Company History
IAP was founded in 1981 by Dave Bauer and John Barber. The history of the company is best told by one of the founders, John P. Barber, Ph.D.
The Beginning
Barber explains, "(Dave and I) had worked at the University of Dayton Research Institute for many years and decided to start our own company. Our original business goal was to do contract development for the Department of Defense. We intended to work in a different technical area than anybody at the University, which was electromagnetic guns. Electromagnetic gun research and development for the Department of Defense is what we mostly did through the 1980’s.
Government Work Strong
"Toward the end of the 1980’s, the Soviet Union went away. As a result, the defense budget began a free fall. We concluded that we would have to do two things with our company. The first was to find some other technology to motivate us like electromagnetic guns had. Electromagnetic guns really have only weapons applications and weapons are only of interest to the Department of Defense. The second thing we had to do was move our company to more of a product development orientation. Perhaps, even production. We had existed entirely as sort of a research institution; solving problems and writing reports for our customers. The Department of Defense was willing and able to provide lots of funds to do that, but industry is not. Industry needs something more tangible than a report.
A Change in Industry
"Towards the end of the eighties, we started to think seriously about how we might use the core competencies that we had in electromagnetics and apply them to a more industrial interest. From that, we have developed two business thrusts. The first is in applying magnetic forces and pressures of the same sort that we used in electromagnetic guns for industrial material processing.
IAP Today
"IAP provides research, development and engineering consulting services. The IAP of the 21st century has positioned itself to respond quickly to the needs of both government and commercial clients. IAP has evolved into three main business thrusts
EM Launchers
We are still active in electromagnetic gun technology sepecially in the development of lighter weight longer life components.
Magnetic Pressing
We have established a business focus in the area of industrial processing of materials using electomagnetic formimg technology. These areas include EM forming and assembly and net shape powder processing using our patented powder compaction technologies.
Power Electronics Product Development
IAP has become a world class supplier of product development services in the area of power electronics. We apply our years of experience in pulse power and power processing to develop new advanced power electronic products for both government and commercial customers. We have successfully helped our customers intoduce new products ranging froms solid state switches for navy ships to handheld induction heaters for the carpet industry
IAP’s history shows our ability to foresee change and adapt to the needs of clients in both government and industry. We continue to provide our customers with innovative solutions and advanced technology.