"IMTEC Corporation is committed to the development of innovative, high quality, cost-effective products."
corporate information
"The merging of IMTEC and HYTEC continues to produce compelling results for further achievement. The core businesses of IMTEC remain increasingly successful. The development and implementation of new technologies and products of the future attest to the continued success and growth of this dynamic and innovative company. "
corporate history
HISTORY OF IMTEC
The phenomenal growth and success of IMTEC Corporation is a testament to the vision, knowledge, commitment and hard work of its founders and employees. In 1986, Dr. Ronald A. Bulard designed and manufactured his first implant system, heralding the initial promise of what would one day be an acclaimed international company. What was a hopeful vision began to progress when Dr. Bulard founded IMTEC in 1990 along with Dr. E.S. Gillespie. IMTEC began as a means to revolutionize the dental industry with low cost, high quality implants; a mission that has since been accomplished and surpassed.
In 1996, Dr. Bulard opened a second dental practice in New York City in addition to his growing practice in Ardmore, OK. Also located in the same building in New York was the practice of another dentist and pioneer of dental implantology, Dr. Victor I. Sendax. Upon visiting Dr. Sendax, Dr. Bulard was intrigued by the fact that Dr. Sendax was placing mini dental implants with a one-stage placement procedure. Over the next few years, the two collaborated and developed the innovative O-ball mini implant. In 1999, IMTEC added the IMTEC Sendax MDI Mini Dental Implant system to its growing product line.
In 2000, shortly after launching the IMTEC Sendax MDI Implant system, IMTEC began what would ultimately become one of the key successes of its marketing program – training seminars to equip dentists for placing mini implants using a patented insertion protocol. Dr. Sendax lectured at the first MDI training seminar in Ft. Lauderdale and in 2002, IMTEC conducted its first symposium at the University of Oklahoma, initiating a long-running, successful series of training seminars that have set a standard within the dental industry.
As IMTEC’s market share and presence as a leader in the dental industry continued to grow, so did it’s number of employees and size of facilities. With 5 employees in 1993 growing steadily to 13 in 1997, by 2000 the number had more than doubled to 32. IMTEC was confronted with a problem that many companies envy – the need for more space because of phenomenal growth. The company moved to its current location at 2401 N. Commerce in Ardmore with 40 employees. That location allows IMTEC the potential to expand which it has often continued to do. By 2006, the number of IMTEC’s employees would soar to 190 worldwide to keep up with the explosive growth of the dental product lines.
Other significant landmarks for IMTEC began to occur in rapid succession during the early 21st century: a retail office was opened in Frankfurt, Germany in September 2002; IMTEC Aviation was founded in January 2003; the ORTHO implant and ENDURE Internal Hex Implant line were both launched in the summer of 2003; a Mexican retail office opened in July 2004; and Juell Records was founded in 2005.
Perhaps the most noteworthy event that occurred in this time period was the United States Patent Office issuing a patent to Dr. Bulard, Dr. Sendax and Stephen J. Hadwin. The patent protects an invention relating to a one-piece dental implant with a ball-shaped head mounted on a non-circular abutment. Issued in April 2004, this ‘O-ball’ patent protects the core product of the company. In addition, the IMTEC Sendax MDI system has FDA acceptance to market for long-term applications, the only O-ball min dental implant on the market with such approval.
The distinction of IMTEC as a leader in dental technology has been clearly recognized in the business world. In 2005, the ENDURE Internal Hex Implant System received the Journal Record’s Innovator of the Year Award. In 2007, IMTEC was awarded the Oklahoma Venture of the Year Award. This award is given to the Oklahoma company that has made the most progress in business technology. IMTEC’s innovative products were the main factors for selection, along with management quality, market penetration and growth, economic impact and community reputation.
In 2005, IMTEC started a joint venture with another company which would eventually alter IMTEC’s corporate structure. IMTEC and Los Alamos, NM, based company HYTEC, Inc. joined their resources to create IMTEC Imaging. The initial result was the development of the ILUMA™ cone beam CT scanner. The driving technology of the ILUMA™ Scanner is FlashCT® technology which received the prestigious R&D 100 award for technical innovation in 2003. The ILUMA™ was launched in 2006.
The synergy of IMTEC’s manufacturing, sales and marketing resources and HYTEC’s innovative technology was so effective that the companies merged in March 2007 with IMTEC as the surviving entity. The merger has produced a technology company focused on five products: Dental Implants, Digital Dentistry, ILUMA™, Industrial X-ray imaging and large Engineering and Science projects.
HISTORY OF HYTEC
HYTEC, Inc.’s impressive history is linked to a noted site that is synonymous with technological advancement and scientific breakthroughs. The company is located in Los Alamos, New Mexico, well-known throughout the world as the location of the Manhattan Project, where an international group of scientists in the early 1940’s raced to be the first to design and build an atomic bomb. After the end of World War II, research continued in the form of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the primary classified labs in the US national laboratory system. The establishment of other labs and research groups has earned Los Alamos the reputation as a world-renowned scientific community.
In this environment of technological accomplishment HYTEC, Inc. began. In 1995, former Los Alamos National Laboratory group leaders founded HYTEC, Inc. One of those founders was Mr. Tim Thompson, who is now President and CEO of IMTEC. Mr. Thompson left the Los Alamos National Laboratory to pursue his desire to develop and grow a new company from the ground up.
Since it’s founding, HYTEC has been instrumental in a number of remarkable scientific and engineering projects including GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope). In 2006, HYTEC’s momentous work on the STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft was recognized when the craft launched.
Over the years, HYTEC’s list of accomplishments has grown at an impressive rate. HYTEC has been awarded ten SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grants and two Department of Energy CRADAs (Cooperative Research and Development Agreements). HYTEC has won numerous awards including the New Mexico’s Small Business of the Year, the perennial winner of the New Mexico Flying Forty and the prestigious R&D 100 Award.
The 2003 R&D Award was presented to HYTEC for the application of its FlashCT® technology to mass customization. FlashCT® was initially developed under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1998 to 2003. FlashCT® is the technology that drives HYTEC’s cone beam computed tomography systems (CBCT) used in a wide range of industrial applications, as well as being the basis for the ILUMA™, the initial joint venture of HYTEC and IMTEC in 2005 before the two companies merged.
HYTEC has worked with some of the most distinguished and notable organizations in the world today including Caltech, the US Department of Energy National Laboratories, NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Naval Research Laboratory. Industrial CT systems developed by HYTEC have been used in multiple markets including the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, the Department of Energy, civil and quality engineering, failure analysis, basic science and the aerospace and electronics industries.
Before the 2007 merge, HYTEC had over forty employees with offices in Boulder, Colorado and Lanham, Maryland in addition to the Los Alamos location. After the joining of the two companies, IMTEC’s worldwide number of employees has expanded to over 260 with further growth expected. Currently, construction of a new 20,000 square foot engineering and research facility with a 5,000 square foot prototype manufacturing highbay is scheduled in Los Alamos.
The merging of IMTEC and HYTEC continues to produce compelling results for further achievement. The core businesses of IMTEC remain increasingly successful. The development and implementation of new technologies and products of the future attest to the continued success and growth of this dynamic and innovative company.