General Pattern beams up new business

Company brings 3-D rapid prototyping to NRRI and Airpark

“Beam me up” could soon have a whole new meaning in Duluth — or, at least, “Beam me up a pattern” could.

General Pattern, a laser-technology-based rapidprototyping company, signed a lease agreement in June with the Duluth Seaway Port Authority for space in a lightmanufacturing building at the Airpark industrial complex.

With its technology, General Pattern can download a computer drawing CAD file into equipment that produces an exact three-dimension model of that drawing. The computer-aided method is used for designing and producing prototypes and limited-run manufactured parts of anything from airplane parts to models of geological ore deposits. The technology runs the gamut of the inventor’s imagination.

Headquartered in Blaine, Minn., General Pattern has offices across Europe and North America. It will lease 9,255 square feet in a building at the Port Authority-owned complex adjacent to the Duluth International Airport.

The company also partnered with the University of Minnesota Duluth and the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) in April to open the Northern Lights Technology rapid-prototyping center at NRRI. It plans to use the Airpark space to house four product development incubators that will be beneficial to UMD engineering students. The location will allow convenient service to aviation, medical and mining industry businesses requiring rapid prototyping of products.

“ The new site will create in excess of 40 high-tech jobs once completed in September,” said Denny Reiland, president of General Pattern. “We will be able to offer the entire northern tier of Minnesota the very best in time compression technologies, from lithography and silicon tooling to the latest injection mold tooling and ‘real material’ production parts,” said Mr. Reiland.

Mr. Reiland’s grandfather founded the privately held company in 1922, then making tooling patterns for the foundry industry. General Pattern has production facilities in Ham Lake, Minn., and Dearborn, Mich., and also operates international engineering and production facilities in the United Kingdom and Germany. It provides precision models for companies including Ford and Polaris and currently has approximately 200 employees.

The Port Authority will invest up to $50,000 for infrastructure improvements on the facility and is pleased to be part of the Duluth development team welcoming General Pattern’s expansion into the region. The addition of this business at Airpark will bring the total number of companies operating on Port Authority properties to 51 with more than 1,075 employees.