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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
Entrepreneurial Leave of Absence Program (EntLOA)Volume 96 No. 4 -- October, 1996
 The entrepreneurial leave program at PNNL (as first reported in the FLC Newslink) is alive and well with ten new local businesses launched since the program's mid 1995 inception. As explained by Program Director, Marv Clement of PNNL's Economic Development Office, "We want to create new companies and jobs in the community and region. We want to increase the number of our Lab technologies commercialized, and we want to reduce the time required to commercialize technologies that serve small or niche markets." Like other DoE facilities at the Hanford Site near Richland, PNNL has had large scale lay-offs recently and is committed to helping diversify the local economy by supporting employees who want to start their own businesses. In a nutshell, the program allows lab staff to:
A logistics manager for Battelle-PNNL is utilizing the entrepreneurial leave program to develop a way to enjoy the fruits of his labor; with a lot less labor. Roger Dellinger bought an overgrown Concord table grape vineyard in Prosser, WA. Initially, he wanted to devise a better way to cut back excess vine growth so laborers could reach the grape buds that have to be pruned by hand. What Dellinger developed was a mechanical pruner that could prune an acre of grape vines in less than two hours, instead of the 10 to 12 hours it takes several trained laborers. The effectiveness of machine pruning is being researched in a ten year study at Washington State University. There is evidence that indicates that mechanical pruning can match hand pruning for maximized yields - and it's a lot faster. Grape pruning is the practice of shaping and reducing the number of buds on a grape plant in order to improve the size and quality of the crop. For effective pruning, a specific number of buds must remain to maintain vigor in the individual plant, manage quality of the grapes, and as the crop matures, optimize the size of the harvest. The existing mechanical pruners were very expensive and not always capable of cutting the vines with the selectivity needed to produce maximum yield per acre. The Vinemaster's major asset is its flexibility and adjustable selectivity. Dellinger's company, Valley Vine Machines is demonstrating the Vinemaster to local Concord grape growers and taking orders for pruning service. Wine grape growers are interested in this new technology and a mechanical pruner for wine grapes is planned. With plans for local manufacturing, new jobs will be created in the firm and its partner companies. For more information about PNNL and its Economic Development programs, please contact:
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