Currently, we have an opening for a Production Technician to fabricate, assemble and inspect medical and industrial imaging components. We are looking for someone who is eager to expand their skills and career and:

• has experience in the manufacture and assembly of small precision components,
• can accurately follow detailed written and verbal instructions,
• works well both independently and as part of a team,
• can handle some heavy lifting (up to 50 lbs.),
• has basic computer skills.

The starting wage for this full-time position is $10 – 12/hour, depending on experience, with excellent benefits.  Regular work hours are Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with an hour for lunch.  Our 10,000 sq. ft. facility is located near the 250 Bypass and 29 North (Seminole Trail) and has plenty of free parking.

To apply for this position, please complete and submit the application form on our website’s Careers page.  If you choose to upload a résumé, you can fill in just the required fields on the application.

MIKRO’s patented Tomo-Lithographic-Molding (TOMO™) technology enables production of advanced cores that previously have not been manufacturable. The precision cooling features enabled by TOMO will allow advanced engines to run at higher temperatures, thus affording better fuel efficiency and lower emissions.   In addition, TOMO™ allows more rapid prototyping of advanced designs at a much lower cost than traditional methods.

This full-time salaried position reports directly to Mikro Systems’ Quality Manager and requires a 2-year Associates degree or equivalent education, training and/or experience.

Responsibilities include:

• collecting and reporting on data using various tools and software;

• performing quality inspections and audits to ensure conformance with customer requirements;

• assisting with the preparation of procedures which support the company’s Quality Management System;

• assisting the Quality Manager in complaint resolution using techniques such as root cause analysis and DOE;

• performing other tasks as needed to support the company’s objectives.

We are looking for someone who:

• has a minimum of 2 years of Quality Assurance / Quality Control experience in a manufacturing environment;

• is experienced and skilled in verifying product dimensions against drawing specifications using measurement devices such as micrometers, dial indicators, and pin gages;

• has experience with (or the ability to learn) advanced measurement equipment such as programmable optical and CMM equipment;

• is familiar with ISO 9001 audit procedures and requirements;

• is competent in the use of Microsoft® Word, Excel, and Office, and

• can lift up to 50 lbs on a regular basis.

Being an active member of ASQ (American Society For Quality) and having some form of ASQ certification (Auditor, CMI, etc…) is not required but would be a definite plus.

Pay range is $14 – 15/hour, depending on experience, with excellent benefits.  Work hours are Monday -  Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with an hour for lunch.  Our 10,000 sq. ft. facility is conveniently located near 29 North (Seminole Trail) and the 250 Bypass and has plenty of free parking.

To apply for this position, please complete and submit the application form on our website’s Careers page.  If you choose to upload a résumé, you can fill in just the required fields on the application.

In this Phase I effort, MIKRO intends to demonstrate technical feasibility of applying its TOMO technology to the manufacture of advanced turbine blades for use in IGCC plants.  The advanced blade designs will embody more complex internal cooling passages than can be produced using current investment casting techniques, which will improve heat transfer and lower cooling air requirements.  If successful in Phase I, MIKRO will be eligible for a follow-on two-year Phase II R&D effort to further develop the technology needed for this demanding application.

Mikro Systems, Inc. was one of only nine Virginia companies to be accepted into the 2009 Accessing International Markets (AIM) export development program sponsored by the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP). Following a competitive application process, it was announced on June 22 that Mikro would participate in the year-long AIM program, which introduces companies across Virginia to new, global business opportunities.

“We are very excited about this opportunity, which aligns with our long-term goal of building markets worldwide,” said Mikro President and CEO Michael Appleby. 

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership, a marketing organization, was created by the Virginia General Assembly in 1995 to encourage, stimulate, and support the development and expansion of the economy of the Commonwealth.

Mikro Systems today announced the hiring of Quality Manager, Don Swemba. In his position, Swemba reports directly to CEO Michael Appleby and is responsible for all aspects of quality within the company, including oversight of Mikro’s Quality Management System.

Don joins Mikro systems with over 13 years of quality experience from within the electronic and injection molding fields. Most recently, he was employed as a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer for E.D. Bullard Company, which specializes in high-quality personal protective equipment.

Swemba is a graduate of The Penn State University with a BS degree in Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technology and a MS degree in Quality Assurance from California State University. Don is also an active member of the American Society for Quality and is a Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), Reliability Engineer (CRE), and Quality Manager (CQM).

“We are pleased to add a career-minded, quality professional to the Mikro Systems team,” said Appleby. “Don has devoted the majority of his career to the quality field, which makes him a key asset to Mikro as we continue to grow our business and the Quality Management System.”

Charlottesville, Va.-based Mikro Systems Inc. is a fast-growing technology company specializing in precision manufacturing. Mikro partners with high-technology companies, as well as government and academic divisions in fields as diverse as aerospace, medical imaging, biomedicine, homeland security, energy and defense. Through a collaboration, Mikro uses its patented Tomo- Lithographic-Molding (TOMO™) manufacturing process to develop higher-performance products and fast, cost-effective manufacturing solutions, for its customers, that previously were impractical — or, in many cases, simply impossible.

Mikro Systems today announced that John Hayes is joining the company as Senior Director of Business Development and Marketing, reporting to CEO Michael Appleby. In his role, Hayes will be responsible for strategic business development and marketing.

Hayes most recently served as Senior Director of LexisNexis Publishing Solutions at LexisNexis Group, and before that was Vice President for Development at Information Research.

“We are pleased to have someone with John’s experience join Mikro’s senior management team,” said Appleby. “His success at LexisNexis developing and providing high-value, customer-focused solutions makes him a key asset to Mikro as we continue to grow our business.”

“Mikro is a young, innovative company with a strong value proposition, very powerful manufacturing technology, and exciting opportunities for growth,” said Hayes. I’m thrilled to be joining the company and look forward to working with the entire team.”

Hayes is a graduate of the University of Virginia and earned a Master of Business Administration from UVa’s Darden School of Business.

Charlottesville, Va.-based Mikro Systems Inc. is a fast-growing technology company specializing in precision manufacturing. It provides contract manufacturing, tooling systems and engineering services to a diverse market that spans the fields of aerospace, medical imaging, biomedicine, homeland security, energy and defense. Mikro creates product breakthroughs for corporate customers large and small with its patented Tomo- Lithographic-Molding (TOMO™) manufacturing process. The TOMO™ process enables fast, cost-effective manufacturing solutions that previously were impractical — or, in many cases, simply impossible.

Mikro Systems fabricated a critical component for an innovative mobile “gamma camera,” used by surgeons in a recent clinical trial at the University of Virginia (UVA) Hospital. The trial evaluated performance of the mobile gamma camera for surgical guidance in sentinel lymph node biopsies for cancer patients.

Mikro Systems produced the custom collimator for this camera. The polymer-tungsten collimator is fundamentally a screen, or grid, a crucial, ray-focusing component of the gamma imaging device. The full system was designed by Dr. Stanley Majewski of Thomas Jefferson Lab National Accelerator Facility and UVA researcher Mark B. Williams, PhD, associate professor of radiology, biomedical engineering and physics. The camera was used on 20 surgical patients over a six month period by a team of physicians led by Dr. Craig Slingluff, nationally known clinician and researcher in the field of melanoma.

In sentinel lymph node biopsy, a mildly radioactive substance is injected in the area of the malignant tumor; it flows and collects in the nearest lymph node (or nodes), providing an accurate indication of the path that cancer cells would also take. The nodes are removed and examined to determine if the cancer has already begun to spread. Identifying and biopsying “sentinel” nodes in this manner eliminates the need to remove excess nodes and the attendant side effects. The mobile camera was used in these trials as a supplement to a standard fixed gamma camera, used prior to surgery to provide the doctors with a static map of sentinel nodes.

“The mobile gamma camera gave us an interactive, real-time map,” said surgery resident Lynn Dengel, a member of Slingluff’s team. “In several instances it provided us with more information than originally expected.” These included several cases in which the camera identified additional nodes requiring extraction after the planned surgery was completed; and several instances where the mobile camera was able to differentiate what appeared as a single node to the fixed camera into several smaller nodes, thus making the surgery more efficient and precise.

Previous collimators used in such applications, said Mikro Systems project manager Jill Klinger, were made out of lead, which is very soft and damages easily — “plus, the precision of the cells is not as good, so the images were quite poor and not up to the surgeons’ standards,” she said. Mikro Systems’ patented TOMO™ process, she added, “enabled us to create the different cell geometry required, and thus get higher efficiency — and better images.”

Mikro Systems, which has worked on previous projects with Jefferson Lab and with UVA’s Williams, has a “unique ability” to build such novel, tailor-made parts “which are integrated with devices such as these gamma ray detectors,” says Williams. “They’re flexible enough that when we said we needed a collimator that has exactly these specifications, they just went ahead and built it, and they did it fast. It would’ve been ridiculously expensive coming from any of the big collimator makers — if they could’ve done it at all, considering how long it would’ve taken for tooling.”

Mikro Systems did it quickly and relatively inexpensively, Williams said, echoing what more than a few Mikro Systems clients identify as a principal benefit of doing business with the growing company. Because of these benefits, Mikro’s TOMO™ technology is also being applied to make similar grids for use in airport baggage scanner systems used for Homeland Security as well as in computed tomography (CT) imaging systems for medical diagnostics.

Working with the investment banking firm of Cary Street Partners and the law firm of LeClair Ryan, Mikro Systems Inc. (Mikro) has successfully completed the first of two rounds aimed at raising up to $2.5 million in equity capital. The May-June round successfully raised more than $1.1 million; a second round in October is expected to raise the balance. The proceeds from the equity raise are being used to recruit and hire additional personnel and acquire additional equipment to support scale-up of manufacturing production.

Mikro, founded in 2000 and located in Charlottesville, Va., has developed and patented an innovative manufacturing platform known as Tomo-Lithographic-Molding (TOMO™) that allows precision molding of metals, ceramics, polymers and other composite materials. This technology is finding applications in a variety of industries including radiation detection and imaging, ceramic cores for turbine airfoils and composite structures.

On April 15, 2008, Mikro Systems’ “Devices, Methods, and Systems for Imaging” (No. 7,358,502 B1) was issued by the U.S. Patent Office. The patent discloses a novel imaging plate for use in Digital Radiography and Computed Radiography. X-ray detectors based on imaging plate technology can be used as the primary radiation detector in many fields, including diagnostic medical imaging, structural biology research and non-destructive testing.

Using Mikro Systems’ patented Tomo-Lithographic Molding (TOMO™) process, imaging plates can be produced that offer a number of advantages, including flexibility, improved spatial resolution, greater dynamic range and able to perform as integrating and conformal detectors. This patent addresses the imaging plate systems, methods of use and systems of manufacturing for specific imaging devices. Mikro Systems worked closely with Los Alamos National Laboratory to develop this technology and has a joint licensing agreement with the Department of Energy for its use. Mikro Systems has exclusive commercial rights to the technology, while the government maintains the right to use the technology for noncommercial purposes.

Mikro Systems continues to enact a strategic management plan for its intellectual properties, including patent filings, trade secret criteria and technology licensing agreements. Additional U.S. and international patent applications are pending which address specific devices and application areas in which the TOMO™ process can be used.