Akron : Innovation + Job News

The next time you find yourself getting a little hot under the collar, you might want to consider a cooling system from Akron-based manufacturer Polar Products, Inc.

From hospital operating rooms to the war-torn streets of Afghanistan and Iraq, Polar cooling systems help people perform better in warm environments by lowering body temperature, the company says. Body-cooling vests let surgeons and U.S. troops operate more effectively and in greater comfort. Polar's systems have even protected the sensitive electronics found in unmanned spy submarines while they were moving by ship in tropical climates.

But of the myriad of applications, William Graessle, president and owner, says his company derives the most satisfaction from improving the quality of life for those diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, the vast majority of whom develop an intolerance to heat.

"We manufacture a number of body-cooling systems, vests, neck wraps, and other things that allow people with MS to get out and see a Little League Game, go to Disney World, or just go outside with their kids," says Graessle. "It's fun working with people you truly help."

Besides the body-cooling systems, Polar designs and manufactures hot and cold therapy products to relieve pain and discomfort. But the body-cooling systems -- which are also used by police, racecar drivers, and mascots -- are the most exciting part of the business, says Graessle.

Sales have increased an average of 20 percent annually for the last three years, and four jobs were added last year, bringing the number of employees to about 20. The company hopes to add three more positions this year.

Graessle says he was excited when he received an inquiry for body-cooling vests from a Finish general in the field. His excitement diminished somewhat when he learned the whole Finish contingent numbered only 80 troops . . . make that 80 "cool" troops.

Established in 1984, Polar Products, Inc. was acquired by Graessle in 2000.

Source: William Graessle, Polar Products
Writer: Patrick G. Mahoney

Can man mimic nature to improve health?

Maybe. That's what a University of Akron polymer engineering expert is researching at the Ohio Supercomputer Center in Columbus.

Hendrik Heinz is using advanced modeling and simulation techniques to more precisely understand biomineralization, nature's ability to form complex structures, such as bones, teeth and mollusk shells, from peptides; and organic photovoltaics. The work could advance knowledge of how organic materials bond to inorganic materials. Ultimately, the results of Heinz's efforts could affect the making of materials used for things like bone replacement and sensing systems -- and even disease treatment and energy generation.

Heinz has noted previously that advances in materials science such as in biomedical and energy conversion devices increasingly rely on computational techniques and modeling. In particular, work at the nanoscale level -- such as charge transport mechanisms in solar cells, the formation of biominerals, and self-assembly of polymers in multi-component materials -- is difficult to observe. Model building and simulation are critical, he says.

The Air Force Research Laboratory/Office of Scientific Research in Dayton; Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, the National Science Foundation; and ETH Zurich  and Sika Technology AG , both of Switzerland join UA and the Supercomputer Center in supporting Heinz's activities.

Heinz is "just one of scores of researchers" who are doing "amazing work" on the computational and storage systems of the Supercomputer Center, says spokesman Jamie Abel.

The Ohio Board of Regents established the center in 1987 as a statewide resource. The state's universities, businesses and others use it for an array of educational and business purposes.

Sources: Jamie Abel and Kathryn Kelley, Ohio Supercomputer Center
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Diamond Polymers is bouncing back, adding to Akron's growing reputation as "the polymer capital of the world."

The national economic problems of 2008 had forced the company to reduce its manpower, says Founder/CEO Alan Woll. But acquisition of a product line from a competitor -- Centrex from INEOS ABS of Addyston, Ohio -- enabled hiring in '09 and '10, resulting in total employment of 65.

"We updated our workforce," Woll says.

And with $400,000 in five-year notes from the City of Akron, Diamond Polymers will continue to advance, says COO Michael Neumann, who adds the city has been "very, very good to us."

Woll started the company in 1986. It specializes in high-quality thermoplastic materials and resins.

Wolls says the polymer industry, plus related resources at the University of Akron, Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University are important assets to the Akron region, once known as the "rubber capital of the world."

Diamond Polymers conducts a five-year fellowship with the University of Akron, home of the National Polymer Innovation Center, to sponsor a student who needs additional, hands-on polymer knowledge.

"That's a win-win for both of us," Woll says.

Sources: Alan Woll and Michael Neumann, Diamond Polymers
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

The events of September 11, 2001 spawned an Akron-based business that protects clients from disaster by warning large groups of people within minutes of a threat.

"Post-911, I saw the need for a robust form of emergency communication for the masses," says Scott Dettling, company president.

Established 2003 in Washington, D.C. and later moved to Ohio, Dettling's home state, Inspiron Logistics' original focus was telecom consulting. The system was designed for emergency notification of federal agencies and contractors.

Today, universities, fire and police departments, municipalities, and others rely on WENS (Wireless Emergency Notification System) from Inspiron Logistics to get critical information to those who need to know as quickly as possible

"From day one, our system had to be turnkey; it had to be simple to use. At the height of an emergency, complexity has no place. Alerts can be issued in two steps. Other systems may have four pages of options, and if you check the wrong box, the alert is never going out," Dettling explains.

Unlike 9-1-1, which is intended for individuals to report a problem to emergency services, WENS is a hosted Web site.

"We are an inversion of (9-1-1), designed for use by emergency services or a county emergency management director who needs to alert hundreds of thousands or even millions of people very quickly," Dettling says. Within minutes, WENS can notify huge numbers of people through voice calls, sirens, digital signage, or text messages, he says.

Inspiron's client base has consistently grown by 100 percent annually, says Dettling, while the company's renewal rate is an exceptional 96 percent. The company has 15 employees, including contractors, and plans to expand to more than 80 employees within the next two to three years.

Source: Scott Dettling, Inspiron Logistics
Writer: Patrick Mahoney

The Dayton region may be known as Ohio's sensors corridor, but northeast Ohio's capabilities in sensor technology just got a boost -- and a big one at that.

Last week the Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering at Cleveland State University, allocating funds from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative, awarded six grants totaling more than $17 million to universities and other organizations for development and commercialization of sensors and sensor technologies.

The largest of the six grants -- 25 percent of which will be matched by recipients -- went to Lorain County Community College, which will receive $5.5 million to work with R.W. Beckett Corp., Acence and Greenfield Solar Corp., to create a center for sensor commercialization.

The Cleveland Clinic Foundation's Learner Research Institute will receive $2.67 million to lead establishment a new center for sensor and microdevices for biomedical applications, and the Austen BioInnovation Institute is getting $2.6 million to lead development of an advanced instrumentation platform for product development in biomedical areas.

Meanwhile, the Ohio State University is slated to receive $3 million to lead commercialization of terahertz sensors for applications such as medical imaging and homeland security, and the University of Akron will receive $1.66 million to lead commercialization of sensor technologies for clean energy products.

Youngstown State University will also receive $1.66 million, for a collaboration with the Youngstown Business Incubator and M-7 Technologies to create systems for next generation manufacturing and inspection systems.

Some recipients are already predicting new jobs due to the awards.

"Our principal commercial partner, M-7 technologies, is looking to hire an additional 70 employees over five years," says Julie Michael Smith, the Youngstown incubator's chief development officer. "That is the direct employment, and then of course there will hopefully be downstream employment by companies employing this technologies."

She says the grants are good for northeast Ohio and for the Youngstown area, where old-line industries like steel have been battered in recent years.

Sources: The Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering and Julie Michael Smith, Youngstown Business Incubator
Writer: Gene Monteith

Frank Harris, a professor emeritus of polymer science at the University of Akron, knows what it's like to be the bona fide poster child for the growing high-tech industry in Ohio. And he's OK with that.

He co-founded Akron Polymer Systems in 2005 (with Dr. Stephen Cheng, dean of the UA College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering) and the company has enjoyed steady growth since.

The company now says it's within a year of taking its polymer product � with uses in fuel cells, liquid-crystal displays and solar cells � to the market.

APS has attracted the attention of several companies, including Lockheed Martin, Kent Displays and solar powerhouse Xunlight.
And to think the company was this close to leaving Ohio.

"We were approached by the state of South Carolina, but we stayed, primarily because of the Third Frontier," says Harris. "South Carolina could offer us some incentives, but they couldn't come anywhere close to the help that the Third Frontier could offer us." APS has received about $350,000 in direct funding from the state program for fuel cell technology, but through subcontracts it has also been awarded more than $2 million for several other projects.

Harris says another benefit is that the company has been able to match Third Frontier funding with industry funding, something he calls the "doubling effect."

There are currently a dozen people employed with APS, but Harris says once a product is on the market within a year, there could be more than 25 positions added. In more good news for the company, APS has been approved for a $1.25 million loan to build a new $3 million facility in downtown Akron.

Source: Frank Harris, Akron Polymer Systems
Writer: Colin McEwen

In the old days, real-time video game communications consisted of screaming at a buddy for messing up your high-scoring Super Mario Bros. game. These days, says Ayalogic president Mike Rojas, the phrase "in-game communication" has an entirely different meaning.

"Today's online games are incredibly complex, requiring multiple people working together in a synchronized fashion to complete a desired goal," Rojas explains. "That is very difficult to do while sending text or instant messages back and forth to each other."

Ayalogic, which is headquartered in Akron, develops voice communication products for the video game industry that allow players to communicate while playing online games. The firm's Green-Ear product is embedded into games by their developers, facilitating real-time player communication using VoIP. The tool's flexibility makes it ideal for player groups of any size to quickly and easily connect during play. This makes it ideal for large-scale game tournaments that can consist of literally hundreds of players scattered across the globe.

The company also offers a free version for players to download and use with friends.

Rojas, a former NEC executive with more than eight patents and almost 30 years of software experience, founded the company in 2002.

Ayalogic employs eight people currently, but likely will add more development professionals in the near future to cultivate new features.

Source: Mike Rojas, Ayalogic
Writer: Douglas Trattner

It almost sounds too good to be true: Transform old tires, carpet, and other polymeric trash destined for the landfill into readily useable fuel. This trash-to-treasure tale is no fantasy; it is precisely what three modern companies already are doing on a daily basis.

Vadxx, an eight-person firm headquartered in Cleveland, has perfected a technique that transforms discarded tires and waste oil into synthetic crude and natural gas. The oil is sold to energy marketers while the gas is reserved to fuel future processes. The company has multiple letters of intent to build large-scale units, including one from the Portage County Solid Waste Management District.

"This is one advanced energy concept that if we achieve our objectives the marketplace will overwhelm it because the capital costs are so small," explains CEO James Garrett.

Joseph Hensel, chairman of Akron-based Polyflow, says that what distinguishes his company from the others is the range of waste that the Polyflow process can utilize. "This is a stunning process designed to handle a truly mixed range of polymer waste," Hensel explains. Tires, carpet, PVC pipes and plastic children's toys that would otherwise clog up a landfill are broken down to oil that is sold to local blenders. For every ton of waste processed, the system yields .7 tons of fuel.

Polyflow is currently scaling up its pilot program to a unit that can handle two and half tons of waste per hour. "I'm hoping that you'll soon see this in every major municipality," adds Hensel.

Princeton Environmental uses a different technology to turn trash into fuel. Sorted solid waste is converted to synthetic gas in a process called gasification. That highly efficient gas is then burned in a turbine to generate electricity. The New Jersey-based company has plans to build its first U.S. power plant in Cleveland.

All three of these processes eliminate or greatly reduce the production of noxious emissions and carbon dioxide, making them far greener than the trash-burning power plants of yesterday.

Sources: James Garrett, Vadxx, and Joseph Hensel, Polyflow
Writer: Douglas Trattner

Remember the Sago Mine disaster in West Virginia in 2006? The mine collapsed and a dozen people died when rescuers could not locate them in time.

The folks at InSeT Systems remember the incident well; and their goal is to make sure that never happens again.

The Akron-based company is fine-tuning its Inertial Sensor Tracking System, which uses inertial technology to provide the most accurate location data available underground. The device will also work any other places GPS can't reach (think outerspace and underwater).

The mining industry got a push toward additional safety standards in 2006 with the passage of the MINER Act, requiring mining companies to wirelessly track where all of their employees are at all times.

Jay Breeding, InSeT's chief operations officer, says the founders of the company knew that no such technology existed on the market.

They got a $400,000 loan from JumpStart and began the work. InSeT later received loans from the state and a grant from the Ohio Coal Development Office for $330,000.

With a product developed, InSeT will now begin large-scale testing. What better place to test than the largest underground mine in Ohio?

"We're very optimistic about this test," Breeding says.

He adds there are plans to add as many as 50 jobs by the end of 2012 -- not including subcontractors. Four people, including Breeding, are currently employed with InSeT.

"We had to start from scratch but we know we've got superior technology," he says, adding that the company recently took home a 2010 NorTech Innovation Award. "We'll hang the gold star on our door when someone gets to go home who otherwise wouldn't have."

Source: Jay Breeding, InSeT Systems
Writer: Colin McEwen

Akron's Steve Washington based his business on a simple, but previously overlooked concept: offer financial services to people who want to invest, but have limited funds and might not know where to start.

Washington, a finance instructor at the University of Akron with a background in investment banking, last year launched Member Share Saving Network, reaching out to young workers, minorities and women looking to invest in their futures. The company is a division of SaveDaily.com, Inc., which aims to offer low cost financial services through an online asset management platform. Members Share currently has four employees.

"We offer services to unserved and underserved investment markets, using technology that significantly reduces the cost of the delivering services," Washington explained. "We are micro-investing small amounts of money the same way wealthy people invest large amounts."

The majority of the company's 7,400 clients are in Ohio, but investors from 43 states have become part of the Member Share Saving Network.

Washington said less wealthy investors are a large market that is just beginning to be tapped. And though Member Share is a business, it has a greater mission as well.

"It's estimated that 70- to 80-million people are outside the traditional investment or retirement apparatus in this country," he said. "It's a good business � but it's also socially important that as many people as possible participate in retirement planning for their own good, their families and the country as a whole to lessen the pressure on social security and other social services.

Source: Steve Washington, CEO Member Share Network
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

FirstEnergy has taken a 92-acre first step toward developing a massive natural gas and compressed-air power plant near Akron.

But this certainly isn't your mother's power plant. The recently purchased site in Norton would employ technology that compresses air through a turbine when demand is low at night, and release it during the day when demand is at its highest. And it could prove to be capable of producing as much electricity as three nuclear reactors.

FirstEnergy also bought the rights to a 600-acre abandoned underground limestone mine. FirstEnergy spokeswoman Ellen Raines says the high-tech system could be combined with renewable energy technologies.

"The wind blows when the wind blows and the sun shines when the sun shines," Raines says. "If you can combine those intermittent energies with storage, the storage acts like a large battery."

There are only other two such facilities in the world � one in Alabama and the other in Germany. But Raines says with the potential to produce as much as 2,700 megawatts, the mine in Norton would be much larger. To put that in perspective, one megawatt serves approximately 600 homes.

Raines says there is no timetable set when the plant would become operational. Nor is there a firm figure of jobs the mine would create.

"This has enormous potential down the road," she says. "People have looked at this Norton mine for decades to see how it could be used. We're just very happy to have purchased these rights to take advantage of this when the time is right."

Source: Ellen Raines, FirstEnergy
Writer: Colin McEwen

As Ohio manufacturers, start-ups and individuals look to impact � and benefit from � the emerging green economy, an Akron-based company is developing a product to capture waste heat and solar thermal energy, converting it into electricity.

Today about 60 percent of heat generated by burning fossil fuels is wasted, released into the environment, according to two-year-old rexorce. And every day, the sun shines down enough thermal energy to power the world's demands for a year.

Now, rexorce -- A privately held company founded by CEO Philip Brennan and CTO Michael Gurin -- is developing the ThermafficientTM heat engine. This system recovers thermal energy from industrial and commercial waste heat, solar thermal, bottom and top cycling in power plants and other sources.

That energy, in turn is converted into electricity to power Ohio's homes and companies. The company has a growing intellectual property portfolio that protects the novel means by which their engine harvests heat and creates power, heat and shaft work.

The founders of rexorce describe their work as pursuing "profit with a purpose, by providing innovative solutions to the world's energy challenges." Its aim is to radically improve the way thermal energy is sourced, produced, distributed and consumed.

"The reason I got involved is because I have passion to help find a real solution to the energy challenge," Brennan said.

Individuals and companies are becoming more aware of the environmental impact of their activities, and increasingly are looking for ways to curb that impact. Now, rexorce has the potential to tap into a large area of wasted and renewal energy sources.

The company was founded April 1st, 2007 and employs 17 people, mostly engineers. The company soon will bring on two more employees, and has received millions in financial support from the state including from Jumpstart and the Ohio Third Frontier. Most recently the company was awarded $1.5 million from the Innovation Ohio Loan Fund.

That support has allowed the company to make great progress, says Brennan, who previously worked for several Fortune 50 companies as a packaged goods marketer. His partner is a veteran engineer who has done contract development work for NASA, BMW and Caterpillar.

"We are in the final stages of development with deployment of a commercial scale system with two industrial partners in Q1 and Q2 of next year," Brennan said.

A commercial launch is planned for late 2010, and will be marketed in steel, cement, pulp and paper, petrochemicals, oil and gas sectors.

Source: Philip Brennan, rexorce
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

At age 60, Aunt Millie seems to have lost a step. Forgotten conversations. An unpaid bill here and there. Her family is beginning to wonder: Does Aunt Millie have Alzheimer's?

Maybe. Maybe not. Modern medicine currently has no way to diagnose the earliest stages of degenerative neurological diseases like Alzheimer's so that their progression can be slowed. Instead, they must wait until tissue damage is confirmed � which current technology can't detect until it's too late.

If William K. McCroskey has his way, that's about to change. The Akron-based founder of FMI Technologies is working on a new tool that can peel images of the brain back like an onion to the molecular level � where the cell-killing processes of Alzheimer's percolate.

One of a growing number of biomedical firms planting roots in Ohio, FMI is perfecting an ultra-high resolution imaging technology that not only detects physical changes in brain tissue but chemical processes that can lead to damage. Buoyed by the success of clinical trials using similar technology for the early detection of breast cancer, FMI is now pursuing a prototype of its ScintiStar™ Neuro system.

Howard Shapiro, a neurologist who heads both the neurology unit and the neurovascular lab at Akron General Medical Center, agrees that McCroskey's technology could be groundbreaking � for Ohioans and the nation.

Shapiro, whose facility is in line to conduct clinical trials using the system, says "this could explode into a whole bunch of possibilities."

Sources: William McCroskey and Howard Shapiro
Writer: Gene Monteith