Dayton-based 3D manufacturing leader Bastech, Inc., combines brands

BUSINESS NEWS …

Ben Staub, Jr., owner and president of Bastech, Inc.

Dayton, OH – Dayton-based Bastech, Inc., has combined its full range of manufacturing and consumer services under one brand. Since its founding two decades ago, Bastech, Inc., has grown into three separate divisions offering a wide range of services and products from manufacturing prototypes and end-use parts to professional and consumer 3D printing equipment solutions.

Bastech, Inc., is an industry leader in field of “additive manufacturing,” or what is now more commonly known as 3D printing. The company opened in 1994 and first applied the process to automotive and product design.

Today Bastech, Inc., develops revolutionary solutions for many applications including aerospace, medical device, jewelry, packaging, metal casting, injection molding, education and more. As more commercial opportunities arose the firm established separate companies to manage industry-changing niche services.

The first, Rapid Direction, Inc., was founded in 2006 to provide 3D printing equipment and supplies, meeting the needs of those manufacturers who wanted to have in-house, 3D part production capability. Next, the retail 3D printing service, GetPrinting3D, was established in 2012 and offers consumer-based products, ranging from desktop 3D printers to full-color, 3D figurines and custom bobble heads.

Bastech’s president and owner, Ben Staub, Jr., first worked with additive manufacturing during the early 1990s. During that time, he learned the complexities of programming and prototyping with stereolithography (SLA), one of several methods used to create 3D printed objects.

That experience, combined with his background from a strong manufacturing-based, entrepreneurial family culture gave him the tools to master the process and, more importantly, match advancing capabilities with industry demand.

As the technology becomes more accessible and the industry more fluid, Staub recognized that the division of these related products and services into separate entities might make for missed opportunities.

“Many times, customers of one company have no idea what the other has to offer,” Staub says. “Explaining why we have different business units has often been confusing, even to our own people.”

For example, an electronics manufacturer outsourcing prototype parts to Bastech might not be aware that Rapid Direction could actually provide an in-house solution.

More applications for 3D printing are being developed every day and Staub’s team wants Bastech to grow with the demand while giving customers the single, best resource. Over the next few months, a concentrated brand identity will be rolled out to present a clear, single solution under the name Bastech.

“Rebranding is never an easy decision, or an uncomplicated one to execute,” he said. “Nevertheless, it is the right time for that to take place and ‘Bastech’ will become the one solution for our customers.”

Bastech, Inc., corporate facility is located at 9233 N. Dixie Dr. in Dayton. For more information, contact Bastech, Inc., by calling the corporate offices at 855-890-9292 or go online to http://www.bastech.com.

Prevent Blindness declares September as Sports Eye Safety Awareness Month

Dayton, OH – Prevent Blindness has declared September as Sports Eye Safety Awareness Month to encourage athletes to wear proper eye protection while playing sports. According to estimates by Prevent Blindness, the top five sports resulting in the most eye injuries were basketball, water and pool activities, use of air, gas, spring or BB guns, baseball/softball and football. In fact, in a single year, more than 6,000 Americans suffered an eye injury related to playing basketball.

Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is America’s leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Serving the entire state, the Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness provides direct services to more than 800,000 Ohioans annually and educates millions of consumers about how to protect and preserve the precious gift of sight.

The National Eye Institute reports that a sports-related eye injury is admitted to a U.S. emergency room every 13 minutes. Eye injuries from sports may include infection, corneal abrasions, blunt trauma, inflamed iris, fracture of the eye socket, swollen or detached retinas or a traumatic cataract. In the worst cases, some injuries may result in permanent vision loss. However, this kind of eye injury is 90-percent preventable.

Katie Neubert is the Dayton Area Manager for Prevent Blindness. “An injury can happen in a split second, but the effects of a series eye injury can have lasting negative effects for a lifetime,” she says. “That’s why Prevent Blindness encourages all athletes to always make sure that appropriate, properly fitting protective eye gear is part of their uniform.”

Parents, coaches, school staff and others can support children’s sports eye safety by following these tips.

Learn About The Risks – Parents, teachers, school nurses and coaches should learn about eye injury risks associated with sports before allowing children to participate. Enroll your child only in adult-supervised sporting activities through a school district, community center, etc., and try to discourage participation in high-risk sports, such as boxing, since adequate eye protection does not yet exist.

Always Use Protective Eyewear – Most sports-related eye injuries are preventable. Whatever the sport or the athlete’s age, appropriate protective eyewear is the first, best defense against eye injury. Also, be sure the child is seeing clearly by getting him or her an eye exam and request recommendations for protective eyewear before enrolling in any sports program.

Learn Warning Signs of Injury – Parents, teachers, school nurses and coaches should familiarize themselves with the warning signs of a serious eye injury and know when to seek treatment. Parents should also make it a point to meet with coaches or athletic trainers to ensure the proper procedures are in place to deal with a child’s eye injury should one occur.

To further support these efforts, Prevent Blindness is teaming up with Liberty Sport to provide eye care professionals with free information and materials through the “September is Sports Eye Injury Prevention Awareness Month” campaign. For more information please call Prevent Blindness locally at 937-223-8766 or visit preventblindness.org/sports-eye-safety.

Struggling to care for seniors at home

Deer In Headlines

By Gery L. Deer

A recent article in The Atlantic discussed the question of the difficulty of finding adequate care for America’s senior citizens as more of them are choosing to remain in their own homes as they age. In the article, published April 27, 2015 by Alana Samuels, the author relates the story of her grandmother’s plight to find adequate, affordable home care near the college town of Amherst, Massachusetts.

A shortage of qualified Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) coupled with outrageous hourly fees made the task of caring for her Parkinson’s ridden spouse that much more difficult. The author’s grandmother eventually gave up on agencies and a friend helped out until her husband’s death a couple of years later. It’s a story becoming all too common today.

By the year 2030, more than one quarter of all Americans will be over the age of 65. More than ever, those people are choosing to remain in their homes as long as possible, relying on home health care and the assistance of family for everything from grocery shopping to bathing.

Over the last few years, a host of “non-medical” in-home care agencies have sprung up all around the country, spread by franchise. Most offer no skilled health care services and little more than baby-sitting. They can help with things like shopping, cleaning and some companionship for homebound seniors.

But, these home care workers are not permitted to help in medical matters, not even to distribute medications, as would a CNA or other state-registered, skilled health care worker. One published estimate by Genworth puts the cost of non-medical home at a range of $10 to $36 per hour. The extreme discrepancy is attributed to variations in region and the type of care required.

One question families should be asking is exactly what could an unskilled worker possibly do that’s worth $36 per hour? Still, most have few options available; it’s either a nursing facility or home care.

Plus, the home itself can be more hazardous than the disabilities suffered by the senior. It may be necessary to modify the home to accommodate “aging in place,” with zero-clearance shower stalls, raised toilets, grab bars, and much more. This also carries added expense and attention to which families might be unaware.

The fact is that it’s much better, psychologically, and far cheaper for seniors to remain in their own home. But most people caring for an elderly family member cannot be with them all hours – people have to work and care for their own homes and families – and still need outside support.

The first place to start is with the local agencies on aging. Most counties or regions have a non-profit organization such as this to help put families and seniors in touch with needed services such as meals on wheels, in-home healthcare, and more.

Be aware, however, that most services referred by these agencies are self-pay and are not covered by Medicare or insurance. The advantage, however, is that they can generally offer a discounted rate on certain services based on the income of the senior. Contact the local agency for details.

For support on in-home modifications, consult the local builders association for referrals to certified aging in place specialists. Most can provide design and construction information for everything from a simple grab bar installation to more complex additions such as elevators.

Additionally, financial and insurance companies out there might be missing the boat on a potentially golden profit center – “in-home care insurance.” Separate from long-term care or other types of health insurance, this could be a specific product that addresses the far less-expensive options of keeping a senior at home rather than in a skilled care facility. Give it a slightly lower premium and the ability to purchase later in life, and it would likely be less difficult to sell.

Before hiring anyone, caregivers should do their homework. Get at least three references from previous clients and do a thorough Google search on the agency you choose.

Whatever the overall solutions to the home health care problem, it’s clear something has to be done in a hurry. With incidents of elder abuse on the rise in nursing facilities, it’s imperative that families have alternate care options.

Gery L. Deer is an independent columnist and business writer. Deer In Headlines is distributed by GLD Enterprises Communications. More at gerydeer.com.

Old Haunts Beatnik Cafe celebrates original Halloween stories by local authors

Artwork by Michael Martin, WOWA Editorial Committee

Beavercreek, OH – Beginning at 7pm on Friday, October 16, author members of the Western Ohio Writers Association (WOWA) will take the microphone at Books & Co. to present the 2015 Halloween addition of their popular, “Beatnik Café” event. Writers from all genres will regale visitors with original works of poetry and prose to the theme, “Old Haunts.” The event is free and open to the public.

The live reading pays homage to the hole-in-the-wall poetry clubs of the 1960’s, but with a more modern style. Reading aloud from original work, each writer will take the stage for 10 to 12 minutes, dazzling audiences with short stories, poetry or who knows what. This is the 6th year for the quarterly event.

Barbara Deer is the co-founder of the organization. “WOWA was intended to provide a regular resource for peer critique, educational programs and networking opportunities to local writers of all genres, both amateur and professional,” she says.

Click to watch the video!

“Annual workshops are held all around the country, with two of the most well-known right here in the Miami Valley. But for most writers to thrive that type of support needs to come on a more regular basis,” Deer says. “Our group consists of professional writers and editors, college professors and everyone is ready and willing to offer help, a fresh eye and, sometimes more importantly, an honest opinion about the quality of the work – good or bad.”

 

Writers come from all around the region – southwest central Ohio, eastern Indiana and northern Kentucky – to attend monthly critique sessions, educational lectures and write-in events. Meetings are held on the first Thursday of the month at the Event Connections, 4140 Linden Ave. in Dayton, near the intersection of US 35 and Woodman Drive.

Now in its seventh year, this talented group of scribes definitely have plenty to celebrate. In addition to the many individual members who have been published on their own, in May of this year eleven of them were featured in an anthology titled, “Flights of Fiction,” produced by GLD Enterprises Commercial Writing and published by Handcar Press (ISBN: 978-0-9885289-4-9). The book features stories set in and around the southwest Ohio region and is available in print and electronic formats from the WOWA website as well as Amazon and BN.com.

The Beatnik Café is a family-friendly, free, public presentation of WOWA and GLD Enterprises Communications. Books & Co. is located at 4453 Walnut St. at The Greene in Beavercreek. For more information, go online to www.westernohiowriters.org or call (937) 902-4857.

Can there be gratitude without God?

Deer In Headlines

By Gery L. Deer

For those who live without a God to thank, some kinds of gratitude might seem an awkward concept. So, whom do atheists thank for the world around them? Where is gratitude concentrated when benevolent events occur from what non-believers would accredit to random chance? Well, here are two ways people without a god express their thanks.

First, intransitive gratitude, as it’s become known, is a broad, indirect, sense of thankfulness. The beneficiary is thankful in general for life, health, flowers, bugs, whatever, but the gratitude is directed toward nothing specific.

From a practical standpoint, the concept of intransitive gratitude falls apart upon deeper analysis because it leaves people to a perception that random chance has some kind of purpose behind it, which might as well be called “supernatural” in nature. Suddenly, it becomes something akin to religion.

Perhaps then, a more tangible and less unbalanced concept of gratitude is preferable for those who would rather have it more focused. Most “non believers” direct their gratitude at those individuals they consider responsible for the positive events.

Say, for example, atheist Bob has a great meal at a friend’s house one evening. Obviously, he wouldn’t pray over it, but instead thanks his friend who worked for the money that paid for the food that she then cooked. From Bob’s point of view, there was no deity or other supernatural involvement.

Bob could trace that gratitude all the way back to the friend’s parents, who decided to have a child, and on and on. It’s more of a cause and effect concept but with some level of human direction.

For someone like Bob, directing the gratitude at some invisible, supernatural force seems illogical and improper. Instead, he prefers to honor the people directly responsible for the events or their subsequent results. It might not be accurate, however, to call this type of gratitude a “belief” because it has tangible beneficiaries – Bob’s friend, her employer, her parents, and so on.

The devout likely see this practice as sacrilegious, to say the least. For them the only “one” responsible for all the good in the world is the god they worship. He or She or It is responsible for everything, and nothing is random.

But is someone like Bob wrong or is his gratitude misplaced? Is he evil? Is he a heathen? Therein hangs the question, and one that can only be answered by the individual affected. Any prejudice or personal judgment, however, should be left out of the equation.

Indeed, it would be hard to argue against the idea, in the case of Bob’s meal, that the people who grow, package, ship, prepare and serve food, share a fair portion of the responsibility in his enjoyment of it, godly intervention not withstanding. So being grateful to those people would be highly appropriate.

On the other hand, to the logical eye, and without context, someone clench-eyed, bowing over the dinner plate with clasped hands and appearing to be talking to his or herself would seem quite silly. As with so many concepts, it’s all a matter of personal perception.

Gratitude must be measured and delivered by the grateful in his or her own way. If someone is religious, they’ll likely pray in thanks. For the less rigidly devout, it may be something more informal. Atheists or agnostics may thank the people directly, as Bob did in the example.

Religious or not, it’s important to keep in mind that nothing happens without some human intervention, somewhere down the line, even if not readily apparent. Every decision made by each person has some kind of an effect on the lives of countless others. So directly thanking people for their participation in some good fortune is always a kindness.

Regardless of where gratitude is directed – God, the grocer, a famer, an employer – being generally appreciative of the goodness in life will never be misplaced, even if it’s just within one’s own thoughts.

Remember that good things happen, not to those who wait, but who act. Recognizing good fortune and taking action is just as important as thanks given to those believed responsible.

 

Gery L. Deer is an independent columnist and business writer. Deer In Headlines is distributed by GLD Enterprises Communications. More at gerydeer.com