ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) - Imagine creating a product so cool that it is literally out of this world.
Or at least close to it.
While associate plant manager Tim Hanigan isn’t positive products manufactured at Banner Engineering have traveled to Mars, he knows - thanks to an episode of Jay Leno’s “Garage” - that its sensors were at least used in the development of the Mars Rover.
Light-indicating sensors can be seen on a test version of the rover in the episode that aired Dec. 21.
“Of the actual parts we can see on the video, one for sure would have been made here,” Hanigan said.
The part - referred to as a “K80” by Hanigan - near the back of the rover is an indication sensor, which helps determine what state the rover is in. While he doesn’t know its exact use, it could indicate the rover’s on/off status or other modes.
On the front of the rover, there are other indicator lights pointing down toward the wheels.
A Banner employee spotted the products and sent the video to Hanigan.
“A lot of times we aren’t selling (our products) to the end users, so we don’t always know how they are implemented,” said Richard Inman, Banner’s senior director.
Light-indicating sensors are probably about 15 percent of the Aberdeen plant’s products, Hanigan said. They were only about 3 percent back in 2008 when he started at the plant.
The sensors are a “very, very fast growing segment for Banner,” he said.
Banner just celebrated its 50th year. It opened its Aberdeen location in September 1989. Since, the product mix has changed, as well as its functionality, Inman said. Other sensors manufactured by Banner Engineering can read things such as temperature, weight, movement and color, the Aberdeen American News (https://bit.ly/2jrzEbu ) reported.
“We’re basically giving sight to automation,” Hanigan said, waving his hand over a sensor, causing its light to change colors.
Employees work in different sections of Banner’s building in the Industrial Park, creating, testing, customizing and assembling its products. In one part of the building, a machine creates circuit boards at a rate of 8 million per month, Hanigan said.
Two hundred unique products are manufactured between Aberdeen and Banner’s Huron locations.
Banner tests all of its products before they get sent to headquarters in Minneapolis, where they are consolidated before shipping. The consolidation means customers get their entire order at once.
Many of Banner’s customers approach the company needing some kind of solution, Hanigan said, and nowadays those customers’ needs are much more complex. That means that Banner has had to grow with the nature of manufacturing.
The products typically end up in three industries: automotive, food and beverage or gas and oil, Inman said.
In the automotive industry, the sensors might work in a guarding capacity. If a company uses robotic welding, a sensor would tell the robots to shut down if someone walked into the area, thus acting as a safety measure.
Banner sensors can be found at other local manufacturers like 3M and Hub City Manufacturing, as well as within Banner Engineering itself.
“A lot of sensors go to error-proofing,” Hanigan said.
Such sensors can be used by pharmacies as pill counters.
The sensors have ties to many items people use on a day-to-day basis. For example, the company makes sensors that alert producers when bags or bottles are full. Those bags and bottles often include items sold at grocery stores.
“If you watch (the TV show) ’How It’s Made’, 50 percent of the time you can spot a Banner product,” Hanigan said.
In the late 1980s, Aberdeen was home to a Control Data facility called Imprimis Technology. In November 1988, after a series of layoffs, the company announced it would move its operations to Malaysia.
The move meant 800 people would be without jobs.
A task force including many state employees, senators and representatives, as well as Aberdeen city officials, “underwent a huge marketing effort” to keep jobs and manufacturing in Aberdeen, Inman said.
Then-Mayor Tim Rich called Imprimis the “cornerstone of (Aberdeen’s) economic development.
“We have to rise up and meet the challenge and find some way to replace that . we’re certainly going to do everything humanly possible to accomplish the replacement of these jobs,” Rich said at the time.
The Aberdeen Development Corp. then owned two-thirds of the building and purchased the rest for $450,000.
The state offered $700,000 in assistance to help secure both Banner and Sheldahl, an electronics manufacturer. The two would each rent their own half of the building.
Banner chose Aberdeen because of the available space and because people had the necessary skills, Inman said.
When Banner opened, its capacity was much smaller - both for products and the number of employees.
Combined, the two new manufactures only offset about 10 percent of the jobs lost when Imprimis left, according to American News archives. But both companies expected to grow their workforces considerably.
Banner planned to start with 40 employees and increase to 150 within three years, according to archived reports.
Fast forward 27 years and Banner employs 288 people.
Inman was one of the first Aberdeen workers.
“I came with the building,” he joked.
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Information from: Aberdeen American News, https://www.aberdeennews.com
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