Greenville Technical College’s Center for Manufacturing Innovation has launched a Manufacturing Business Incubator. The first participating companies at the site are Medical Beam Laboratories and Constructis LLC.
Business incubator space is intended for firms that can make use of the hardware in the building, collaborate with students and faculty, and eventually grow into their own facility or begin commercial production after the prototyping or start-up phase, according to a news release.
David Clayton, director of the Center for Manufacturing Innovation, told GSA Business Report that providing manufacturing business incubator space has advantages for all parties involved.
“At Greenville Tech, we’re about the students first, clearly, we’re an educational institution. The hope is these businesses will get to the point where they’re working with faculty and students in developing their product or prototype,” he said.
Clayton said the nearly $7 million in advanced manufacturing equipment at the center is an advantage for incubator companies. And students will get the opportunity to work on industry-level projects, he said.
Medical Beam Laboratories is developing solutions for medical radiation therapy that will overcome common limitations. They offer the first advanced robotic radiosurgery system that combines real-time, image-guided technology with a precision robotic treatment head that generates multiple finely collimated gamma radiation beams. According to the release, this allows for treatment of tumors with uniquely arranged radiation sources rotated around the target, better dose concentration at target areas, low dose absorption by surrounding healthy tissue, sharp dose fall-off at tumor boundaries, dose volume shaping and dose intensity modulation.
Constructis is leading research and development in kinetic energy. When vehicles roll over the company’s patent pending energy capture system, they depress rumble tubes, where motion and mass energy are converted into electricity. The system is climate resilient and can produce clean energy after installation in roadways, airports, toll booths, border crossings, weigh stations, parking lots, and other applications where vehicles are slowing down and collecting. In addition to harvesting electricity, Constructis will also test sensory systems for permanent traffic solutions, including vehicle weights and measures, improve traffic lighting based on volume flows instead of timed lights, and provide Wi-Fi in a networked smart grid system for communities, according to the release.
South Carolina Research Authority is assisting the companies, as SC Launch client companies, with funding to cover their initial term at the incubator.