Local custom manufacturing company
Stratasys stands alongside some pretty big names on Fast Company's Transportation Top 10 list this year: names like Boeing, GE, and IBM.
Eden Prairie-based Stratasys was included on the strength of its work with Canadian company Kor Ecologic on the
Urbee hybrid (pictured), a futuristic automobile that can run on free electricity from a garage-mounted solar panel and achieve 200 miles per hour using ethanol or gasoline.
The car's exterior body components were created using Stratsys' Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology, which creates thermoplastic prototypes, manufacturing tools, and parts directly from computer-aided designs (CAD). The patented technology was invented by Statasys CEO Scott Crump.
While the technology has generally been used to make models, companies also use it to "build real parts that go into their end products," says Joe Hiemenz, public relations manager for Stratasys.
Stratasys' technology eliminates the need to build tools needed in traditional methods like injection molding, says Hiemenz The technology is cost-effective for limited-amount or high-end custom production; should the now-prototype Urbee go into mass production, however, traditional manufacturing techniques would likely be used, says Hiemenz.
Stratasys employs 400 people. Its products are used in the aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, business and industrial equipment, education, architecture, and consumer-product industries, according to a press release, in which Crump gave credit to KorEcologic for the recognition by Fast Company. Crump called the "groundbreaking car �a foreshadowing of the future" and "what transportation will look like 100 years from now."
Source: Joe Hiemenz, Stratasys
Writer: Jeremy Stratton