Lockheed Martin Orion rocket scientist Amber Gell talks with Tony Paradisa about additive manufacturing on Wednesday. (Laura Keeney, The Denver Post)
Trinidad is vintage without even trying. There are cobblestone streets, sturdy stone and brick buildings that have stood for centuries, and a quaint town center with big shopfront picture windows and colorful awnings.
It’s hipster DIY without the pretentiousness, and this is precisely why the town holds such charm.
There is also a culture of innovation and people like Tony Paradisa — brilliant makers who may not have engineering degrees but can design and build just about anything anyone needs.
Paradisa is the owner of Topar Racing, which started as a small shop but and has expanded to a huge campus with a machine shop and welding operation where custom parts for off-road and motocross motorcycles, among other things, are invented and created.
Trinidad has an old-time, vintage feel. (Laura Keeney, The Denver Post)
Inspiration is everywhere for Paradiso, who a man who has more ideas than he will ever be able to complete in a lifetime. His latest light bulb went off as he sat in the dentist’s chair getting his tooth digitized — a virtual map for the dentist — to create a custom-fit crown that fit his tooth like a glove.
While most of us would be cursing in our head — because really, who loves sitting in the dentist chair? — Paradisa was re-engineering a motorbike part in his head. He returned to his shop and made a custom digitized model that allowed two separate areas to join in a perfect fit, much like that tooth and crown.
“It’s the same design, but we took it to a different level,” he said. “We’re not wasting like two pounds of aluminum on each part.”
The part was originally carved from a 2″ block of aluminum. It’s now made from a 1″ block of metal — a change that’s reduced his costs 50 percent.
CSBR board member Joe Rice listens as Tony Paradiso explains how a trip to the dentist revolutionized one of the parts he designed and creates. (Laura Keeney, The Denver Post)
Paradiso got ISO certification to work with Lockheed Martin in the past. To get back into the pool and join Colorado’s more than 400 companies and suppliers to the aerospace industry, he admits he might need to invest in assets like a clean room, and perhaps even jump through some new hoops. He’s also planning to dive into the industrial version of 3-D printing: additive manufacturing.
Colorado Space Business Roundtable board member Joe Rice, who is leading this aerospace business development road trip, pointed out that all these processes will be easier now that Paradisa has personal contacts on the inside who can help him navigate funding, contracts and more.
Still, Paradisa says, there are challenges for the workforce.
“There’s plenty of quality people here, but to get more people in here that are craftsmen you gotta dangle a pretty good-sized carrot out there so they want to come here. Right now they wouldn’t,” he said. “We’ve got to do it one step at a time and Trinidad could come back strong.”
