The Ben Franklin FabNet™ is a partnership for rapid prototyping and fabrication utilizing advanced manufacturing technologies.

The Ben Franklin FabNet™ provides

Increased awareness of advanced technologies that require new materials, new manufacturing processes and new manufacturing software systems;

Matching funds for regional companies that wish to utilize prototyping and design facilities and services;

Reduced time and expense of prototype construction through access to specialized facilities, equipment and expertise required for design, simulation and fabrication of products.

Interested in sponsoring?

sponsorship information

Partner Network

EFE Laboratories
EFE is an established, solutions-based contract manufacturer. By collaborating with customers across diverse markets in pursuit of superior product design, development, and manufacturing services, EFE brings extraordinary expertise to its customers. EFE specializes in: box builds, control panels, cable harnesses, captial equipment, LabView and PLC programming & printed circuit board assemblies.
efelabs.com

Inteprod LLC
Inteprod supports Medical Technology and Life Sciences companies with innovative ‘finished product’ services that provide a strategic advantage in reduced costs and faster time to market. Experienced and proficient in every aspect of the development and manufacture of advanced technologies, Inteprod has the expertise, resources, and infrastructure to manage every phase of a product’s lifecycle.
inteprod.com

Creative Mechanisms, Inc.
At Creative Mechanisms, we engineer ideas into reality. We design, engineer and prototype mechanical injection molded product. We engineer for production using Solidworks 3D CAD. We prototype using our Stratasys Fortus 400mc FDM printer in ABS plastics or by CNC in all plastics including Polypropylene. We produce Prototype Injection Molded product through our tooling and molding partners.
CreativeMechanisms.com

NextFab Studio
NextFab is located in a 21,000 square foot facility at 2025 Washington Avenue, featuring a collaboration space with cutting edge tools, expert staffing, 3D printers, computer controlled machine tools, software, electronic workbenches, classes, workshops, and friendly and affordable consulting services. They offer workspaces in a comfortable, clean and safe environment.

Capabilities include:
• Consulting and Design – 3D Modeling, Photography, Film and Flatbed Scanning
• Custom Fabrication – Large Format Printing / Vinyl Cutting, Laser Cutting and Engraving, CNC Routing/Milling, 3D Scanning/Printing, Sewing and Digital Embroidery, Injection Molding, Thermoforming, Metal Fabrication, Plastic Fabrication, Welding MIG/TIG, Machining and Woodworking
• Finishing/Assembly – Spray Coating, Mounting, Electronics Design
nextfabstudio.com

MTS Ventures
MTS is a contract manufacturing firm that provides critical prototyping and manufacturing services to many industries. These include machining and fabrication, electronics assembly, and turnkey manufacturing. Guided by knowledge and capabilities of great depth and diversity, MTS employs an intense, customer-driven method to produce success on every project. We utilize diverse manufacturing techniques of great sophistication and strength. We deliver meticulous engineering and technical know-how on the one hand, breakthrough imagination on the other. MTS is knowledge and creativity, sharply focused through the closest possible collaboration with our clients.

Capabilities include:
• Industrial Design
• Product Engineering
• Product Strategy
• Prototyping/Modeling
• Testing
mtsventures.com

Richman Chemical
Richman Chemical offers a full range of custom synthesis and manufacturing services to life science and chemical industry companies. Their capabilities include: complex multi-step organic synthesis, emulsion and solution polymerization, custom inorganic synthesis, electronic grade chemicals and stereo-chemically pure compounds. Specialists in sourcing hard to find chemicals, they offer a comprehensive list of pharmaceutical & chemical raw materials and intermediates in research, pilot and commercial quantities.
richmanchemical.com

Penn AddLab
AddLab houses Penn’s mechanical engineering department’s 3D printers and post-processing equipment. The lab is generally staffed by student additive manufacturing assistants who are available to consult with members of the university on their 3D printing needs.

The Lab Contains the Following 3D Printers:
• ProJet6000HD SLA Printer
• Dimension Elite FDM Printer
• Objet30 PolyJet Printer
• Form1 SLA Printer

Archimedic
Archimedic helps innovators and entrepreneurs advance concepts into robust designs and manufactured products while reducing technical, regulatory and market risks along the path. The Archimedic team consists of engineers, designers and industry specialists, collectively working together to address some of the toughest challenges in healthcare, laboratory and consumer sectors.

Capabilities include:
• Industrial design development
• Mechanical engineering
• Electrical engineering
• Quality/Regulatory management
• Functional prototyping
• Design for Manufacturing/Assembly (DFM/DFA)
• Supply chain development
• Pilot production management
archimedic.com

IMET Corp.
IMET Corporation offers clients comprehensive product development solutions that bring concepts to full term. Our unique blend of services allows you to utilize IMET as a single point of contact for all aspects ranging from industrial design to manufacturing. IMET Corporation also has the ability to handle projects at any point in their development stage including prototyping or small and large scale manufacturing. We can assemble printed circuit boards and cables or execute box builds in any quantity- even one or two if that is your requirement. IMET’s assembly service is separate from engineering, so we welcome quotes for assembly services only.

IMET Capabilities include:
• Analog Design
• Digital Design
• Microprocessor Solutions
• DSP Solutions
• CPLD/FGPA
• Multilayer PCB Design & Layout
• RF Design
• Cable Assembly
• Box Builds
• Temperature and Vibration Performance Testing
imetcorporation.com

ONExia Inc.
ONExia is a customer-driven provider of intelligent machine control technologies and the engineering resources to support their successful selection and implementation. That same expertise can be applied to designing, engineering, constructing, and programming complete machine controls or turn-key machines. Our degreed engineers know automation and motion control. Every day we assist companies like yours in developing a concept, writing specifications and implementing new technologies.

Custom Machine Services:
• Complete turn-key solutions
• Engineering services
• PC based solutions
• Custom assemblies
• Inspection automation
• Motion control technology capabilities
• Database interaction programming
• Circuit board design
• Motor sizing
• Mechanical design
• Electrical design
• Vision inspection programming
• Motion and PLC programming
• Visual Basic & HMI programming
onexia.com

Benjamin’s Dev
We can get your project ready for market and make the transition from idea to full-fledged MVP
as easy as possible.

Capabilities include:
• Planning & Research
• Business Assessment
• Agile project management
• Information Architecture
• Mobile App Design
• User Experience design
• User Interface Design
• Graphic design
• Front End Development
• Back End Development
• Mobile App Development
• Measurement & Analytics
benjaminsdesk.com

Center for Functional Fabrics
Drexel University, in partnership with Shima Seiki, established a multidisciplinary, cross-college laboratory. Using advanced knitting and fabrication processes to design, prototype and produce the next generation of advanced textile technology, we work collaboratively with researchers engaged in activities in the emerging field of smart textiles. The Center for Functional Fabrics leverages and focuses the research excellence and scientific and design leadership that Drexel has to offer toward unique collaborations.

Modern knitting offers unique, programmable fabrication capabilities that are not provided by other known textile systems or 3D manufacturing techniques. Fabrics knitted with several different yarns constitute a modern class of advanced engineering materials having a tremendous potential for actual transformative applications. Computer-controlled knitting offers great promise as a digital, additive manufacturing technology, because of its ability to make novel materials from multiple yarn types and varying loop patterns. Given the enormous flexibility of modern knitting equipment and the variety of yarn materials currently available, knitted structures can now be viewed as a versatile, programmable, multi-scale and microstructure-based engineering material systems. Similar to metamaterials, these knitted structures can be designed and manufactured to meet a wide range of functional and mechanical requirements. Furthermore, due to their flexibility and cloth-like structure, they can be used as material platforms to integrate other devices in ways practically not possible with other types of manufacturing technologies.
drexel.edu/excite/research/shimaseiki/

Singh Center
Located on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus, the Singh Center is a next-generation nanotechnology center that merges traditional approaches to nanoscale development with unique state-of-the-art equipment, materials and ideas. Key attributes include: a 10,000 ft2 class 100/1000 cleanroom nanofabrication facility, dedicated microfluidics lab, scanning probe microscopes, optoelectronic/transport tools, and optical probes, and a SEM, TEM, and AFM microscopy suite.
nano.upenn.edu/

Fox Chase Chemical Diversity Center, Inc.
Fox Chase Chemical Diversity Center, Inc. (FCCDC, www.fc-cdci.com) creates new composition of matter small molecule intellectual property in novel areas of pharmacology addressing unmet medical need, primarily in collaboration with top researchers at major academic institutions. FCCDC conducts early stage drug discovery research, including medicinal chemistry, biochemistry and pharmacology, having prepared ~8,500 New Chemical Entities. Through the Pennsylvania Drug Discovery Institute (PDDI), we have access to >24,000 reagents and starting materials to aid in early-stage product development.

The goal of FCCDC is to transition innovative biomedical research technologies into full-fledged drug discovery and development programs, leading eventual to drug candidates for human clinical trials. We work extensively with the SBIR/STTR granting mechanism from the NIH. Trigriluzole, in clinical trials for the treatment of ataxia and related disorders, emerged from our first ever Phase II SBIR.
fc-cdci.com/

The Uncommon Individual Foundation
The Uncommon Individual Foundation (UIF) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that studies, develops and applies the art and science of mentoring. The Foundation helps individuals and organizations through five mentoring programs: Corporate, Education, Entrepreneur, Media, and Technology.
uif.org/

Contact

Anthony George 
anthony.george@sep.benfranklin.org