Digital Manufacturing Lab powered by Alliant Energy

Solve problems through collaboration and innovation

This exciting partnership between Alliant Energy and Iowa State University’s Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) can help your business evaluate problems and find opportunities using innovative technology.
Lab tours

Experience new Industry 4.0 technology like cobots, 3-D scanning, and autonomous vehicles.

Free
Testing and training

Use our facility to test new technology and train your staff on how to use it.

Free
Education

Use our facility to test new technology and train your staff on how to use it.

Free

Customization

CIRAS can help program cobots or other technology and train staff to meet your needs. Alliant Energy customers receive 50% off.

Contact us for pricing

Assessment

Schedule an on-site assessment to evaluate opportunities.

Free
Implementation

Our partnership experts can help you find the right vendor to maximize your implementation.

Contact us for pricing

Digital Manufacturing Lab provides business owner with CAD assets

Alliant Energy customer Fred Malven of Malvenworks utilized the Digital Manufacturing Lab powered by Alliant Energy at Iowa State University’s Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS).

Malvenworks has manufactured fire service hand tools since the late 1980s, but had no detailed drawings of its tool designs in production. Having those drawings would make the process easier and more efficient.

The CIRAS team translated the tool drawings into digital computer-aided design (CAD) models to create detailed drawings and help the company improve production.

A robot in a laboratory picking up an item

Experiment with new ideas

Alliant Energy business customers have priority access to the lab and innovation space to solve problems and improve efficiencies. Some examples of business problems we have helped address include:

  • Worked with a large manufacturer to setup an internship to alleviate issues around recreating forecasting databases that were lost due to malware attack.
  • Led a capstone project with industrial engineering to look at staffing levels.
  • Worked with a partner organization to utilize CyBizLab to do market research to better understand demand for a new product.
Two people collaborating near a whiteboard

Gain experience and make connections

The lab will utilize departments across Iowa State University and bring student and faculty from a variety of backgrounds to help solve problems and stimulate innovative ideas. Students will have the opportunity to work closely with companies through:

  • Capstone projects
  • Experimental learning opportunities
  • Case studies
  • Internships
  • Research including whitepapers
  • Innovative problem solving
  • Corporate engagement events
  • Cross discipline collaborations

Get started

Contact your key account manager or the Business Resource Center at 1-866-255-4268 or [email protected].

Recent stories from our blog