Tech Trends e-Newsletter

News, notes, and information from all over.

Thanks in part to a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) has established a new Institute for Computer Security and Forensics. The institute is a two-year initiative to train key IT staff from nonprofit organizations in techniques to secure computer/technology systems, and to train law enforcement and criminal justice systems staff in information security, computer forensics, and procedures for digital investigations. MCTC is also offering new degree programs in computer security and forensics beginning this fall.

Is your operation RoHS compliant? Not if it’s like the majority of manufacturers around the country. That’s the result of a new study of manufacturing firms which tracks the implementation of the EU directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) in electrical or electronic equipment sold or used in the European Union after July 1, 2006. (The substances are lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers.) According to Arena Solutions, a Foster City, Calif., provider of product lifecycle management software, 83 percent of the study’s respondents couldn’t demonstrate compliance or due diligence for RoHS based on their documentation-management capabilities. In addition, 59 percent of respondents reported that they lack a good understanding of RoHS regulations or how to demonstrate compliance and due diligence, and 60 percent of respondents are not confident that they can track all parts and materials in their products or that they can verify compliance independently of any regulatory requirement. To see the full study results and a free online assessment tool, go to www.arenasolutions.com/internal_campaigns/active_campaigns/
rohs_poll_webinar/701000000004i4a_banner/poll.html.

Big change on the state’s kefir-manufacturing scene: Lifeway Foods of Morton Grove, Ill., has acquired Sauk Centre-based Helios Nutrition. For the short term at least, Helios-brand kefir will continue to be manufactured under Lifeway’s direction from Helios’ 25,000-square-foot facility in Sauk Centre, and all Helios employees, including CEO George Economy, will be retained.

Eden Prairie-based Ontrack Data Recovery has opened a full-service recovery laboratory and cleanroom facility in Moscow. The Russian facility is the company’s second office in the Central and Eastern European region (along with Katowice, Poland), and continues its recent expansion efforts on that continent. Ontrack also recently acquired Ibas Holdings ASA, a Norwegian provider of data recovery, data erasure, and computer forensics services, and now has facilities in more than 20 countries.

Closer to home TÜV America Inc., a global testing and certification services firm, has opened a new state-of-the-art environmental testing facility at its Twin Cities location in New Brighton. The new laboratory, which features equipment that can perform dynamic, climatic, and package testing to national, international and industry-based standards, is targeted at manufacturers of aerospace, defense, medical, IT, and automotive industry products.

Renewable and alternative energy news from around the state:

Several counties around Minnesota are looking to get in on the state’s burgeoning wind-powered energy market. The Metropolitan Counties Energy Task Force (www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/metro.html) a consortium of officials from Anoka, Chisago, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Sherburne, and Washington Counties, has begun working on a plan with a goal of delivering 120 to 150 megawatts of wind power energy from rural Minnesota to the Twin Cities metro area. The group recently visited several wind farms and alternative fuel-industry facilities around southern Minnesota. Costs for developing the plan are estimated at up to $300 million.
An article in the Mesabi Daily News noted that Mountain Iron has been working to position itself as a potential site for a new wind turbine-blade manufacturing plant. The Mountain Iron City Council also recently approved accepting $500,000 for infrastructure to create a renewable energy park (the funds will come from the state bonding bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature last spring).
The Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co. has broken ground on a new biomass gasification operation at the ethanol plant’s facility west of Benson. According to the company, the plant will produce gas on site using corn stover (part of the plant remaining after the grain harvest), distillers dried grains, corn, wheat straw, and wood wastes.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider using Minnesota as a test site for FlexTek E-85 fuel conversion kits (fuel converters that can be installed on vehicles, allowing users to choose between fueling up with ethanol, gasoline, or a mixture of both.) The governor also has noted that he wants to offer tax breaks for low- and moderate-income families who want to convert their vehicles to run on ethanol.

Faribault-based Sage Electrochromics recently announced that its electronically tintable SageGlass product will be the focus of a “learning lab” at Twin Lakes Elementary School in Elk River. Students at the new, $18 million school, which is scheduled to open in 2007, will conduct energy- and temperature-related comparisons between their SageGlass-equipped science center and other classrooms with conventional windows and shading. The school features numerous applications of SageGlass, along with a variety of other energy-saving features.

A pair of Twin Cities-area companies recently celebrated significant milestones:

Last month, Oakdale-based Imation celebrated it’s 10 th anniversary. The firm got its start as a spinoff of 3M’s floppy disk, storage tape, and imaging division.
White Bear Lake-based Wilson Tool International is celebrating its 40 th year in business The 700-employee company, which has facilities in Swindon, England, and Shanghai, China, supplies tools to the sheet metal punching, bending, and stamping markets.

Artesyn Technologies, a Redwood Falls manufacturing firm that makes embedded power systems, has announced that it will shut down by the end of this year. The plant, which employs approximately 240 people, was purchased by St. Louis-based electronics maker Emerson Electric Co. earlier this year.

For the second year in a row, Stellent Inc., an Eden Prairie-based provider of content management solutions, has been named to Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine’s “Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100,” the publication’s annual list of the leading supply and demand chain solution providers. According to the magazine, Stellent’s inclusion on the list was due in part to its Imaging and Business Process Management offering.

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