Minnehaha Funeral Home

Ladd is putting a dent in the notion that small town employment prospects can only be found in a narrow scope of low-tech positions. For example, the company’s lead engineer Jacob is a South Dakota native who graduated as a mechanical engineer from the School of Mines & Technology. For the past 4 years, he’s utilized his engineering expertise in a groundbreaking field while enjoying the benefits of living in the small city of Hartford. “Primary Manufacturing offered me the invaluable experience of getting in on the ground floor of a new, innovative business. I’ve learned everything from design to engineering management to customer relations. Primary is the perfect place for me to grow my career as a young professional in engineering.” Allison is the lead artist and designer for All Scale Miniatures. She graduated from Dakota State University with a degree in animation. “I was always interested in art. In high school, I really got into computers and games and animated films. So I thought ‘Why not do art with computers?’ When I went to DSU, I really liked the 3D design and the photography and digital printing. So this job really fit

The team at Primary Manufacturing: Susan, Carrie and Jacob.

into my wheelhouse even better than I expected.” Often starting from a photo found online, Allison designs a basic model of an animal, human or object. As part of the design, she does “rigging” – for an animal or human, that essentially means starting with a base “skeleton” which she can adjust to any pose needed. For example, she might create a base model of a scuba diver – and then rig the basic diver into any pose, such as standing, treading water or swimming. Finished objects include most anything under the sun: air compressors, ice machines, fire extinguishers, stacked suitcases, air conditioners, hose reels, picnic

Respectfully serving families for generations.

BALTIC | 180 St. Olaf Ave. 605.529.5411 COLTON | 205 East 4th St. 605.446.3246

DELL RAPIDS | 104 East 4th St. 605.428.4200 GARRETSON | 101 South Leslie Dr. 605.594.3700

All Scale Models lead designer Allison with one of her many computer designs created with a 3D printer.

A few of the dozens of scale models available to purchase for a model railroad, farm or town: 3 scales of outhouses; two tiny jack o’lanterns; and a cooler, picnic table and canoe. The 3D printing technology allows scale models to be created at tiny sizes while maintaining details.

tables, elk, pallets … and list goes on and on. Such scale objects have typically been produced by creating an expensive injection mold and produced by the thousands or millions. But All Scale Miniatures keeps a modest inventory of any one thing because it’s easy to pull up the digital model and produce 5 more or 500 more in a few minutes or hours.

Ladd launched Primary Manufacturing about 5½ years ago in 1 rented room. The company added another room, then an office and another; then purchased the entire building and eventually added on to the building. The 3D printers produce objects similar to how a CT scan views the body. A CT scanner is, in essence, taking cross-sectional images (known as “slices”) of an internal part of a human body. The slices are digitally stacked to give doctors a detailed look at the body part. The 3D printers at Primary Manufacturing also view digitally created or designed objects as “slices” – and the objects are built slice-by-slice on the printer.