A Brief History of PADT |
PADT Inc. was founded by a group of aerospace engineers who felt that the tools and skills they used to design, analyze, and prototype aerospace systems could also be applied to other industries. In the summer of 1994, they joined forces to form Phoenix Analysis and Design Technologies, or PADT for short.
The first office was a one-man executive suite. They crammed four people and three computers into this tiny room and started calling potential customers. Slowly but surely, work started to come in and the company was off and running. With the purchase of a 3D Systems SLA250 Rapid Prototyping machine at the end of 1994, PADT became the first independent Rapid Prototyping service provider in Arizona.
When the lease was up on the tiny executive suite, the search began for a larger facility that had room for both engineering services and rapid prototyping. A small suite in the eastern Phoenix suburb of Gilbert was discovered, and soon PADT had moved into the Fiesta Tech Center.
PADT has continued to grow through the addition of many hardworking and dedicated employees. In 1997, the company added a full-time sales and marketing staff. This important addition has allowed PADT to provide a truly complete solution to its customers.
In 1999, the decided to grow in the area of product development and sought and won funding under the U.S. Government’s Small Business Initiative Research (SBIR) program. Leveraging CAE technologies, in house prototyping and engineering experience, these projects sought to break through the technical barriers in efficiency and sizing of rotating and power related machinery. The company also formed specific groups to tackle the entire product development project from concept to prototype. Success in this new area, and further strengthening in CAE and Rapid Prototyping began to pay off and PADT saw its fastest growth to date.
Another milestone occurred in 2002 when PADT moved from its long-time Gilbert facility to a new, larger facility at the Arizona State University Research Park, just down the street in Tempe. The new facility, with over 15,000 square feet, allowed an expansion in testing, manufacturing and inspection that was not possible in PADT’s previous cramped quarters. All areas of the company grew in 2001 and 2002, but the Power System Group grew the most, with the awarding of a total of four Phase II SBIR projects. In addition, many of PADT’s initial investigations transferred from research into development projects for a variety of commercial companies.
In March 2004, PADT celebrated its 10th anniversary with an open house that was attended by more than 250 customers and with a user group meeting for the local ANSYS user community. The event was also marked by the expansion of the company into an adjacent suite to allow for more lab, office, and manufacturing space. The move brings the total facility up to 24,000 sq. ft. and includes a lobby that is actually slightly bigger than PADT’s original executive suite in Tempe! We have certainly come a long way. The expansion also made separate labs available for rotating machinery, product assembly and test, high-temperature testing, and medical device development.
For the next five years the company continued to grow in all and solidify its reputation as a trusted partner to companies large and small. During this time owners decided to give back to the Arizona technology community by participating as angel investors and mentors through the Arizona Technology Investor Forum (ATIF) and Invest Southwest. This was followed by involvement with the Arizona Technology Council and a variety of charity efforts.
In 2009 the company was pleased to host another open house, this time celebrating PADT’s 15th anniversary and growth to over 50 employees. Besides the open house PADT saw many other important milestones including: the growth of PADT’s compute cluster to over 100 nodes; launch of the company’s first commercial product, the SCA; Being chosen by Stratasys, Inc. to distribute their complete line of FORTUS, DIMENSION and uPrint prototyping machines; and the launch of the company’s first on-line store, PADTMarket.com;
Along with this growth has been growth in the relationship between PADT and ANSYS, Inc. Starting out as sub-distributor, PADT has grown to be the dominant distributor of ANSYS, Inc’s simulation software throughout the Southwestern United states and has also established itself as a technical partner by participating in ANSYS, Inc.’s advisory council, providing prototype software solutions, and hosting the largest online ANSYS related community, XANSYS. Along with ANSYS products, PADT’s seasoned sales team also grew to distribute the complete line of 3D printers from Stratasys, Inc.
Rapid Prototyping is an area within the company that has truly transformed itself to meet customer’s growing needs. It has now evolved into the Manufacturing Technologies group which provides, besides same in-house rapid prototyping services PADT is famous for; soft tooling, rapid injection molding, CNC Machining and off shore manufacturing coordination. The group also reached a major milestone in 2009 when it introduced the company’s first commercial product, the Support Cleaning Apparatus (SCA), a device used in the post processing of rapid prototyping parts.
Over the past 15 years PADT has grown to become the most respected mechanical engineering service provider in the region. By sticking to its core principles and growing its skill and technology base, the company has positioned itself to continue providing the best solutions … at the best price … in the best time.
Updated June 24, 2009
