The past is a tricky thing to remember. When we started preparing for PADT’s 25th anniversary celebration, we spent a lot of time thinking about the past, about our journey from an idea to the thriving business we are today. And one thought kept coming back to us, “we really should have captured and stored more.”
We can’t change that past, but we can preserve our history for the future with a Time Capsule. On July 1st of 2019, we took 49 items and crammed them into a sealed box that we embedded into the wall of PADT’s Tempe headquarters.
You can see a list of all the items at the bottom of this post. Some of the highlights are a copy of our different business card designs over the past 25 years, a collection of PADT logo’d shirts, bits and pieces from our SCA product, parts from various fuel cell blowers, samples of 3D Printed parts, and some old manuals. We also included a collection of tech from the past 25 years, including four cell phones of various types.
From our perspective, the most interesting object we stored was a binder with documents and images from the past 25 years. Here are some of the items in that binder that are interesting today:
 | A timeline of PADT Business Cards over the past 25 years. We did think they looked cool back then. |
 | We didn’t take any early photos, but we do have pictures of most of our employees for almost every year since 2000. |
 | Our first report to a customer was a stress analysis for a sprinkler valve housing. |
 | Our staff took a look at the way things were in 1994 and in 2019. Technology, politics, entertainment, and news. A great look back at then and now. |
It was a lot of fun gathering the items and thinking about the impact they all had on PADT over the years.
On Monday we crammed it all in and sealed it up. In 25 years, July 1, 2044, PADT employees, customers, and partners of the future will open it up to see what is inside. That is not too far into the future and with luck, many of us will be around to witness it.
We wonder what they will make of our past, some of which will be fifty years old by then. Will they laugh? Or scratch their head wondering what the heck a cell phone was? We can’t wait to find out.
List of Items in PADT’s Time Capsule, 1994 – 2019
| 1 | First official printed PADT Brochure |
| 2 | Business Card designs – 1994 to present |
| 3 | Service Partnership Guide – 2000 ver. 1 |
| 4 | Employee Handbook 2019 |
| 5 | Business Journal – Issue: March 1, 2019 |
| 6 | Eric’s Honeywell Contractor Badge (2000) – Transition period from Allied Signal to Honeywell |
| 7 | One of the early company polo shirts – Late 1990’s |
| 8 | PADT Baseball Jersey – 2011 Company Photo |
| 9 | 2014 PADT 20th Anniversary t-shirt |
| 10 | 25th Anniversary paper “Swag Bag” – Pen (bamboo), Mousepad (retreaded tire), Sticky Pad, Anniversary t-shirt |
| 11 | PADT Cap – our most popular swag item. Given to customers and employees started placing in photos of their world travels. |
| 12 | Ruler giveaways – Clear acrylic from Gilbert office days (1990’s) / White magnetic 6″ from the mid-2010’s |
| 13 | YoYo – PADT’s first swag item – distributed at the Ansys Worldwide User Conference |
| 14 | Brass PADT logo used for Service Awards (mid-2000’s) |
| 15 | 15th PADT Anniversary Cup |
| 16 | PADT flash drive – 8 GB. Given to customers pre-loaded with files and also blank ones included in our New Hire Kit |
| 17 | SCA 1200 Users Manual – 2012 rev 3 |
| 18 | SCA Pump Assembly |
| 19 | SCA Impeller |
| 20 | APDL Guide – written by the Tech Support Team (2nd Edition) 1st Edition was 2010 |
| 21 | Ansys 5.2 Complete Software Package – 1996 |
| 22 | Cathode air blower housing for fuel cell in municipal buses |
| 23 | Mixed flow impeller for fuel cell in municipal buses |
| 24 | Radial Impeller – cathode air blower for fuel cell powered aircraft application |
| 25 | Roots Blower Rotor – cathode air delivery for a fuel cell |
| 26 | Regenerative flow impeller – Hydrogen Recycle Blower for fuel cell car |
| 27 | Fuel Cell Test Block circa 2003 while Rob Rowan was at ASM. History Unknown. |
| 28 | OrthoSensor – knee replacement alignment sensor designed and developed by PADT |
| 29 | The Spot – personal location and communication device designed by PADT, which talks directly to a satellite. Case Study Included. |
| 30 | SLS model of Ward Rand’s heel. Broken from ladder fall. (2001) |
| 31 | 3D Printed Business Card |
| 32 | FDM part – Roots Blower Housing – designed by Eric Miller. (1999) |
| 33 | SLA part – Ryobi Weed Wacker spool (1997) |
| 34 | Protoype Diffuser in a compressor – designed for the Air Force Research Lab |
| 35 | PolyJet demo part – the introduction of water PolyJet using various materials printed simultaneously |
| 36 | PolyJet employee name tag printed for 25th Anniversary event |
| 37 | First 3D Metal printed part. We were the beta test. (2001) |
| 38 | Pro-Engineer Manual (1997) – PADT’s first CAD package |
| 39 | Event photo posters made to commemorate PADT25 – originals are 24″x36″, gallery framed and hung in office |
| 40 | 3″ Floppy Disk with Honeywell Ansys Thermal Model files (1996) |
| 41 | CD Rom – Honeywell Impeller Stress & Vibration Analysis (2002) |
| 42 | Materialise – Early version of software used to send parts to SLA Machine (1999’ish) |
| 43 | Motorola i530 Nextel Flip Phone – iDEN’s original Push-To-Talk walkie, speakerphone, voice dialing (2004) |
| 44 | PADT’s first Smart Phone – Blackberry 71001 / International with internet access (2005) |
| 45 | Rey’s Blackberry Curve 8310 (2007) |
| 46 | An employee’s old iPhone 6 (2014) |
| 47 | Macintosh IIVX (Photo) – PADT’s original computer. It was used to create early brochures, design the PADT logo, write letters and reports, and ran our first accounting system for many years. |
| 48 | Binder of documents |
| 49 | Team Building Event t-shirts – 2014 & 2015 |
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