park said. "It's a great opportunity to learn and to see emerging technologies that may have different technical applications elsewhere. My company allows me to build whatever I want."Mass production does not interest him or his employees, said engineer Kelly Carlson, who commutes daily from Bozeman, and technician Skylar Reeves, a Montana Tech student."I kind of desperately avoid mass production because it limits creativity a little bit," said Park.Taylor echoes his penchant for unique production."Sam is not the kind of machinist who wants to crank out 10,000 widgets all the same," said Taylor. "I often ask him for only 10 or 20 small plastic or metal parts that you wouldn't think were possible to produce on a lathe. Then we try them in experiments with real embryos and change them a little or change the strategy completely and go again."Charging full steam ahead, Park's fervor to innovate is unmistakable."The NASA project is the biggest contract we've ever gotten with the government," said Park. "We will double the gross of the company, provided we pull it off and get paid."Copyright: ___ (c)2014 The Montana Standard (Butte, Mont.) Visit The Montana Standard (Butte, Mont.) at .mtstandard.com Distributed by MCT Information Services文件倉
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