Joe Vadder founded Vadder Engineering in 2022, opening a new chapter in his inventing career. He also serves as Director of Engineering at OTS Energy, where he helps companies analyze and develop heat innovative transfer products.
Inventing useful machines is my lifetime passion. The entrepreneurial spirit goes deep in my
family as they were almost all farmers, traders and merchants who immigrated to
the United States and moved west as the country expanded in the 19th
century.
I grew up on my family’s farm in northwest Oklahoma in the
1980s. Going to town was a luxury and I
had plenty of time to think while driving a tractor in endless wide circles all
day. There is always problem to solve on
the farm, and this is where I focused my energy. I wanted to find ways to save myself time and
effort doing menial tasks, so I started inventing and building devices to solve those problems.
My first experience with the US Patent and Trademark Office
was in 1992. I was spending a lot of
time straightening radiator fins on our farm equipment so their
engines would stay cool while running in the hot Oklahoma summer. Starting with some nails and duct tape, I put
together a device that would allow me to straighten five fins at a time, a five
times improvement in speed! Over the
course of the school year this became my drafting project. My drafting teacher, Bob Dowell, saw
promise. He helped me enter the USPTO
Young Inventors and Creators Contest, where I was awarded a trip to Washington
D.C. to present my invention and meet other inventors. I was hooked!
I wanted to patent my inventions!
I pursued a degree in Biosystems and Agricultural
Engineering at Oklahoma State University where I met Dr. Tim Bowser. Tim Hired me to work in the newly constructed
Food and Agricultural Products Research and Technology Center where I helped
him design and build and innovative device that used a spring to grind meat
while solving the problem of removing metal fragments. Tim was granted a patent and I was listed as
a co-inventor. My first patent!
After graduation I was hired as a Security Engineer Officer for the US Department of State Bureau of Diplomatic Security. This was a job very different than my degree training, but it was awesome! I traveled to many countries, solving problems with technical equipment at our embassies and consulates. I even had the honor of traveling with two of our Secretaries of State. This experience really opened my perspective on the world.
After getting married, my wife and I decided to settle down
and raise a family in Maryland. Part of
that was getting a job at Evapco, Inc., where I worked for the next 20
years, my last role being Product
Development Director for Advanced Technology.
I honed my inventing and product development skills there, obtaining 49
patents worldwide. One of the most
important things that I learned at Evapco was how to design products for the
customer. Successful inventions must
solve a real problem and be competitive in the marketplace.
This is the second version of my radiator fin straightener from 1991. I would later find out that a similar device was patented a few years earlier.