Submitted
A Nelson-based research and high-tech manufacturing company is collaborating internationally and expanding locally to grow its ability to provide leadership in the particle accelerator market.
D-Pace has won a USD$1 million project to develop and test an ion source system in collaboration with Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ion Technology Co., Ltd. of Japan. This project was facilitated by Hakuto Co. Ltd., D-Pace’s Japanese representatives.
Located on Front Street in the Corner Brick building, D-Pace provides products and services to the international particle accelerator industry and employs a team of engineers, technologists, physicists, consultants and support staff.
“I’m pleased to say that D-Pace is moving towards our vision and aspirations of not only providing consulting services and individual devices for the particle accelerator market, but providing complete systems that have a much higher dollar value,” says Dr. Morgan Dehnel, D-Pace’s founder and chief science and innovation officer.
“With this recent contract win, D-Pace is now entering our next phase of much larger projects.”
The new contract comes after more than two decades of experience in the particle accelerator marketplace, making international connections, gaining capital through direct foreign investment (D-Pace is 50 per cent owned by Buckley Systems Ltd. of New Zealand), intensive technical publication of innovations, and developing an ion source test facility with several Ph.D. projects. Founded as a TRIUMF spin-off in 1995 by Dehnel after receiving his Ph.D. in physics from UBC, D-Pace has grown and evolved into a company that is now able to win contracts for turn-key ion source systems.
D-Pace hosted a tour for Bruce Ralston, B.C.’s Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology when he visited Nelson on Saturday. Discussions focused on the international nature of D-Pace’s business, and on the attractive attributes that make Nelson an easy draw for acquiring tech-related staff, but also on business issues such as the scarcity of housing that make it difficult for new staff to find a place to live.
“D-Pace is an excellent example of tech companies growing and thriving in the Kootenays, working globally from small-town British Columbia,” says Dehnel.