{"id":968,"date":"2007-06-22T14:12:38","date_gmt":"2007-06-22T14:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vibrant.bdnvisuals.com\/2007\/06\/22\/vibrant-wins-a-demonstration-contract-with-the-boeing-co-new-mexico-business-weekly\/"},"modified":"2007-06-22T14:12:38","modified_gmt":"2007-06-22T14:12:38","slug":"vibrant-wins-a-demonstration-contract-with-the-boeing-co-new-mexico-business-weekly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/vibrant-wins-a-demonstration-contract-with-the-boeing-co-new-mexico-business-weekly\/","title":{"rendered":"Vibrant wins a demonstration contract with the Boeing Co. (New Mexico Business Weekly)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Kevin Robinson-Avila,\u00a0NMBW staff<\/em><\/p>\n

Vibrant Corp.’s first contract won’t pay much, but it could be just the boost the fledgling aeroparts\u00a0tester is looking for.<\/p>\n

Boeing Co. signed a two-month, $10,000 contract on May 31 for Vibrant to help Boeing evaluate a\u00a0new method for manufacturing aerospace components, says Vibrant CEO Lem Hunter. Vibrant will test\u00a0the components to see if the new process is making strong, uniform parts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just a small contract, but it gets us in the front door,“ Hunter says. „Boeing is one of the nation’s\u00a0two largest airframe manufacturers. If we demonstrate our capabilities there, it could lead to bigger\u00a0contracts with Boeing, and with other companies.“<\/p>\n

Albuquerque-based Vibrant launched at the beginning of this year as a spin-off of Mechtronic\u00a0Solutions Inc., an engineering and light electronics firm, which Hunter helped create in 1993.<\/p>\n

Vibrant uses proprietary technology licensed from Quasar International to conduct non-destructive\u00a0testing on aerospace components. Quasar built the system\u2014known as Process Compensated Resonant\u00a0Testing\u2014for use by the automotive industry.<\/p>\n

Originally developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the technology detects defects in parts by\u00a0vibrating them and then applying advanced software algorithms to compare the resonant frequency\u00a0generated with the resonance of a non-defective part.<\/p>\n

Quasar, which spent $10 million to develop the technology, first licensed its computational software\u00a0to Exagen Diagnostics, which uses the system to search huge volumes of genetic information for\u00a0medical diagnostics. Quasar itself was acquired early this year by Illinois Tool Works Inc.\u2014a $14 billion\u00a0corporation that owns 750 businesses in 49 countries.<\/p>\n

Vibrant licensed Quasar’s technology in 2005, and then operated as a division of Mechtronic while it\u00a0adapted the technology for use on aerospace components.<\/p>\n

Hunter says the system can save a lot of money for aviation companies, preventing the scrapping of\u00a0parts until it’s necessary.<\/p>\n

„Current technologies just look at surface irregularities, which means parts often get discarded without\u00a0knowing whether they’re sound inside,“ Hunter says. „We can determine with great accuracy whether a\u00a0part is good or bad, to get more use out of them. That’s very important because we’re talking about\u00a0incredibly high-value parts that range up to $800,000.“<\/p>\n

Since spinning off on its own, Vibrant has conducted pilot projects with engine builders Williams\u00a0International and Rolls-Royce, and with Delta Airlines, to demonstrate its technology. Hunter expects\u00a0<\/span>those pilot demos to lead to paying contracts in July and August.<\/p>\n

David Piotrowski\u2014principal engineer with Delta in Atlanta, Ga.\u2014says his company might well\u00a0contract Vibrant now that it’s seen the technology in action.<\/p>\n

„I don’t yet know if Delta will contract them, but the technology is very encouraging, enough so that\u00a0we’re taking a much closer look at it,“ Piotrowski says. „So far, it looks very promising.“<\/p>\n

In fact, Piotrowski says Vibrant’s services could, potentially, lead to changes in standard inspection\u00a0methods throughout the aviation industry.<\/p>\n

„It could end up replacing or supplementing some of the inspection technology that’s out there,“ he\u00a0says. „Resonance, or vibrating technology, has been around a long time, but Vibrant is applying software\u00a0algorithms to pull information out about parts and components that was there all along but was\u00a0inaccessible before. This can tell us a lot of new things about parts and components at every level.“<\/p>\n

Vibrant is ramping up its workforce in preparation for new contracts.\u00a0It has hired four engineers since March, and will hire four more before year-end.<\/p>\n

In addition, it received $93,000 through the state’s Job Training Incentive Program to help train new\u00a0employees on its computational software.<\/p>\n

„It’s a challenge to master this technology, so we want to get employees up to speed and ready to hit the\u00a0ground before new contracts are signed,“ Hunter says.<\/p>\n

Vibrant closed in May on $1 million in seed funding from angel investors.<\/p>\n

Dave Durgin\u2014one of the investors and a general partner in the Verge Fund\u2014says Verge could lead a\u00a0Series A round next year if Vibrant needs more money to finance growth.<\/p>\n

„This is new technology, so there’s always an adaptation period before customers are comfortable with it,\u00a0but Vibrant is starting to get some name-brand customers,“ Durgin says.<\/p>\n

„They might need additional funding after they sign up more companies. I think Verge would be quite\u00a0interested in that when the time comes,“ he adds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vibrant Corp.’s first contract won’t pay much, but it could be just the boost the fledgling aeroparts tester is looking for. Boeing Co. signed a two-month, $10,000 contract on May 31 for Vibrant to help Boeing evaluate a new method for manufacturing aerospace components.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-company-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/968\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibrantndt.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}