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D-Pace supplies products and services to the international commercial accelerator industry. Our areas of expertise include charged particle transport systems and components for the cyclotron, ion implanter, and linear accelerator segments of the industry.

• Professional ion-optical modeling, engineering, mechanical design, drafting and documentation services – industrial beamline systems and components.
• Precision accelerator equipment – cyclotron sub-systems, industrial beamline systems, or individual components such as magnets, vacuum chambers, beam diagnostic devices, and target systems.
• High performance, reliable DC volume-cusp H− / D− ion sources – licensed and backed with TRIUMF support.
• Ion source, injection, cyclotron and beamline training – for operations staff, focusing on improved performance by linking theory with practice.
• Technical Manual writing – for commercial accelerator systems.
• D-Pace Our many industry contacts such as scientists, engineers, designers, and specialty part manufacturers and suppliers – all over the world – back our commitment to innovation, quality and customer satisfaction.

Examples:

Square, the mobile payment company that first gained notice with those little credit card swipe accessories for smartphones, has come a long way since founders Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey walked into a California-based makerspace. Leveraging the tools and community members in the facility, they were able to quickly develop a prototype of their first credit card reader. The company now has a nearly $6 billion market valuation.

While makerspaces have been a boon for students, hobbyists and artists, they’ve also become an invaluable resource for professional engineers and designers. Whether they were designed that way from the start or have evolved and expanded their services, makerspaces are acting as hands-on manufacturing incubators for startups of every stripe. They also offer a place for engineers to add to their training, tinker with new ideas outside of their day jobs and even provide facilities for large, established companies to brainstorm and prototype.

Square is probably the most well-known example, but there are plenty of others. DODOcase sold its first $1 million in product 90 days after founder Patrick Buckley walked through the door. “Our best bet is about 2,000 jobs have been created through our facilities, along with $2 billion in annual sales and $200 million in salaries created from our members developing and launching companies,” says CEO Mark Hatch. The organization now has eight locations across the country, with more in the works.

At the Columbus Idea Foundry in Columbus, OH, a host of professionals have called the makerspace home, including local 3D printer company IC3D, and 3D scanner maker Knockout Concepts. Having just moved into a 65,000 sq. ft. warehouse space in 2014, the Idea Foundry offers a traditional tool-laden makerspace on its ground floor. It is in the process of raising funds to add more professional services upstairs, including space for graphic artists, Web developers and trademark attorneys.

“The idea is that you use the first floor to build your widget, and then go upstairs and get the professional help you need on the business and legal side to launch a company,” says Alex Bandar, founder. “It’s really a one-stop-shop, creative ecosystem.”

Artisan’s Asylum in Somerville, MA, was originally launched by a group of engineers who wanted to have access to the same fabrication equipment in their personal lives that they did at work, says Derek Seabury, president and executive director. As the facility grew, so did the appeal for professionals.

“The value proposition emerged for a cabinet maker or a contractor, or for someone doing prototyping,” Seabury says. The space’s most well known startup is probably the 3Doodler, a 3D printing pen that went on to a successful Kickstarter-funded launch.

The appeal is clear: Makerspaces offer, for a nominal membership fee, access to equipment and expertise that would require thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars to obtain for traditional product development. Inventors can launch a product with a relatively small amount of disposable income rather than taking out a large loan or raising capital.
Expanding Professional Services

Makerspaces have made their facilities more hospitable to professional engineers, even as they continue to offer space for amateurs and hobbyists. Most, for example, even offer institutional memberships for companies that want their employees to have access to these less formal workspaces.

“The original appeal was around some newer technologies,” Seabury says. “Not every company was able to invest in a 3D printer or a laser cutter, so this gave them a way to access the equipment without the big upfront cost.”