German R&D House Expands

DEVELOPING PROTOTYPE TOOLS is keeping Rohwedder Inc. busy in Orlando. And they’re growing. The 20-employee research-and-development facility has recently expanded into larger quarters at Central Florida Research Park. Birgit (Bee) R. Westphal, the firm’s president, says they’re looking to add another 10 engineers “right away.”

Its parent company, Rohwedder AG Germany (www.rohwedder.de), has subsidiaries in not only the USA (it also has a company in Minnesota) but also Switzerland, France, Canada and Korea and 800 skilled employees involved in vacuum, robotics, assembly automation and automated solutions for a variety of industries. “This company has revenues of 117 million euros ($135 million),” says Westphal, who is from Germany. “We bought RLR in Orlando two years ago to diversify our technology.”

Rohwedder (www.rohwedder.com) has developed new technology for Michigan-based OSMIC, who is using the new “flexible dual-ion beam deposition tool” to produce high-grade optical coatings. (Don’t ask us what a ‘beam deposition tool’ is.) This tool also has applications in other high-quality, low-defect thin film markets such as lithography and nanotechnology. “This is the latest technology in semiconductor labs,” Westphal says. “If this tool gets to the level of operation that we’re seeking, we have brought the next generation to market.” Rohwedder’s Orlando operation also works with universities, such as Princeton and Florida.

Technology a la Daytona
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (www.embryriddle.edu) is quietly developing plans for an avionics and biotechnology business park.

“About 100 acres or more located along the Clive Morris corridor (the location of Embry-Riddle’s campus) is currently under review for a technology park development,” says Rick Michael, executive director of the Volusia County Department of Economic Development (www.floridabusiness.org).

Michael says that a driving force for the park is Irwin Price, Embry-Riddle’s chancellor. “Dr. Price, who came to us from George Washington University, has a background in technology and commercialization programs. He is working toward moving the university to become a major player in R&D of avionics technology as well as biotechnology.”

Local officials like the idea. “There is a collective effort by the university, City of Daytona Beach, Volusia County and the Volusia County School Board to support development of a technology park on Clive Morris,” says Michael. “Embry-Riddle already has millions of dollars in research support.”

Web Wed to Art
Site Dynamics is in heady company. It recently won top honors for Web site design work along with design firms in New York; New Jersey; California; Seoul, South Korea; and Tokyo, Japan.

The Clearwater company (www.sitedynamics.com) received the “Best of Arts” award for the St. Petersburg-based Caroline York World of Art Web site (www.CarolineYork.com). The Web page is a marketing tool that enables performing and visual artists to showcase their work online for buyers.

Tech FYI
Task-Based Technologies of Sarasota (www.taskbased.com) has received a contract from FedEx Corp. to apply its technology to reduce the repair and maintenance cycle of the package delivery company’s fleet of aircraft … The U.S. Army has placed a $1.3-million contract with Melbourne-based Symetrics (www.symetrics.com) to supply airborne data modems that facilitate information sharing between aircraft and ground stations without adding radios or modifying the aircraft’s operational flight program … Intelligent Micro Patterning (www.intelligentmp.com) in St. Petersburg will provide a microfluidics fabrication line to the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain … Hyde Park Capital Advisors (www.hydeparkcapital.com) has closed $10 million in financing for Tampa-based Litestream Technologies, a telecommunications services provider that is partially owned by TECO Fiber, a subsidiary of TECO Energy Inc. … ImagiNail Corp. (www.imaginail.com), one of the businesses in the TechVillage Tampa Bay incubator that folded last year, has moved its offices to the Young-Rainey STAR Center in Largo … The STAR Center (www.pced.org/pinellas_star_center), by the way, has received approval from the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners to allocate 20,000 square feet of space for the Sun-coast Technology Accelerator Project, which will be funded by a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Send tips, information and news releases related to technology to Melissa Wells at Maddux Report, P.O. Box 202, St. Petersburg, FL 33731. Or by email: mwells@maddux.com