As a product works its way from concept through various stages of design, testing, and then manufacturing, problems show up, new options are uncovered, and stakeholders also want to make improvements. These require changes to the product’s design, and therefore the tasks you budgeted for in your project schedule need to change.

This is scope change.

This is where those doing the product development often come in conflict with those paying for the product development. And, if handled poorly, this is where animosity and finger-pointing can grow and take over a project.

Having done product development for hundreds of clients over the past twenty-five-plus years, our team at PADT has become experts on scope change and how to deal with it. This post will define scope and scope change and how to minimize and then deal with the whole issue through specifications, planned iteration, and communication. Whether you are doing the product development yourself, working with an internal group, or outsourcing to someone like PADT, your product development project will go much smoother if you accept that scope change will happen and plan accordingly.

Scope and Scope Change Defined

Scope is one of those words people “in the industry” use without really thinking about what it means. Scope is scope. Originally, the term scope referred to a device or tool used to measure something. Over time, it also grew to refer to what was being measured, or more precisely, according to Webster’s, “Intention, object.”

Project management, according to the Project Management Institute, is “the work required to output a project’s deliverable.” These are the tasks required to obtain the goals of a project. The cost and schedule required to design a product are directly related to the scope. Each task has a cost and time associated with it.

Scope change is therefore changing some aspect of work required to output the project deliverables. The most obvious change is doing a different task. Maybe you had “test prototype at room temperature,” and now you have “test product at -20C, room temperature, and 45C.” Sometimes scope change is a change to the cost or schedule of a given task. You thought that your contract design engineer was $125 per hour, and instead, they are $135. Or, maybe you estimated that a given task would that 46 man hours, but as you understand the problem better, it takes 72 hours.

The most common type of scope change is when someone changes the product’s deliverables. The above example of testing at three temperatures instead of one is a great example. It can also be a new feature in the product, like “add a button that goes ‘bing!’ when you press it.” Stakeholders can add features to a product or change the required performance or testing. The important thing to remember is that the list of tasks, along with the cost, and schedule of each task, are determined by those defined deliverables for the project.  

The Best Way to Define Scope Is Through Product Specifications

And speaking of defined deliverables, let’s talk about product specifications. This is how most product development projects document what the product needs to do. It is a list of the what, when, and how much of a product. 

The what is the most important. The most common specifications are a list of things the product must do and the features the product must have. Say you are developing a hammer, then the most important specification would be to drive nails into wood manually. Features may include an ergonomic handle, weight between one and one-and-a-half pounds, and length between twelve and eighteen inches long. It can also include aesthetic requirements like color and finish as well as packaging. Or, it might control the material used, like saying that the handle has to be made out of recycled material.

The specification will also include specific testing requirements. These can be industry standards or may be defined by your company. For our hammer, it may be things like surviving a drop from twenty feet onto concrete or not rusting after being sprayed with water and left in a cool camp place for ten days. Finding out that there are industry requirements near the end of a project is a common cause of scope creep. Specifications also include cost constraints on the materials used to create the product, the manufacturing of the product, and schedule expectations on the design and manufacturing. 

The important thing to do is make sure all the specifications are written down and agreed to. Everyone on a project should know that changing specification changes the tasks, cost, and schedule required to achieve the specification. That is a scope change.  

Embrace Change: Don’t Be Surprised by the Cost with an Iterative Product Development Process

Seasoned product development professionals know that scope change is part of designing, testing, and manufacturing a new product. Even if every specification is nailed down and a detailed project plan is put in place, things change, and the scope changes. That is why most companies use an iterative design process.

The opposite of an iterative product development process is one where the stakeholders push the development team to cut corners. Compressed schedules and incomplete specification documents are a sure way to guarantee scope change. If anyone even thinks of saying, “we don’t have time for all this planning. Let’s just figure it out as we go,” stop the conversation and reset. 

An iterative process assumes that some steps will be repeated because something went wrong, you need to make improvements, or the scope changed. It assumes the team will iterate on designs as a normal part of the process and has the potential impact of those iterations and costs built into the cost and schedule. In the long run, this usually reduces cost and time because making scope changes outside of what is expected, especially near the end of a project, takes time and money.

Managing Scope Change Through Communication

If you can’t avoid scope change or plan for it, the best thing you can do is make sure everyone is aware of it. Communication is critical to ensure that the team doing the work and the stakeholders’ impact know what is going on. And the communication needs to be two-way. The development team needs to communicate with stakeholders, especially those responsible for cost and schedule. Likewise, the stakeholders need to communicate priorities and concerns back to the development team.

It would be great if the whole product development process was a rational procedure where human emotions never got involved. But the reality is, people can get frustrated or angry, trust can erode, and animosity can grow when scope change is a surprise. Fear of disappointing co-workers or customers, or angering them, can also keep people from delivering bad news. And the best way to elicit an emotional response to a scope change is not to communicate it early and then surprise the stakeholders.

The last thing anyone needs in any project is people taking an adversarial position with each other. If stakeholders are constantly pushing back on scope change, trying to avoid it, getting emotional, or minimizing it, the development team will react negatively. Once trust is gone, and frustration enters the picture, productivity and accuracy go out the window.

The answer is simple, communicate.

Achieve Product Development Success by Minimizing and then Excepting Scope Change

Scope change is not inevitable, but it is common. Taking the time to capture all the specifications for a product up-front and making sure the project plan addresses those specifications is the easiest way to avoid scope changes. Another is to make sure you don’t take shortcuts or skip steps. And, most importantly, build iterations into your product development plan.

When scope change does happen, minimize the impact by taking the time to look at the change in detail and communicate what needs to be done and why. If everyone works together and accepts scope change as a natural part of the project’s progression, their impact on cost and schedule can be minimized.

In our last industry profile, we highlighted the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) Industry and mentioned that it is one of the heaviest users of 3D printed materials and components. In today’s blog, we’re covering the medical device industry, which may be the industry that will be most positively impacted by innovation in 3D printing. As for simulation, Ansys and Flownex’s software have been deeply entrenched in the MedDev industry for many years for design and test, as well as meeting the stringent regulations of the industry.

To tell our medical story, we have to look back at our history. As was previously shared, PADT got our start in helping customers in the A&D industry. Due to the many similarities medical devices share with A&D, such as strong quality systems, life or death application, difficult engineering challenges, complex geometries, high-cost components, and more, it was a great area of expansion for PADT early on due to our expertise in addressing customer needs and solving these types of challenges.

PADT offers a variety of products and services to our customers in medical device development. Let’s take a look:

Hardware and Software Products or Medical Device Development

Simulation Software for Medical Device Development

Nearly every product that PADT sells has a strong application in the MedDev industry. Our offering help to design, test and prove functionality, quality, and most importantly, the ability to meet industry requirements for safety. Take our simulation product offerings with Ansys and Flownex – both have been used in medical device design and development for many years.

Ansys continues to grow in the medical device industry, recently adding a wide variety of tools designed uniquely for medical use. And because the human body, like most devices, involves multiple physics and are transient, Ansys is the preferred tool for doctors and device designers. One of PADT’s key offerings, specifically for medical, is LS-Dyna for modeling complex device and tissue interaction or HFSS for designing RF therapy devices. This is because the FDA accepts in-silico, simulation-based testing for verification and validation under the ASME V&V 40 standard.

Flownex, on the other hand, is the perfect system modeling tool for managing the fluid flow and thermal behavior of such systems. Many medical devices involve the management of gasses and fluids, including blood. Therefore Flownex can be a great tool for systems involved in blood or sepsis filtration, dialysis, and more for devices that manage oxygen and other gases for patients.

3D Printing for Medical Device Development

As mentioned above, 3D printing will have an incredible impact in the medical device industry as it continues to grow. Even going as far as having the ability to print human body parts and organs. However, there is still a very key purpose for 3D printing in today’s marketplace. In addition, 3D scanning is another product PADT offers that has many applications in medical.

As a Stratasys reseller for over 20 years, PADT has been providing 3D Printing systems to doctors and hospitals for over two decades. We helped surgeons pioneer using 3D printing for pre-surgical planning or in the operating room as surgical guides. Our customers use the new Stratasys Digital Anatomy printers to get realistic prototypes. We also leverage SLA, FDM, 3P, and Polyjet technologies to prototype and even manufacture their products. Additionally, the new SAF technology is showing promise for manufacturing complex medical devices.

On the metal side, things are starting to get interesting as metal 3D printing manufacturers such as EOS continue to innovate. Metal printing today allows for complex internal geometries, small production runs, and biocompatibility, all possible with the EOS metal laser powder bed fusion solution. As for scanning, PADT also offers optical scanning solutions from GOM and ZEISS.  Our customers can bring their devices in-house to scan existing devices, inspect production components, and more to scan bones and even tissue.

Consulting Services for Medical Device Development

When customers need help, especially in the R&D stage, PADT is an excellent resource due to our expertise across industries, and especially in medical device design. Our services range from helping out in test and prototyping, to the full R&D process.

Medical Device Product Development

Our product development team has helped create proof of concept prototypes and assisted in taking a device from concept to manufacturing. We apply tried and true aerospace engineering skills and practices, built-in high-performance quality processes, and flexible project management to medical device R&D to help our customers develop products that meet their product specifications. Our engineers are also all trained on medical device quality systems, including ISO13485, and are adept at fitting into each customer’s system.

Simulation of Medical Devices

As stated above, medical devices operate in a complex, multiphysics environment. PADT’s simulation team are experts at dealing with the material and loading complexities of medical devices. The goal of our simulation team for this industry is to provide actionable information to our customer’s design teams during R&D and then to assist with virtual V&V during the design process.

3D Printing for Medical Device Development and Production

Rounding out our services offerings is a full and complete 3D Printing services team. As of June 2022, PADT offers eight different 3D Printing technologies in-house: SLA, FDM, SLS, P3, LCDP, SAF, Polyjet, and Metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion. Each of these devices runs with multiple materials. And, because PADT supports all these technologies and has engineers that understand medical device development and production, we can provide better prototyping and end-part manufacturing.

Let PADT Bring Dimension to Your Innovations in Medical Devices

Like A&D, medical device development is a tough, complex, and heavily regulated industry. PADT understands those challenges and can help our customers with dedicated medical services and products to get to market faster, with higher quality products. To learn more about our product and service offerings in medical device development, visit our website at www.padtinc.com.

Check out the second entry, on Medical Device Development.

Over 25 years ago, four aerospace engineers working on turbomachinery came together and realized that the skills they had developed across aerospace design, analysis, and rapid prototyping could be expanded to a wide range of industries to help create better products. In the summer of 1994, they left their corporate jobs to form Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies, Inc., better known as PADT. 28 years later the company is still going strong and applying its skills and tools, formerly dedicated to aerospace, across the product development landscape.

PADT had this dream of bringing aerospace tools and processes to all industries, but it always retained the expertise of working with aerospace innovation. Today, the company counts some of the world industry leaders in this sector among its customer base and offers a wide variety of products and services for the design, simulation, and prototyping of aerospace vehicles, components, and more.

Product Offering

PADT is a reseller of 3D printers and simulation software from Ansys and Stratasys respectively, along with several other compatible engineering tools. We offer a wide variety of tools designed to help aerospace engineers and manufacturers test and qualify designs, prototype components and enhance the overall product development process.

Another critical tool used in the aerospace industry for product design and testing is simulation software. Aerospace simulation forms an integral part of aerospace development, from the design of aerospace vehicles, systems, and operations; human factors studies; accident investigations; to studies aimed at improving aviation safety and efficiency.

PADT offers two of the leading simulation tools on the market in the aerospace industry and beyond. The first, Ansys, offers a wide range of solutions delivering significant product lifecycle cost reductions that the industry demands while accelerating technological innovation. As an Ansys Elite Channel Partner, PADT supports almost every physics an aerospace part of the system encounters including structural, fluids, thermal, electromagnetics, acoustics, and optics. The second tool, Flownex, delivers simulation software that enables customers to study how flow and heat transfer systems will behave in the real world, where fluid is the driving factor.

Our simulation team also provides technical support and training based on many years of combined simulation experience. The customer support team has won awards for its dedication to making our customers successful users of simulation solutions. 

3D printing and the capabilities it offers in terms of both prototyping and real-use parts are growing rapidly. Stratasys is the world leader in Additive Manufacturing solutions and PADT has been working with these systems as a Diamond Partner and service provider from nearly the beginning. Similar to PADT, 3D printing and Stratasys were founded within the aerospace industry over 20 years ago.

Stratasys tools are the dominant solution for aerospace because of the dependability and consistency of the machines and the large selection of engineering materials that can be used for not just prototypes, but for tooling and flight hardware. PADT is helping its customers explore the growing uses of additive manufacturing through the world’s leading systems from Stratasys, offering Stratasys’ complete lineup to meet every customer’s needs.

One of the fastest-growing areas of additive manufacturing is metal 3D Printing. PADT has partnered with EOS, the worldwide leader in metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion systems to supply the best solutions backed by PADT’s technical expertise. EOS has become the preferred supplier in aerospace because of the repeatability and reliability of the components manufactured in its systems. They also offer a wide range of metal powders that are certified and tracked so that components made on EOS systems are not only used for prototyping and tooling, parts are now flying in the sky and in space

PADT has also added 3D scanning systems to our portfolio to meet the needs of our aerospace customers that require accurate non-destructive testing, offering the leading optical scanning solutions from ZEISS and GOM’s #handsonmetrology line.

Engineering and Manufacturing Services

Not only does PADT sell the tools that enable innovation, but we also provide services to directly help our customers design, develop, prototype, and test new aerospace products. We start with engineering fundamentals and then add the right tools, strong project management, and experience to deliver for our customers. We also partner with a network of approved consultants and companies to add capability and bandwidth when needed.

When our customers need help designing their products, they count on our Product Development Consulting team. Our product development process consists of five steps – define, conceptualize, develop a preliminary design, refine details, and transition to manufacturing.  Our process and capabilities also work hand in hand with other capabilities at PDAT to get our customer’s products to market faster.

Over the years, PADT has also developed a project management methodology based on flexibility as well as frequent and open communication. Working as a team with the customer and vendors, or project managers plan, monitor, and manage in a balanced and adaptable way. This approach has proven to be extremely effective for our customers, meshing well with their internal processes and giving them the confidence that PADT’s team will meet schedule, budget, and performance specifications.

One of PADT’s key capabilities is multiple and multiphysics simulation consulting, including stress, vibration, explicit dynamics, thermal, CFD, and electromagnetics. Or, any combination of those physics. Our team consists of long-time engineers from a wide variety of backgrounds. We speak the language, so our customers can fire and forget or integrate our team into their team to get actionable information from the simulation they ask us to do.

Rounding out our services offerings is a full and complete 3D Printing services team. As of June 2022, PADT offers eight different 3D Printing technologies in-house: SLA, FDM, SLS, P3, LCDP, SAF, Polyjet, and Metal Laser Powder Bed Fusion. Each of these devices runs with multiple materials. As in other services that PADT offers, what makes our Additive Manufacturing services more valuable to our customers is the quality of our engineers. When PADT prints your parts, you can an expert advisor on the right process, material, and postprocessing.

Rounding out our services offerings is our Scanning Team. We use the same GOM and ZEISS equipment and software we sell to deliver the type of geometric data you have been looking for. Our engineers, who are also trained design engineers, understand what the data will be used for and make sure you have more than just a giant point cloud. You can bring your parts to PADT, or they can come to you.

AS9100D/ISO9001:2015 Certified Digital Manufacturing QMS

Finally, PADT’s digital manufacturing services operate under AS9100D/ISO9001:2015 certified quality management system (QMS). Our team of experienced manufacturing engineers are experts in polymer and metal additive manufacturing and work with some of the industry’s largest companies to develop manufacturing processes, certify material, and qualify parts. The team also offers optical scanning under the same quality umbrella and can help coordinate the manufacturing of your prototypes, tooling, or flight hardware with one of the eight AM technologies we run in-house, or with outside vendors.  PADT has the experience, tools, and QMS to operate in the aerospace industry and provide the tools and services needed to advance innovation and create great products.

We Get Aerospace

To learn more about PADT and our commitment to customers in the aerospace industry, check out our new website at www.padtinc.com. If you’re interested in seeing how 3D printing and simulation can impact your next project, give us a call at 1-800-293-7238 or send an email to info@padtinc.com.

We just got notification of two new ones and we recently went online to see what other patents we may have missed in 2020 and the first half of 2021. And we found fourteen new patents. Some we knew about but some were a complete surprise to the employee named and us. Sixteen patents awarded in 2020 and 2021 is the most we have had in a two-year period.

We have been making a list of patents where PADT employees are listed as an inventor for over 20 years. To get on the list the patent needs to be granted to the employee before they joined PADT or while at PADT. If you have visited our Tempe offices, you have probably seen our “wall-o-patents” in the entrance where we put up a plaque for every patent granted. We are now using two walls. Our company slogan is in big letters above the first wall: “We Make Innovation Work.”

For engineers, it’s kind of a big deal. It’s a legacy that will not go away. And we could not be more proud of our team and how they have been creative and innovative in the past. It is also a sign of what is yet to come.

The full press release about the two new patents and the other 14 awarded in 2020 and 2021 is below. And, here are links for a PDF and HTML version.

The release lists the 16 new patents with links. You can also view a list of all 68 patents listing PADT employees at: www.padtinc.com/patents

If you are looking for help with your innovation, and want to have a simulation, product development, or additive manufacturing partner where innovation is more than a buzzword, please contact us. If you scan through the patents, you can see that we can help in a variety of industries and a variety of technologies.

PADT Engineers Add Two Patents to the Company’s Patent List, Bringing its Total to 16 in the Last Two Years 

The Growing List of Patents Listing PADT Employees as Inventors Reinforces the Organization’s Expertise and Credibility in Additive Manufacturing, Simulation and Product Development

TEMPE, Ariz., November 11, 2021 ─ PADT, a globally recognized provider of numerical simulation, product development, and 3D printing products and services, today announced that its world-class team of engineers have added two patents to its portfolio bringing the company’s employee’s total to 16 patents in which they are listed as co-inventors over the last two years. The newly acquired patents, awarded in September 2021 to Tyler Shaw and Keng Hsu, are focused on innovative additive manufacturing design techniques and processes. In addition, PADT has been awarded 68 patents with current and past employees listed as inventors or co-inventors since 1992.

“PADT is well-known as one the southwest’s leading resellers and service providers for 3D printing systems and simulation software,” said Tyler Shaw, PhD., vice president of engineering, PADT. “However, our product development services have grown significantly over the years due to the exceptional talent on our engineering team. These patents are a testament to their innovation and ability to solve tough challenges in unique ways.”

At its headquarters in Tempe, PADT hosts a wall of patents just outside the lobby as you walk into the building. These patents have been awarded for a number of unique technologies across the organization’s key industries, including additive manufacturing, medical, consumer goods, and more. Some of the patents showcase specific work developed for customers, while others showcase the fruition of numerous research projects.

Included below is a list of patents issued in 2020 and 2021 in which a PADT employee is listed as a co-inventor:

• 10,842,432 – Medial – lateral insert sensing system with common module and method therefor
• 10,893,955 – Non – symmetrical insert sensing system and method therefor
• 10,710,353 – Systems and methods for laser preheating in connection with fused deposition modeling
• 10,220,156 – Single use injector
• 11,039,790 – Glucose monitoring device in a protective smartphone case
• 10,626,886 – Sound attenuation apparatus and methods
• 10,801,653 – Flexible, thermal-isolating, dual-walled tube with bellows and method for manufacture thereof
• 10,620,103 – Devices and methods for evaluating the spreadability of powders utilized in additive manufacturing
• 10,808,399 – Enhanced acoustic cell and enhanced acoustic panel, and methods of producing the same
• 10,576,336 – Golf club heads with apertures and methods to manufacture golf club heads
• 10,675,514 – Mixed material golf club head
• 10,695,629 – Golf club heads with cavities and inserts and related methods
• 10,806,877 – Golf club heads comprising a thermoplastic composite material
• 10,994,177 – Golf club heads with apertures and methods to manufacture golf club heads
• 11,110,325 – Mixed materials golf club head
• 11,117,212 – Systems and methods for additive manufacturing utilizing localized ultrasound-enhanced material flow and fusioning

To learn more about PADT and its advanced product development capabilities, please visit www.padtinc.com/pd. All of the patents listing PADT employees can be found at www.padtinc.com/patents

About Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies

Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies, Inc. (PADT) is an engineering product and services company that focuses on helping customers who develop physical products by providing Numerical Simulation, Product Development, and 3D Printing solutions. PADT’s worldwide reputation for technical excellence and experienced staff is based on its proven record of building long-term win-win partnerships with vendors and customers. Since its establishment in 1994, companies have relied on PADT because “We Make Innovation Work.” With over 80 employees, PADT services customers from its headquarters at the Arizona State University Research Park in Tempe, Arizona, and from offices in Torrance, California, Littleton, Colorado, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Austin, Texas, and Murray, Utah, as well as through staff members located around the country. More information on PADT can be found at www.PADTINC.com.

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Delivering Premier Engineering Services to Enable World-Changing Product Development.

To do that, we need a world class leader. And when our long-time Director of Engineering decided to move to something different, we searched high and low for a new person. The ability and experience of the applicants was amazing and making a decision was difficult. In the end we were fortunate to have Dr. Tyler Shaw join PADT.

Read the official press release below to learn more. We are excited about this new phase for our consulting offering. Tyler’s background and knowlede open new and excited doors.

If you would like to explore how PADT can provide product development or simulation assistance to your organization, contact us, and Tyler along with the rest of the team will be eager to learn more.

Expanding its Product Development Expertise, PADT Adds Dr. Tyler Shaw, Former Head of Advanced Manufacturing at PING, as Director of Engineering

Shaw Tapped to Lead PADT’s Simulation and Product Development Team Who Provide Services Across Industries Worldwide

TEMPE, Ariz., December 3, 2020 ─ PADT, a globally recognized provider of numerical simulation, product development, and 3D printing products and services, today announced it has hired Dr. Tyler Shaw as its Director of Engineering to oversee the company’s simulation and product development consulting team effective immediately. Shaw most recently served as the head of Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation at PING golf, and has worked as an engineer, product manager, and educator across a diverse range of industries for more than 20 years.

“PADT’s ability to help our customers solve tough problems is a key industry differentiator, and we’re thrilled to welcome Tyler as a leader to oversee our team of simulation and design experts,” said Eric Miller, co-founder and principal of PADT. “His experience and impressive technical background will enable us to continue our high-quality service while providing fresh, innovative ideas for developing products to their full potential.”

Dr. Shaw replaces Rob Rowan as the director of Engineering. Rowan spent nearly 20 years with PADT and is credited for driving the growth of PADT’s engineering services and capabilities. “We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Rob for his dedication and leadership,” said Miller. “He was greatly admired for his broad engineering knowledge and business acumen and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.”

After a comprehensive search, Dr. Shaw emerged as the most technically advanced, skilled, and capable candidate to assume the role as PADT’s engineering leader. Dr. Shaw will focus on setting strategy, managing resources, and providing technical expertise to solve customer challenges. Prior to working at PADT and PING, Dr. Shaw served as a product manager for Vestas where he led customer-specific technical and commercial solutions for wind turbine sales across North, Central, and South America. He was also a principal systems engineer for Orbital Sciences Corporation, now Northrop Grumman, where he managed projects related to the development of world-class rockets, satellites, and other space systems.

“I am thrilled to join PADT and am ready for the challenge of taking its engineering services to the next level,” said Dr. Shaw. “I’ve worked with PADT in my previous post and was impressed with their capabilities and portfolio of clients, which covers a diverse set of industries. My background and technical knowledge across many of these sectors will serve PADT’s customers well.”

To learn more about Dr. Shaw and PADT’s simulation and product development services, please visit www.padtinc.com.

About PADT

PADT is an engineering product and services company that focuses on helping customers who develop physical products by providing Numerical Simulation, Product Development, and 3D Printing solutions. PADT’s worldwide reputation for technical excellence and experienced staff is based on its proven record of building long-term win-win partnerships with vendors and customers. Since its establishment in 1994, companies have relied on PADT because “We Make Innovation Work.” With over 90 employees, PADT services customers from its headquarters at the Arizona State University Research Park in Tempe, Arizona, and from offices in Torrance, California, Littleton, Colorado, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Austin, Texas, and Murray, Utah, as well as through staff members located around the country. More information on PADT can be found at www.PADTINC.com.

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More formal versions of this Press Release are available here in PDF and here in HTML.

At DU, we sourced our Ansys simulation software from a company called, you guessed it, PADT. After finishing this degree, and while working at PADT, the desire to further my education cropped up again after seeing the need for a well-rounded understanding of the technical and business/management side of engineering work. After some research, I decided that a Master’s in Engineering Management program made more sense than an MBA, and I started the program back at my original alma mater, CU Boulder.

Throughout the program, I would find myself using the skills I was learning during lectures immediately in my work at PADT. It is difficult to boil down everything learned in a 10-course program to one skill that is used most often, and as I think about it, I think that what is used most frequently is the new perspective, the new lens through which I can now view situations. It’s taking a step back from the technical work and viewing a given project or situation from a perspective shaped by the curriculum as a whole with courses like EMEN 5020 – Finance and Accounting for Engineers, EMEN 5030/5032 – Fundamentals/Advanced Topics of Project Management, EMEN 5050 – Leading Oneself, EMEN 5080 – Ethical Decision Making, EMEN 5500 – Lean and Agile Management, and more. It is the creation of this new perspective that has been most valuable and influential to my work as an engineer and comes from the time spent completing the full program.

Okay okay, but what is the one thing that I use most often, besides this new engineering management perspective? If I had to boil it down to one skill, it would be the ‘pull’ method for feedback. During the course Leading Oneself, we read Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well, Even When it is Off Base, Unfair, Poorly Delivered, and, Frankly, You’re Not In The Mood (Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, 2014), where this method was introduced. By taking an active role in asking for feedback, it has been possible to head-off issues while they remain small, understand where I can do better in my current responsibilities, and grow to increase my value to my group and PADT as a whole.

Here at PADT, we pride ourselves on our ability to make our customers’ ideas for innovation practical and get them to market. No matter how complex the challenge is, we have the engineering expertise and technology tools to work with our customers and deliver tailored solutions to meet their needs. And for every solution we create, there’s a business development team leading the partnership with our customers. We’re excited to welcome the newest leader of this team, Business Development Manager for Engineering Services, Jeff Wells.

“PADT’s engineering services are thriving behind the work of our outstanding team,” said Eric Miller, co-founder and principal, PADT. “Jeff adds a tremendous amount of experience as both an engineer and a business development leader. His knowledge of the industry and the community will elevate our ability to attract new and innovative customers.”

To help PADT improve its market position in engineering services and product development, Wells will be responsible for building new customer relationships and seeking new opportunities to solve complex challenges. His focus will be on serving customers in a wide variety of industries, including aerospace and defense, medical, and industrial.

“Throughout my many years in engineering here in Arizona, I’ve been keenly aware of the outstanding services provided by PADT,” said Wells. “The company’s reputation and the wonderful people I’ve gotten to know over the years made it an easy decision to join the team. I look forward to contributing to the company’s strategy for growing its engineering services department.”

Wells brings nearly 30 years of engineering, business development, and sales experience to the position. He joins PADT after spending the past five years in the director of business development role at CollabraTech Solutions. Wells joined CollabraTech early in the company’s lifecycle and helped grow the gas and chemical delivery product company from a few million dollars in revenue to over $14 million, by diversifying their customer base, the markets they served and the projects they pursued.

Early in his career, Wells worked as an engineer designing a wide variety of products from parts for Airbus aircraft engines to laser part marking kiosks and semiconductor capital equipment. He quickly realized his propensity for combining his engineering expertise with his communication skills, and in the late ‘90s, he began his career in business development. Wells worked at Advanced Integration Technologies for 10 years as a business development engineer and business development manager. He later worked closely with senior leadership on business development operations at Ultra Clean Technology and led business development for Foresight Processing.

Wells holds a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from Arizona State University (ASU). He and his wife, Kate Wells, CEO of the Phoenix Children’s Museum, have been married for 27 years and have two daughters who attend school at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Barrett, the Honors College at ASU. In their free time, Wells and his family enjoy traveling. A decade ago, Jeff and his wife took their two daughters out of school for 14 months backpacking around the globe, visiting 22 countries. Wells also enjoys being outdoors hiking, playing sports, snowboarding and water skiing.

You can find a writeup in the Phoenix Business Journal here and his LinkedIn profile is here.

To learn more about PADT’s engineering service capabilities and to connect with Jeff Wells, please visit www.padtinc.com/services  or call us at 1-800-293-7238.

We are pleased to announce that the US Army has awarded PADT a Phase I SBIR Grant to explore novel geometries for combustor cooling holes. This is our 15th SBIR/STTR win.

We are excited about this win because it is a project that combines Additive Manufacturing, CFD and Thermal Simulation, and Design in one project. And to make it even better, the work is being done in conjunction with our largest customer, Honeywell Aerospace.

We look forward to getting started on this first phase where we will explore options and then applying for a larger Phase II grant to conduct more thorough simulation then build and test the options we uncover in this phase.

Read more below. The official press release is here for HTML and here for PDF.

If you have any needs to explore new solutions or new geometries using Additive Manufacturing or applying advanced simulation to drive new and unique designs, please contact us at 480.813.4884 or info@padtinc.com.

PADT Awarded U.S. Army Phase I SBIR Grant for Combustor Geometry Research Using 3D Printing, Simulation, and Product Development

The Project Involves the Development of Sand-Plugging Resistant Metallic Combustor Liners

TEMPE, Ariz., August 15, 2019 ─ In recognition of its continued excellence and expertise in 3D printing, simulation, and product development, PADT announced today it has been awarded a $107,750 U.S. Army Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. With the support of Honeywell Aerospace, PADT’s research will focus on the development of gas turbine engine combustor liners that are resistant to being clogged with sand.  The purpose of this research is to reduce downtime and improve the readiness of the U.S. Army’s critical helicopters operating in remote locations where dirt and sand can enter their engines.  

“PADT has supported advanced research in a wide variety of fields which have centered around various applications of our services,” said Eric Miller, co-founder and principal, PADT. “We’re especially proud of this award because it requires the use of our three main areas of expertise, 3D printing, simulation and product development. Our team is uniquely capable of combining these three disciplines to develop a novel solution to a problem that impacts the readiness of our armed forces.”

The challenge PADT will be solving is when helicopters are exposed to environments with high concentrations of dust, they can accumulate micro-particles in the engine that clog the metal liner of the engine’s combustor. Combustors are where fuel is burned to produce heat that powers the gas turbine engine. To cool the combustor, thousands of small holes are drilled in the wall, or liner, and cooling air is forced through them. If these holes become blocked, the combustor overheats and can be damaged.  Blockage can only be remedied by taking the engine apart to replace the combustor. These repairs cause long-term downtime and significantly reduce readiness of the Army’s fleets.

PADT will design various cooling hole geometries and simulate how susceptible they are to clogging using advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation tools. Once the most-promising designs have been identified through simulation, sample coupons will be metal 3D printed and sent to a test facility to verify their effectiveness.  Additionally, PADT will experiment with ceramic coating processes on the test coupons to determine the best way to thermally protect the 3D printed geometries.

“When we developed new shapes for holes in the past, we had no way to make them using traditional manufacturing,” said Sina Ghods, principal investigator, PADT. “The application of metal additive manufacturing gives PADT an opportunity to create shapes we could never consider to solve a complex challenge for the U.S. Army. It also gives us a chance to demonstrate the innovation and growth of the 3D printing industry and its applications for harsh, real-world environments.”

Honeywell joined PADT to support this research because it is well aligned with the company’s Gas Turbine Engine products. The outcome of this research has the potential to significantly improve the performance of the company’s engines operating in regions with high dust concentrations.

This will be PADT’s 15^th SBIR/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award since the company was founded in 1994. In August 2018, the company, in partnership with Arizona State University, was awarded a $127,000 STTR Phase I Grant from NASA to accelerate biomimicry research, the study of 3D printing objects that resemble strong and light structures found in nature such as honeycombs or bamboo.

To learn more about PADT and its advanced capabilities, please visit www.padtinc.com.

About Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies

Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies, Inc. (PADT) is an engineering product and services company that focuses on helping customers who develop physical products by providing Numerical Simulation, Product Development, and 3D Printing solutions. PADT’s worldwide reputation for technical excellence and experienced staff is based on its proven record of building long-term win-win partnerships with vendors and customers. Since its establishment in 1994, companies have relied on PADT because “We Make Innovation Work.” With over 80 employees, PADT services customers from its headquarters at the Arizona State University Research Park in Tempe, Arizona, and from offices in Torrance, California, Littleton, Colorado, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Austin, Texas, and Murray, Utah, as well as through staff members located around the country. More information on PADT can be found at www.PADTINC.com.

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We want to thank both the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association (CCIA) and the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) for hosting such an informative event. We were able to meet people from across the energy and learn about their needs, and give them an opportunity to learn more about PADT.

You can find their blog post here.

Here are some pictures describing how our day went.

The building and grounds at the Colorado Governor’s Mansion are truly beautiful. We spent most of the day in the carriage house in the garden… which I failed to get a picture of.

It was a packed day as can be seen from the agenda. And the list of sponsors was fantastic. We were able to talk with key industry visionaries for more efficient and cleaner commercial vehicle fleets.

One of my favorite things about the site were these very cool napkins they gave us. Nice seal. And, “Executive Residence” sounds so much classier than “the Gov’s House”

We spent most of our day in the green room where they gave us wifi, coffee, power, and a flat surface. So Rob and I set up a portable office. The three blowers we brought with us helped decorate the place.

We can’s share the full presentation, but we can discuss some key slides. They gave us 10 minutes to talk about our solution, then 10 for questions.

The problem is fairly simple. People designing stacks need custom blower solutions because of the hydrogen and the pressure/flow requirements on the air side of a hydrogen fuel cell.

PADT’s proven solution is to design custom blowers to meet very specific needs.

In the end, we just wanted to know that we are excited to see that Hydrogen fuel cells are seeing a resurgence, our blowers are perfect for most applications, and that we would love connections to people who need our solution.

When we were done we went inside the house. Room after room was stunning.

We gave a 2-minute short presentation with this great view behind us.

A great day where we met a lot of great people from around the country. Sadly, PADT didn’t win the competition. The truth is that the challenge was for new and disruptive technology and we talked about proven and enabling solutions. Useful to the sponsors, but not what they were looking for when handing out prizes.

Visiting Colorado in the summer is always a nice break for those of us from Phoenix. We hope to participate in this and related events in the future.

If you have any needs for air our hydrogen blowers for your fuel cell, or any complex engineering for your product, please contact us and we would love to learn how we can help.

Last week we were pleased to learn that we were selected to present our fuel cell blower technology at the Commercial Vehicle Cleantech Challenge in Denver, Colorado on July 10th. This is a great opportunity for us to share the solutions we developed for the military, automotive applications, and buses to the trucking industry. Many manufacturers of long-haul commercial trucks are looking at hybrid solutions that combine electrical drives, batteries, and hydrogen fuel cells to create zero-emission vehicles that do not require charging.

To learn more, take a look at the press release below and watch PADT’s news feed to see if we won against some pretty prestigious competition.

If you are interested in how PADT can help you solve your customer pump, blower, turbine, and fan needs, please contact us today.

Link to official press release here for html and here for PDF

2019 Commercial Vehicle Cleantech Challenge Selects PADT to Showcase Fuel Cell Blower Technology  

Major Automotive OEM’s, UTC Power and Several Government Organizations Have All Used Fuel Cell Blower Technology Developed by PADT

TEMPE, Ariz., June 27, 2019 ─ PADT, a globally recognized provider of numerical simulation, product development, and 3D printing products and services, today announced it has been selected as a finalist and to present its innovative fuel cell blower technology at the 2019 Commercial Vehicle Cleantech Challenge (CVCC) presented by the Colorado Cleantech Industries Association (CCIA) and North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE). The showcase event will be held on July 10, 2019, at the Governor’s Residence in Denver, Colorado. 

“As a company who’s a proud supporter and supplier to organizations involved in the green- and cleantech space, it’s an honor to be selected to present at this event,” said Eric Miller, co-founder and principal, PADT. “We look forward to showcasing PADT’s solutions and demonstrating our history of excellence in the hydrogen fuel cell sector.”

PADT will be joined by event partners Toyota, Kenworth, Schneider, UPS, Xcel Energy, and Great Dane as well as trucking industry strategic investors, technology experts and industry environmental directors interested in technologies that can be deployed into their operations.  According to a press release from CCIA, program partners reviewed submissions, vetted applicants and ultimately selected eight finalists, including PADT, to present.

Hydrogen fuel cell technology has resurged in use in recent years and PADT remains one of the few companies with deep experience developing custom fuel cell accessory solutions for the transportation industry.

“The unique requirements of providing pressurized hydrogen and air to high-efficiency fuel-cells require custom solutions which operate at the proper pressure and flow, can deal with the safety issues presented by working with hydrogen, and operate with extremely high efficiency,” said Rob Rowan, director of engineering, PADT. “PADT is one of the few companies in the world with the experience and technical know-how to meet these needs.”

PADT has developed fuel cell blower technology solutions for a number of major automotive OEMs, UTC Power, and several government research organizations. The company’s fuel cell blower technology is still in use today by buses in Oakland, Calif., ten years after being installed.

For more information on PADT’s expertise in cleantech, please visit its alternative energy page here or contact us at 480.813.4884 or info@padtinc.com

About PADT

PADT is an engineering product and services company that focuses on helping customers who develop physical products by providing Numerical Simulation, Product Development, and 3D Printing solutions. PADT’s worldwide reputation for technical excellence and experienced staff is based on its proven record of building long-term win-win partnerships with vendors and customers. Since its establishment in 1994, companies have relied on PADT because “We Make Innovation Work.” With over 80 employees, PADT services customers from its headquarters at the Arizona State University Research Park in Tempe, Arizona, and from offices in Torrance, California, Littleton, Colorado, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Austin, Texas, and Murray, Utah, as well as through staff members located around the country. More information on PADT can be found at www.PADTINC.com.