Our chief designer is John Bicht. This is a quick overview of his broad range of fascinating work since 1972. Clicking on some of the pictures will get you a bigger version. Some will take you to other of our web pages.
John
Bicht
32 years of designing solutions to tough or unusual technical requirements.
From
1972 to 1979, while in England
After
leaving DRL he went to work for Ogle
Design Ltd. which at the time
was the largest industrial design company in England. There
he
was the
sole mechanical designer - in charge of providing the same
innovation in mechanical products as the other designers
did with visuals. In the early days he conceived,designed
and oversaw the construction of the complete mechanicals
for several
advanced
electric
vehicles
commissioned by
Lucas Electric. The work ran to 12 patents.
After
leaving Ogle.. |
He continued the micro-vibration research - including novel measurement techniques -
and created a prototype record player.
1980
- 84 for Jade Corp.
Hired out of the blue by the
Jade Corporation who was lacking a bit of innovative talent - he conceived
and designed a semiconductor assembly machine of then outrageous performance
(10,000
parts
per hour - four
times
the then
current
technology).
For
a time he ran Jade's engineering department, and he started and managed
Jade's computer machine controls department.
As a result, he participated in all machine projects while he was there.
1984 working with partners
A new company, Versa Dynamics, was created to seek venture capital for a Robotics business. This never took flight. So a variety of contract projects ensued.
Co-conceived,
designed and built a high-speed part counter for the AMP Corporation,
plus several new machine concepts also for AMP.
Created new design concepts for Olympic Bobsleds but could not get the
outside capital necessary. It was going to be a big project.
1986
for his own company
Created the Versa Dynamics record players Model 1 and Model 2. With the
latest upgrades these are still considered by some as the
pinnacle of record players.
During this period he also built a 70 foot 4 axis television gantry for
the short lived Gannet News TV program.
He later did considerable research into the problems of making CDs sound
good. This eventually led to the next product creations.
1992 for Versalab Another
new company spun out of Versa Dynamics - Versalab. |
Conceived, designed and built a new line of products for the photographic darkroom, including the PRINT WASHER
and then the very popular PARALLEL
2004
for Versalab
John finished several years of fundamental research into extremely fine
control of the espresso brewing process resulting in the Versalab M3 espresso
machine
Continuing with refining the espresso process, he conceived the remarkable
'Precision Packer'. 
Now
replaced by the Espresso PRESS. 
And then a very wonderful Espresso grinder.
