History for the future: PADT seals time capsule as part of 25th-anniversary celebration

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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:

padt25 business cards1 A timeline of PADT Business Cards over the past 25 years. We did think they looked cool back then.PADT25 Business Card Timeline
PADT25 company photos1 We didn’t take any early photos, but we do have pictures of most of our employees for almost every year since 2000.
PADT25 first report 1994 Our first report to a customer was a stress analysis for a sprinkler valve housing.
PADT25 then and now cover 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.

PADT25 TimeCapsule f02
All of that stuff we wanted to save is piled on the cart. A lot of memories.

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.

PADT25 TimeCapsule f03
PADT’s founders… 25 years older… Eric Miller, Ward Rand, and Rey Chu
PADT25 TimeCapsule f04
Jeff expertly filled the box full
PADT25 TimeCapsule f05
Co-Founder, Rey Chu puts in the first screw.
PADT25 TimeCapsule f06
Ward Rand adds the second fastener.
PADT25 TimeCapsule f07
Eric Miller tightens everything up.

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.

PADT25 TimeCapsule f08
Sealed and ready for the future

List of Items in PADT’s Time Capsule, 1994 – 2019

1First official printed PADT Brochure
2Business Card designs – 1994 to present
3Service Partnership Guide – 2000 ver. 1
4Employee Handbook 2019
5Business Journal – Issue: March 1, 2019
6Eric’s Honeywell Contractor Badge (2000) – Transition period from Allied Signal to Honeywell
7One of the early company polo shirts – Late 1990’s
8PADT Baseball Jersey – 2011 Company Photo
92014 PADT 20th Anniversary t-shirt
1025th Anniversary paper “Swag Bag” – Pen (bamboo), Mousepad (retreaded tire), Sticky Pad, Anniversary t-shirt
11PADT Cap – our most popular swag item.  Given to customers and employees started placing in photos of their world travels.
12Ruler giveaways – Clear acrylic from Gilbert office days (1990’s) / White magnetic 6″ from the mid-2010’s
13YoYo – PADT’s first swag item – distributed at the Ansys Worldwide User Conference
14Brass PADT logo used for Service Awards (mid-2000’s)
1515th PADT Anniversary Cup
16PADT flash drive – 8 GB.  Given to customers pre-loaded with files and also blank ones included in our New Hire Kit 
17SCA 1200 Users Manual – 2012 rev 3
18SCA Pump Assembly
19SCA Impeller
20APDL Guide – written by the Tech Support Team (2nd Edition)   1st Edition was 2010
21Ansys 5.2 Complete Software Package – 1996
22Cathode air blower housing for fuel cell in municipal buses
23Mixed flow impeller for fuel cell in municipal buses
24Radial Impeller – cathode air blower for fuel cell powered aircraft application
25Roots Blower Rotor – cathode air delivery for a fuel cell
26Regenerative flow impeller – Hydrogen Recycle Blower for fuel cell car
27Fuel Cell Test Block circa 2003 while Rob Rowan was at ASM.  History Unknown.
28OrthoSensor – knee replacement alignment sensor designed and developed by PADT
29The Spot – personal location and communication device designed by PADT, which talks directly to a satellite. Case Study Included.
30SLS model of Ward Rand’s heel. Broken from ladder fall. (2001)
313D Printed Business Card
32FDM part – Roots Blower Housing – designed by Eric Miller.  (1999)
33SLA part – Ryobi Weed Wacker spool (1997)
34Protoype Diffuser in a compressor – designed for the Air Force Research Lab
35PolyJet demo part – the introduction of water PolyJet using various materials printed simultaneously
36PolyJet employee name tag printed for 25th Anniversary event
37First 3D Metal printed part. We were the beta test. (2001)
38Pro-Engineer Manual (1997) – PADT’s first CAD package
39Event photo posters made to commemorate PADT25 – originals are 24″x36″, gallery framed and hung in office
403″ Floppy Disk with Honeywell Ansys Thermal Model files (1996)
41CD Rom – Honeywell Impeller Stress & Vibration Analysis (2002)
42Materialise – Early version of software used to send parts to SLA Machine (1999’ish)
43Motorola i530 Nextel Flip Phone – iDEN’s original Push-To-Talk walkie, speakerphone, voice dialing (2004)
44PADT’s first Smart Phone – Blackberry 71001 / International with internet access (2005)
45Rey’s Blackberry Curve 8310 (2007)
46An employee’s old iPhone 6 (2014)
47Macintosh 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. 
48Binder of documents
49Team Building Event t-shirts – 2014 & 2015

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