31 Q1 2022 BUILD new production line at the Stanley Tools plant in New Britain, CT and Compulevel hit the world market with a bang in 1996. After five years in production by Stanley, Vories exercised his licensing rights to acquire the Compulevel assets from the Stanley Works in 2001. He started Technidea Corporation in Escondido, to produce under the trade name of ZIPLEVEL® which remains the world’s only precision pressurised hydrostatic altimeter. Today, most of the Technidea innovations have evolved from this highly successful ZIPLEVEL® Precision Altimeter. The ZIPLEVEL®, unlike a rotary laser, lets the user truly work alone to quickly and easily level and read elevations directly in clear digits. This means no more rods, tripods, sensors, line-of-sight, error with distance, factory calibration and computations. With ZIPLEVEL® it is now possible to measure over any distance or elevation on earth, from paper thickness to the height of a mountain without error-inducing tabulation and math. Recently, Technidea Corporation was rewarded for its hard work and innovation by receiving the Innovation Award for Construction Equipment for San Diego County in the BUILD Awards 2022. This is testament to the incredible journey of one pioneering engineer who has worked tirelessly to ensure his firm’s success. Company: Technidea Corporation Web Address: www.ziplevel.com Aug21283 Innovation Award for Construction Equipment – San Diego County In the wake of Technidea Corporation winning a BUILD Award for its innovation, we take a look at the background of one of the most pre-eminent construction technology firms in the Dan Diego area and how it came to be the success it is today. echnidea Corporation is located in Escondido, California, and is part of the navigational, measuring, electromedical, and control instruments manufacturing industry. ‘Technidea’ is short for ‘technical idea’ and, with the mantra “We Turn Ideas into Technology,” the firm has been focused on turning numerous ideas into successful technologies since its inception in late 2001. It was early in 1987 when Dennis L Vories, PE, an enterprising consulting engineer, was planning to build his new office and laboratory on several acres of rural land in north San Diego County, which benefitted from an inspirational mountain vista. Vories, an electrical engineering graduate of Walla Walla University, a former electronics engineer for the Department of Defense and a registered Professional Engineer, had been in private practice for a number of years as a specialist in electronic and mechanical research, development, and forensic engineering. As Vories owned his own bulldozer, he expected to do much of his own excavation work himself without an assistant. Conventional builder’s levels and rotary lasers were difficult to use and needed line-of-sight, so they were incapable of doing the variety of measurements required for his lavish construction project. In a flash of genius, Vories adapted a pressure sensor instrument that he had developed for an automotive instrumentation manufacturer to level and measure elevations directly in digits over broad areas. Vories named the resulting prototype the Computer Level and used it in all phases of building his new office and lab including setting foundation and driveway concrete forms. Although the Computer Level solved many issues, Vories further developed his prototype to tackle other problems and acquired his first hydrostatic altimeter patent. Then in 1991 he signed licensing and development agreements with the Stanley Works who provided the millions in funding for Vories to develop his invention into a practical product that was eventually named Compulevel. Over the next five years, Vories acquired three additional powerful Compulevel patents and did virtually all of the Compulevel development in his new engineering office and lab that his Computer Level had helped to build. Vories installed the T
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTY1MjI4