“Company turns concepts into 3D reality”

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 06:54 AM PDT

Posted By DON FRASER , STANDARD STAFF

Updated 1 hour ago

In the middle of Lincoln fruit country, a technological marvel unfolds.

Henry Hofer shows a computer-aided design of a horseshoe-looking piece with holes drilled through it.

Beside Hofer, the owner of Rockway Precision Machine Ltd., is a type of 3D printer that will turn the image into reality.

"This process is very rare in the Niagara area," he said, inside a machine shop beside his Ninth St. home.

"There are many in the Toronto area offering the service, and Niagara College has two or three of them."

Inside the softly whirring, $30,000 device two special pens read the computer image and squirt layers of a plastic onto a special platform.

The end product, an exact replica created by "fused deposition modelling," is peeled off the tray.

"The advantage of this is for concept models and rapid prototyping," explained the 53-year-old.

It can also be used to assess potential manufacturing tools and parts. Its end users are typically engineers, designers and product development specialists.

A machine shop can carve a similar prototype out of a block of plastic, Hofer said, "but it would take a few days and be costly. This part today took four hours in the printer.

"The next day, the engineer could have this in his hand and test it."

Hofer is a machinist and pattern maker by trade with three decades in the industry.

He has had the 3D printer for eight months and it is slowly generating business.

Meanwhile, the bread and butter of his one-man, 10-year-old firm is to build injection moulds and do custom machining.

And Hofer admits he's working in a spot that's pretty easy on the eyes. Around him are sprawling orchards, country lanes and stately farm homes -- a far cry from some bleak industrial park.

"I just wanted to work from home," he said. "And it is beautiful here."

His wife, Nina Hofer, is a product consultant for the LCBO and is well connected to the local wine industry.

"She really wants to be out here as well," Hofer said. "She does many functions for a lot of the wineries.

"We're just very happy with the lifestyle."

Walter Sendzik, general manager of the St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce, is impressed by Hofer's business.

"Places like Rockway are investing in the type of technology that will be critical for the development of advanced manufacturing," he said.

"Investment in technology will continue to let these kinds of companies grow here in Niagara."

dfraser@stcatharinesstandard.ca

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Friday, August 27, 2010