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10/31/03 Oprah takes notice of device with ties
to Loda company by Dave Hinton, Paxton Daily Record
10/31/03 Loda firm: Technology central for Iroquois
Co.? by Dave Hinton, Paxton Daily Record
01/01/95 Loda designers' eyes as big as their dreams
by Anna Barnes, The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette
Oprah takes notice of device with
ties to Loda company by Dave Hinton
Paxton Daily Record 10/31/03, p.1
Loda - Nancy Valente of Chicago was upset when
she had to leave her parents' 15-year-old dog, Ceasar, at the vet for long periods.
She worried the dog was alone and afraid, so she came up with an idea - a recording
mechanism to reassure pets.
Valente developed PeTalk
with the aid of technicians at Loda Electronics Co., a small firm operating
out of the garage of Jack Sandford of Loda.
Sandford said his company didn't charge Valente
to develop the device because she came into the venture with little money, and
they wanted to give her as much chance as possible to succeed. Those chances
improved Thursday when PeTalk was one of seven inventions featured on "Oprah."
PeTalk allows the owner
to record a message for a pet and has settings for playback every one, two,
three or four hours.
It was Valente's compassion
for her father's Maltese dog, stuck alone at the vet's office, that led her
to believe other pet owners have similar concerns.
"I felt, 'It's too bad you can't comfort
the pet while he's there,'" she said. "He'd be there a lot (receiving
treatment for many ailments and then a recuperation time). It's a traumatic
experience for them."
Sees the need
Valente has heard of
others who try to keep in contact with their pets by leaving messages on their
home answering machines. One upscale doggy motel even has such answering machines
in the rooms.
"I can't imagine
any dog, when you're gone for 10 hours, (not feeling lonely). Plus (being able
to leave a message) makes you feel better," she said.
Valente has her own
dog, Baci, and a cat, Putti, and she leaves messages for them. She has recorded
it to say such things as "Be a good girl" and "I love you."
Valente is a former
eighth-grade school teacher in Chicago and is now with the Chicago Board of
Education, working under a technology innovation challenge grant that serves
about 85 schools.
When Valente first came up with the idea for PeTalk,
she even drew her concept of how it should look on the chalkboard for her eighth-grade
class. One student joked that it would make her famous and one day she would
be on "Oprah," Valente said.
She didn't know where
to turn for help developing PeTalk, so she went online. She was eventually referred
to Sandford and his merry band of techsters operating in their shop on Loda's
outskirts.
Giving direction
Sandford and crew let Valente describe what she
wanted, then pointed her in the right direction, and she did much of the work,
Sandford said. Along the way she employed Sandford and his staff on a freelance
basis to help develop the device.
"Jack was a godsend," Valente said.
"He's a great guy. He took me in just like family. He basically was like
my mentor. He walked me through it. I was learning about dies, service mounts,
capacitors, you name it. I'd come into the garage. I'd work with the team ...
and we tested and retested it."
Valente also credited Loda Electronics partner
Bruce Komadina as well as Dave Struening and Beverly Schultz (Harrison) of Loda
Electronics and Randy Stalhut of Champaign, who did the project's firmware.
She was awarded a patent about a year ago.
Valente said the project took about a year and
a half to finish. She found an offshore manufacturer in Taiwan to make the product.
She filmed her segment Tuesday, Oct 7 and was
brought to the studio by limousine. The show's focus was "The Million Dollar
Idea Challenge."
While Valente's invention didn't win the audience
vote for the next million seller, that doesn't matter to her.
The Chicago educator saw a need for PeTalk and
hopes it catches on.
Persons can order PeTalk on Loda Electronic's
website.
See Nancy here.
Loda firm: Technology central
for Iroquois Co.?
Paxton Daily Record 10/31/03, p.1
Loda - Loda electronics Co. has developed contrivances
for a wide range of clients from the agriculture industry to the medical field
to the CIA.
So unusual is the company that the state had to
give Loda Electronics its own company classification code number because it
did so many things, the only such company in the state with its own number.
The company makes part of the system for The Seeker,
which "marries the computer to the navigation unit that's at the end of
an oil pipe and seeks out oil," said Loda Electronics founder and copartner
Jack Sandford.
The unit is a sensor that tells the device whether
there is oil on the top of water deposits, Sandford.
Covert operations?
The CIA? Well, Sandford downplays that role,
saying he can't talk much about it, but the device Loda Electronics made was
to "scare the (heck) out of a drug runner."
"It really isn't a big deal, to be honest
with you, but you have to keep a secret," Sandford said.
In the medical field, Loda Electronics developed
two devices.
One, The Interplant system, treats prostate cancer.
"The technology for treating prostate cancer
with radioactive pellets is about 15 years old," Sandford said. "Cliff
Burdette, who was a founder of Burdette Medical Systems In Champaign, came up
with a software scheme, and we came up with the mechanical part of the scheme
so the pellets could be put in the body within half a width of a pencil lead
using ultrasound technology and software. It became the most accurate system
in the world."
Sandford said the system greatly reduces the chance
of loss of virility.
The other is a therapy system that non-invasively
treats breast cancer. The device currently is strictly a research device.
Sandford predicted it will be a number of years
before the software is improved enough so the system can be used commercially.
Among other Loda Electronics inventions are The
Pitching Coach; a device that teaches proper pitching technique; The Gig Rig,
an electrician's caddy; The Spot Shot weed sprayer; and manufacture and service
the precipitation samplers for the National Atmospheric Deposition Program.
The company also developed the eyes for the monster
Maru, which was to have been used in a horror movie, "The Interloper."
The movie, however, was not filmed due to financial considerations.
Pitching technique
It has been found that using your whole body,
meaning proper posture and no lateral movement, will increase a pitcher's fastball
by 5 mph.
The Pitching Coach seeks to ensure proper movement.
Jeff Martin, a former University of Illinois pitcher
and an ex-Seattle Mariners minor leaguer, came to Loda Electronics with the
idea.
"We showed that down in Orlando at the American
Association of Baseball Coaches conference, and it was the hit of the conference,"
Sandford said. The problem is it's too expensive for high school and college
programs to which it's marketed, he said.
Martin is attempting to sell it to another company
that can manufacture it more cheaply.
The Gig Rig is the brainchild of an Irishman,
who has the patent on it in his native country and the U.S.
The device has a lighting system in the bottom,
an entertainment center if desired, electrical outlets and a backup battery
and emergency light.
The Gig Rig is designed to aid electricians, who
are generally the first ones on a construction site. The device goes into battery
mode if there is a loss of power at the site.
The company's first project was the repackaging
of a tractor guidance system for a local farm equipment manufacturer. That job
led to development of an eight-row weed sprayer, The Spot Shot, which sprayed
only weeds.
A top ag invention
The Spot Shot was lauded by the United States
Association of Agricultural Engineers as one of the top ag inventions in 1992.
Sandford and partner Bruce Komadina met when both
were employed at the former Sorensen plant in Paxton.
Sandford started Loda Electronics in 1990,and
Komadina began working with him on the Maru project.
Sandford said he had a dream at age 14 of getting
a patent. He now holds three - for the Spot Shot, for The Pitching Coach and
for a snap-on basket for the handicapped when they go shopping.
It's an easygoing atmosphere in the cozy workplace
at Loda Electronics in what used to be Sandford's garage.
"Whoever gets to the radio gets to listen
to their own music," Sandford said. "It gets everybody (upset) when
I turn on Rush Limbaugh. If I leave the building they'll turn it off."
Others working there are full-timers Dave Struening,
Chris Reynolds and Beverly Harrison and part-timers Mary Kemmer, Betty Henricks
and Brian Bielfeldt.
The easygoing atmosphere starts at the top.
"I've always been a believer if you keep
them comfortable, they're going to do a good job. I doubt if there are too many
people who go to work on a given day and feel, "I'm going to do a lousy
job today,'" Sandford said.
The founder said not once since the company founded
has there been an argument in the workshop. "I know there have been times
when people have been upset with something I've said or someone's said,"
but an argument? No.
"All I can tell you is I'm doing exactly
what I hoped to do when I was 12 years old."
What 12-year-old wouldn't want to make a monster,
fight crime and cancer?
Loda designers' eyes as big as
their dreams by Anna Barnes
The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette 1/1/95, p. C-1
Loda Eyes for a movie monster, and equipment
for treating breast cancer aren't projects one would expect to find in the same
workshop, but that's business as usual for Loda Electronics Company.
As Founder Jack Sandford explains, "We never
get the usual; it's always the unusual".
In the last five years, the firm has handled
projects for the agricultural, entertainment, medical, and safety industries.
With the help of new partner and co-owner Bruce Komadina, Sandford hopes to
add a few other fields to that list.
Komadina, 49 and Sandford, 52, have 67 years
of professional experience in electronic, mechanical, microprocessor and meteorological
instrumentation design. Both have been fascinated with design since childhood.
At age 10, Komadina was wiring intercoms between his house and his best friend's
place two doors down.
When Sandford was 14, he was dreaming of getting
his first patent. He now holds two.
Sandford and Komadina met while working at Sorensen
Inc., a power supply system manufacturer formerly based in Paxton. After Sandford
left the company to begin his own business in 1989, Komadina frequently stopped
by and offered suggestions. But Sandford did not actually enlist his friend's
help on a project until last winter. Working for Four-Way Studios, a special
effects company based in Thomasboro, the two were to design and build the eyes,
four in all, for a movie monster.
The monster, known as Maru, is 12 feet high and
41 feet long. It was created by Four-Way owners Rod Griffin and Mel Key for
"The Interloper," a science-fiction horror movie being produced by Practical
Cinema Productions Inc. of Warren, Mich. for release in 1997. Producer John
Cosentino said he is delighted with the result. "Jack, Bruce, Mel, and Rod
seem to thrive on almost impossible projects, and that's just what I gave them
with the Maru," says Cosention. Sandford said the monster's eyes "Were
probably our most challenging project so far. Bruce was the one who created
the clockwork to make them move in synchrony, I couldn't have done it without
his help." According to Sandford, the resulting monster not only moves its
eyes in all directions via joystick control, but glares at its enemies in glowing
red as it furrows its brows.
Their success with the project and their ability
to retain a sense of humor through the process of trial-and-error proved to
Sandford and Komadina that they could maintain a partnership as well as a friendship.
So in July 1994, when Komadina turned down an offer to relocate with Sorensen
Inc. in San Diego, he told Jack to make him a partner. Together, they design
and manufacture a variety of parts and products for - or in partnership with
- local and international clients.
In the safety area, the company designs and manufactures
circuit breaker-type power distribution centers for Alexis Fire Equipment and
Fire Apparatus in Alexis, Ill. Alexis manufacturing engineer, Mike Shull said
Loda Electronics' work is now an integral part of the fire and rescue vehicles
serving the communities of Crescent City, Gifford, Loda, Pesotum, and other
communities throughout the nation.
In the agricultural area, the company produced
a sensing system and control circuitry for an opto-electronic agricultural sprayer
that "Sees" weeds and selectively sprays them with herbicide. The Spot Shot
sprayer is made and marketed nationally by Progressive Farm Products of Hudson.
Teaming with the Fiberglass Shop in Loda, Loda Electronics Company also helped
design the Scooter Tote, a behind vehicle caddy for electric wheelchairs marketed
by U.S. Abilities Inc. Of Philo.
Loda Electronics Company is also collaborating
on a project with Dornier Medical Systems of Champaign. As part of a joint effort
with the Harvard University, the companies are developing a new technology for
treating the early stages of breast cancer by noninvasive means using ultrasound
technology. "We are working with Dornier to design and manufacture the part
of the machine that brings the treatment portion of the unit to the breast,"
explains Sandford. According to Clif Burdette, Dornier's Principal Investigator
for the project, work is still in the preliminary stages. The initial clinical
studies will be done at the Harvard University Medical School located in Boston
Mass. If successful, the technology must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration
before its available for general clinical use. Burdette has high hopes for the
success of the project and its effect on cancer treatment. "This project
has the potential to revolutionize the way early detected breast cancers are
treated," Burdette said.