Fox Valley FAB LAB opens doors for disabled

Thanks to an invention prototyped in the Fox Valley Technical College/MIT FAB LAB, Jennifer Ulrich knows every door will open. Ulrich, a UW-Green Bay student, gets around with help from her service dog, Wilson. Trained to pick up objects and open doors, Wilson has trouble with some handles.

Jack Nigl knew there had to be a better way, and he found it at the Fox Valley Technical College’s FAB LAB, an innovation center that provides inventors, entrepreneurs and existing businesses the tools and know-how to take an idea into a prototype product.

Nigl is a volunteer with Northeast Wisconsin Service Dogs and he trained Wilson to grasp straps affixed or attached to phones, door handles or cupboards. “That way the owner doesn’t have to grasp a wet object covered in dog saliva,” Nigl says.

To open doors with lever handles, a service dog has to pull all the way down to disengage the latch, a task difficult even for a trained dog.

Nigl worked with experts in the FAB LAB to modify the existing door hook. FAB LAB Industrial Design Specialist Herb Goetz met with Nigl, listened to his needs and designed a simple, universal tool. By using a specialized benchtop parts bender, he was able to fabricate light gauge metal to work on at least four different door handle styles.

Nigl did not want to produce and sell the product for profit. “We’re going to find a machine to do this ourselves, make the hooks and give them away to our patrons,” he says.

The FVTC/MIT FAB LAB is staffed by design and fabrication experts who mentor innovators as they use the facility. Inventors can use a laser cutter system, bench-top milling machine, injection molding and finishing equipment, rapid prototyping machine, and a suite of supporting software and hardware. Finished prototypes can be made from a variety of materials and incorporate electronics and other technologies as needed. Students and businesses in an 18-county region of northeast Wisconsin are accessing the facility.

There are 30 FAB LABs in the world and Fox Valley Technical College is the first to fully integrate entrepreneurship and new product development into the FAB LAB concept.

American National Bank Fox Cities features ‘Women who Run with Scissors’

The ongoing partnership between American National Bank Fox Cities and the Appleton Art Center continues with an exhibition of the Denmark, Wis.-based fiber arts group, Women who Run with Scissors.

“The talented members of Women who Run with Scissors rank among the state’s most gifted artists in any medium,” say Appleton Art Center executive director Timothy Riley.

Located on the corner of Richmond and Marquette in Appleton, American National Bank Fox Cities is creating a new tradition in the art of banking. Specializing in celebrating the local and regional artists, the gallery shows provide much needed gallery space for works to be viewed and sold. All proceeds go to Appleton Art Center and the artist. The exhibition runs through April 17, 2009.

MOVERS

>> The Board of Directors of the Door County Economic Development Corporation elected their officers for 2009: Chair Roger Kinnard, Therma-Tron-X & Door County Manufacturers Association; Vice Chair Robert Starr, ERA/Starr Realty & Door County Board of REALTORS; Treasurer Greg Stephan, Associated Bank and Secretary Bill Chaudoir, DCEDC.

>> Menasha Packaging has announced that Dennis Bonn, vice president of marketing, has assumed responsibility for the company’s Retail Integration Institute (RII).

BUSINESS BRIEFS

SHEBOYGAN: The research firm Teasly has ranked Sheboygan fourth in the Top 10 list of United States cities as having the best ratio of rich, single men to women, right behind Washington, D.C.

APPLETON: Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation has begun a three-year strategic initiative to revamp the way it communicates flight schedules and other critical flight information to over 1,000 pilots and flight attendants throughout the United States. With the help of Green Bay-based IT firm, Skyline Technologies, Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation is building a platform of new technology applications throughout the organization, beginning with a new crew self-service program to be completed by mid 2009.

Photo supplied by ©Fox Valley Technical College