Rushford company goes cutting-edge with new technology created by U profs

Star Tribune

Last update: April 23, 2008 - 11:30 PM

THE LATEST: The southeastern Minnesota town of Rushford, seven months ago awash in floodwaters, now is home to a growing, cutting-edge business and can thank the University of Minnesota for helping make it possible.

Under an agreement, nanoparticle film deposition technologies developed at the university will be used by Rushford Hypersonic on products in the industrial tooling and coating applications industries. The company eventually expects to create 40 to 60 jobs at its facility in Rushford.

THE BACK STORY: In August, Rush Creek swelled after an unprecedented 15 inches of rain fell over the area, jumped dikes and filled much of Rushford.

"The University of Minnesota produces some of the world's best nanotechnology, and we are very pleased to sign this agreement with them," said Daniel Fox, Rushford Hypersonic's chief executive officer. "The university worked closely with us throughout the entire process and helped structure the agreement so that we can bring these technologies to market very quickly."

HOW IT DEVELOPED: The nanoparticle film deposition technologies were developed over the past 10 years by Profs. Steven Girshick, Joachim Heberlein and Peter McMurry in the Mechanical Engineering Department; William Gerberich in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, and Nagaraja Rao, formerly in Mechanical Engineering.

PAUL WALSH