Dayton/West Central Ohio : Innovation + Job News

A news release calls it "a game-changing new nanomaterial that will allow composites to multitask - a wind turbine tower that can de-ice its own blades in winter, or store energy to release on a calm day, powering a grid even when its blades are not moving. Or a military vehicle whose armor can serve as a battery - powering some of the vehicle's electrical components."

Khalid Lafdi, who discovered the material, says it's not hype. He says his "fuzzy fiber" could revolutionize everything from water treatment to electronics to the manufacture of airplane parts.

Lafdi, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Dayton and group leader for carbon materials at the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI), says the new carbon nanomaterial surfaced eight or nine years ago while he was working on subcontract with the U.S. Air Force. But the material has drawn more attention recently because of a $3-million Ohio Third Frontier award to UDRI to fund scale-up and production.

Most carbon nanomaterials are used purely for structural purposes. They are stiff, light and strong. But they are poor conductors of heat or electricity because they are locked inside a flat sheet of resin. Sort of like slicked down hair.

But, Lafdi says, imagine if you put that gel into your hair and tousled it for a rakish, stylish Hollywood look. Voila -- more surface area, which makes for a better conductor of heat and electricity and provides other functionality that traditional carbon nanomaterials can't approach. All without lessening the structural benefits.

The Third Frontier award will help fund creation and equipment of a full-scale production facility for the hybrid fabric. The award will be matched by UDRI and Ohio collaborators Goodrich and Owens Corning -- potential end users of the material -- and Renegade Materials -- which intends to commercialize the product.

Source, Khalid Lafdi, UDRI
Writer: Gene Monteith

Global Neighbor has struck a chord with dandelion haters who want to kill the buggers in an environmentally friendly way.

Jon Jackson, president of the Dayton-based company, reports that by the end of the year he expects to sell his 1,000th unit of the NaturZap, a device that kills broadleaf weeds without chemicals.

The company was formed in 2003, and in 2006 piloted the NaturCut, an energy-efficient, battery-operated, shear-cut lawn mower. While Global Neighbor is still working on a cost-competitive design for the NaturCut, gardeners seem to have found a new friend in the AC-driven NaturZap, which was rolled out in 2008.

The device works with a combination of high heat -- which damages the root system -- and natural processes that introduce fungus into the damaged root.

That's good news for consumers like Jackson, who says his lab/pit bull mix gets a rash every time it encounters a chemically treated lawn.

NaturZap is sold primarily through online organic gardening outlets and is on back order, Jackson says. While the product is currently manufactured overseas, he intends to move production to Tipp City as volumes increase. Jackson also hopes to increase his number of employees from one -- himself -- to three next year.

Jackson is working on a souped-up, battery driven NaturZap. But he hasn't given up on the NaturCut's technology -- in fact, he hopes to springboard off of both products to create "a lawn care solution that has zero environmental impact," he says. "We envision something that is self propelled or you push through the lawn. It cuts the grass, it kills the weeds, it applies an organic fertilizer, all under computer control."

The company has benefited from a $12,500 Third Frontier grant through the Dayton Development Coalition, resulting in matching funds from private sources.

Source: Jon Jackson, Global Neighbor
Writer: Gene Monteith

Zia Systems says it has a better way to keep track of inventory and equipment. And now, it's using its patented technology to tap into what it says is an $8 billion to $10 billion pipeline rehabilitation industry.

Zia, which has an office at the National Environmental Technology Incubator at Central State University near Springfield, is the outgrowth of efforts that began in 1997 when equipment was stolen from Zia CEO and co-founder Jack Conte's construction company.

Conte asked two remote monitoring experts -- brothers Larry and Gary Rapp (Zia's chief technology officer and chief operating officer, respectively) -- to investigate ways to devise a security system around the construction site.

The first application was built on existing GPS and cellular technology, Gary Rapp says, and allowed Conte to track trucks and equipment on job sites. Later, the technology was extended to government contractor Washington Group International, which was moving equipment for construction in Iraq.

"We said there is a market out there for GPS tracking devices," Gary says. "But the market had so many players, that's really something we didn't necessarily want to stay in, and we thought 'can we build our own system that's unique.'?"

The result was a patented system using tracking tags and sensors to keep track of just about anything within a defined area, like a building, warehouse or field. If a tagged object is moved, sensors can send an alert to a smart phone, or a call center or a computer.

While the technology has a number of applications, Zia's target market today is the infrastructure rehabilitation industry -- specifically, storm water and sewer pipelines that rely on resin liners that are cured with heat. Zia technology can measure temperatures every 10 to 20 feet, rather than just at the manholes, which is where temperature readings have typically been taken.

While the technology for now is being applied to locate specific temperatures along a liner, Conte says the next step is to provide sensors to track the exact position of the liners.

The five-person company recently landed its first order for pipeline sensors -- 10,000 lineal feet of product.

Sources: Jack Conte, Gary Rapp and Larry Rapp, Zia Systems
Writer: Gene Monteith

Both patients and docs benefit when new medical advances reduce the cost, complexity and risks of surgery. Miamisburg-based X-spine has built a growing business on that idea.

Founded in 2004 by spine surgeon and medical device inventor David Kirschman, the company is growing on the strength of nine FDA- approved products.

The company bills itself as "leader in design and development of novel technologies for the spine." That includes the highly successful X90 screw system, a one-piece product that Kirschman, X-spine's CEO, says simplifies the old two-piece system used before.

The company's new Fixcet Spinal Facet Screw System, which received FDA clearance just last week, sports a novel dual thread design, which Kirschman -- X-spine's CEO -- says provides a more stable way to connect bones. Not just that, but it can be put in through the skin of the patient with only a very small incision.

Kirschman says X-spine is growing 20 percent to 30 percent in both revenues and employment, with nearly 30 employees to date. Along the way, it has benefited from Ohio Third Frontier programs like the Entrepreneurial Signature Program, which provided a $300,000 commercialization investment two and a half years ago, and a current University of Cincinnati-led project funded by a $3-million Third Frontier grant for development of a laser metal processing technology for use in transplants.

"Most of our products are manufactured right here in Dayton," says Kirschman. "There are a lot of skilled engineers here and lot of people with good manufacturing skills."

Source: David Kirschman, X-spine
Writer: Gene Monteith

Imagine an imaging technology that can identify TNT or anthrax beneath a terrorist's clothes. That's exactly the kind of capability the Columbus startup Traycer wants the world to have.

Conceived in an Ohio State University lab, incorporated in 2007 and housed in the TechColumbus incubator, Traycer is already attracting attention for its promising terahertz -- or "T-ray" -- technology.

"Terahertz is just a different wavelength of light," explains Don J. Burdette, director of scientific research. "It falls between infrared and microwave, so there are a lot of applications for infrared technology -- you know, catching the bad guys running from the cops."

But many materials that aren't easily detected using infrared or microwave can be readily identified using T-rays. "So this has a lot of applications for spectroscopy, food quality control, chemical detection under people's clothing, detection of breast cancer -- the applications abound."

That potential has attracted the attention of TechColumbus, which in early 2008 awarded it $500,000 in pre-seed funds. And it's caught the eye of the U.S. Air Force.

"We're in our third contract with the Air Force to prove out the technology," says CEO Brad Beasecker. "And there certainly are numerous applications within the department of defense."

The company is working with a variety of partners -- including IDCAST (Institute for the Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology) in Dayton, where it has lab space -- and numerous Ohio and out-of-state universities.

Beasecker says the three-person company was expected to close this week on an investment round led by Ohio Techangels. But it's most important next step lies ahead.

"We've got to finish the camera. It's pretty simple."

If all goes as planned, Traycer could be in the marketplace early next year and "generate a new industry based here in Ohio," Beasecker says.

Sources: Brad Beasecker and Don J. Burdette, Traycer
Writer: Gene Monteith

Using tools as low-tech as a tape measure and calipers, and as high-tech as a 3D body scanner, Anthrotech  of Yellow Springs is compiling data about the physical characteristics of U.S. military personnel. The goal is to ensure optimal fitting of everything from clothing to tank interiors to office spaces.

The company received a three-year, $6.1 million contract for quantifying body sizes last fall. As a result, it recently hired and trained 21 new fulltime employees, all skilled technicians, to conduct the measurements. "They're already out in the field," says Dr. Bruce Bradtmiller, president.

The 3D scans enable analysis of a range of features of the personnel's head, body and feet.

The 60-year-old company previously had five fulltime and six part-time employees. It temporarily used extra space in Yellow Springs for training purposes but no capital expansion is expected.

Bradtmiller says Anthrotech performed a major study of body data for the Marines in 1966, and a similar one for the Army in '87-88, with pilot study in '07-'08.

"People do change over time," Bradtmiller says.

So does the makeup of the military, as more reserve and National Guard officers are activated, and as more women take on a wider range of roles.

Other users of the kinds of measurements Anthrotech performs � these "anthropometric surveys" � include, for example, makers of diapers, prosthetic limbs, eyewear, cars and trucks, safety equipment, furniture and apparel.

Anthrotech's roots are with Antioch College; the company originally was called the Anthropology Research Project.

Source: Dr. Bruce Bradtmiller, Anthrotech
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

If you've got a complex system -- a jet engine, for example -- the last thing you can afford is for it to fail at a crucial time. Frontier Technology says it has a way to predict those failures well before they can happen.

Frontier, whose top executives are based in Dayton, is commercializing a pattern recognition system called NormNet, which can analyze any system that uses sensors and predict when a component will fail, says Frontier senior scientist Sam Boykin.

Boykin says the technology began as a project with the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Along the way, the company has benefited from several Ohio Third Frontier grants and is nearing the end of a two-year, $350,000 commercialization grant.

Boykin says the technology has been successfully demonstrated to a number of companies, including Caterpillar, Parker Hannifin and General Electric Aviation. NormNet has also been tested at wind farm companies in Texas and on jet engines for the British Air Force.

"It's a software solution," Boykin says, and works "as long as there are some kind of sensors on the system. So when the system is operating healthy, the system creates relationships between each sensor and all the others. That's really how (NormNet) is able then to predict -- when it sees the degradation, it sees one of these relationships start to change."

He adds that "in all cases, we've been able to predict these failures -- sometimes days and weeks ahead of where they actually occurred."

Frontier's Dayton operations employ 20, including the addition of two to three new jobs over the past two years.

Source: Sam Boykin, Frontier Technology
Writer: Gene Monteith

Wright State University is putting a new place on the map: Calamityville.

The threat of danger � made by man or Mother Nature � always looms in Calamityville. Weather forecasts are dire. Security reports are worse. It sounds like a place from which people would escape.

Instead, it's a place the Dayton-area school says will attractive medical, public health, public safety and civilian and military disaster response decision-makers from around the world for state-of-the-art training.

Calamityville is part of The National Center for Medical Readiness at WSU, an Ohio Center of Excellence. It's being funded from state and federal sources, as well as a wide range of businesses. WSU and the cities of Dayton and are providing support, too.

Among the features on the site plan: an urban destruction zone, transportation mishaps, and water environments. Site preparation has begun, and a virtual version exists here. 

Dr. Mark E. Gebhart, associate professor at Wright State's Boonshoft School of Medicine and director of the NCMR, estimates that over a five-year period Calamityville will directly and indirectly generate $374 million for the Miami Valley region. It will directly and indirectly create approximately 35 new jobs and when calculating the construction components will impact another 344 jobs. Plus, he says in an economic impact assessment, there will be spin-off revenue to the region from increased tourism and overnight stays, increased sales and income tax revenues, and related growth.

On a related note, this month, the NCMR became one of six emergency preparedness training facilities in the U.S. to test the American Medical Association's Core Disaster Life Support Course, an introduction to "all hazards" preparedness for first responders, local officials and the public.

Source: Cindy Young, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Imagine a material that conducts electricity at 100 times the speed of silicon -- the standard material used in computer circuits. Now, THAT would be a fast machine, wouldn't it?

However, the substance -- known as graphene -- has uses beyond the computer world. Dayton-based Nanotek Instruments, whose researchers patented the material in 2002, says nano-graphene platelets (NGPs) show special promise in such applications as batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, composites -- even as a shield against lightning strikes.

Bor Jang, co-founder of Nanotek Instruments and its production subsidiary Angstron Materials, says Angstron is the largest producer of NGPs in the world. He says the future looks bright: Experts say graphene has the potential to replace nano carbon tubes in many applications because it has the highest intrinsic strength and highest thermal conductivity of any known material. Depending on how material using NGPs is made, it can serve as a conductor or an insulator -- and It can also be mass-produced cost-effectively when compared to carbon nano-tubes.

While Angstron continues to mass-produce NGPs for a variety of customers, including composite compounders (those who combine engineered resins to meet specific applications) and specialty fabric or fiber producers, Jang sees some of the highest potential as a material used in advanced and alternative energy. Nanotek received a $350,000 commercialization grant last year from the Ohio Third Frontier to develop NGP electrodes for lithium ion batteries and other energy storage applications. If successful, the project will help get electric vehicle manufacturers over an important technical hurdle -- giving an electric vehicle the burst of power it needs for rapid acceleration.

Nanotek moved to the Dayton area five years ago from North Dakota with two employees. Today, the company has 16.

Source: Bor Jang, Nanotek
Writer: Gene Monteith

If today's climate favors wind energy, WebCore Technologies may be the barometer.

The Miamisburg company, formed in 1991, went commercial in late 2004 and 2005 with its innovative TYCOR material, says Rob Banerjee, the company's vice president of business development.

TYCOR, a fiber reinforced composite core, is used in a variety of industries. One of WebCore's largest customers builds a cargo ship for the Navy -- using components made of TYCOR. Other military applications include military shelters, in which WebCore materials have been used for several years. And the company is working with the Air Force to develop a portable runway that would allow a plane to land where no official runway exists.

But wind turbine blades is where WebCore sees the real growth potential.

Most wind turbine blades to date have been built with balsa wood or PVC foam core, Banerjee says. "Our business has been to replace balsa wood or PVC foam with TYCOR. It's a better product, lighter weight, lower cost, makes a stronger blade, more reliable supply, so that's our primary focus."

In 2008, when it received its first wind-related order, WebCore quadrupled its capacity and ran 22 hours a day, six days a week. Like a lot of companies, WebCore's business fell off during the 2009 economic downturn, but Banerjee says things are looking better for 2010.

Funding from the Ohio Third Frontier -- a $1-million advanced energy grant last year to further develop its wind-related capabilities and participation another Third Frontier-funded project to develop a composite tower for wind turbines -- has helped put the company in the thick of things.

The company employs 32.

Source: Rob Banerjee, WebCore
Writer: Gene Monteith

Adding next-generation wind production to Ohio's energy mix presents several technical problems, but one boils down to this: Getting to the best wind will take taller towers, and using steel structures to get there will add significant weight and transportation costs.

But what if we could make the towers on site using lighter-weight composites? A new $1-million Ohio Third Frontier grant is aimed at finding out.

Managing the project is Ershigs, a Bellingham, Wash.-based company with expertise in building composite structures on site and which has operations near Manchester, Ohio. Other partners include the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) and Edison Materials Technology Center in Dayton; Miamisburg-based WebCore, which makes engineered core materials for composite sandwich structures; Owens Corning's Columbus operations, which make an advanced, high-strength glass fiber; and Ashland Performance Materials in Dublin, which makes high-performance resins. A successful project could lead to new Ohio jobs, partners say.

UD, WebCore and Owens-Corning worked on an earlier Third Frontier project that looked at new markets for advanced materials in a variety of areas -- including windmill blades, says Brian Rice, Division Head for Multi-Scale Composites and Polymers at UDRI.

"And we also funded an engineering study to say does it make sense to make towers with composites . . . and we wanted to find out at what point does it make economic sense to switch from steel to composites."

Steve Hettick, a vice president of manufacturing for Ershigs, says the first year of the two-year grant period will be concerned primarily with "technical development and with materials testing validation." He said the team will perform extensive computer modeling and build sample laminates to first prove out the design. Eventually, the team's objective is to build and test a full-scale tower.

Sources: Brian Rice, UDRI and Steve Hettick, Ershigs
Writer: Gene Monteith

Marge Murphy is a born-and-bred New Yorker. With degrees in engineering and computer science, she eventually rose to New England regional sales manager for a New Jersey company.

Children came along, and Murphy decided to give up her hectic travel schedule to stay at home. Then "my husband arrives home one day from work and says 'we're going to move to Ohio.'"

Little did she know that her husband's change of employers would change her future.

"One of their product managers approached me a couple of years after we were here and said Marge, we have a new project, a product we're looking to launch, and you've got some sales experience, you've got the technical expertise, could you call 25 clients, introduce the new product and get some feedback?"

Good work begat good work and the jobs grew larger. Acadia Lead Management was born.

"It's a mixture of lead qualification and market intelligence," says Murphy, the company's president. The company connects with respondents to a client's marketing activities and filters them, she says. "Those that are not sales-ready stay in our process and we continue to nurture them and build a knowledge database for our clients."

Launched in 1999, Acadia has five employees and 35 to 40 consultants around the country. It was named among the fastest-growing companies in revenues by the Dayton Business Journal last year and picked up a new award in January: "Rookie Business of the Year."

"About four years I incorporated," explains Murphy, "so was still considered a rookie business."

Source: Marge Murphy
Writer: Gene Monteith

You've seen it in countless movies -- the soldier carrying his injured comrade off the battle field over his shoulder.

Turns out that is exactly the wrong thing to do, and a Miamisburg company has patented an invention that will make rescuing injured military or emergency personnel much safer.

Dan Hassall, president and founder of Daytac -- a military and police tactical equipment research and development company -- says the company has invented new body armor that converts into a stretcher when necessary to safely transport injured military, police or firefighting personnel out of danger.

The stretcher is lightweight (only 10 ounces),  flexible and is folded into the bullet-proof vest worn by the soldier or police officer until it is needed in an emergency.

"It's made to stabilize the spine and neck to prevent more injuries," says Hassall, who founded his company in 2004 after 15 years with the Dayton Police Department.

Hassall says he has heard of many emergency and military personnel who were further injured when they were moved hastily after being struck in the field, or who were left in harm's way because it was not safe to move them.

"They said if they had had something like (our stretcher) they could have saved lives."

Hassall says he is working with the U.S. Army and Navy to get the flexible stretcher added as standard equipment. He is also hoping many police and firefighting units will adopt it and he also plans to find international buyers for it.

"We could be looking at millions of vests in production eventually," says Hassall, who has contracted with manufacturers in Ohio to make the stretcher, and says he expects to add two to four employees in the near future as production expands. The company now has  six.

The vest would add about $50 to the cost of a regulation $2,000 bullet proof best, he says.

Source: Dan Hassell, Daytac
Writer: Val Prevish

Doctors have long been able to evaluate neurological disorders like Parkinson's and ALS. What they haven't been able to pinpoint are many of the specific nerve-connection changes that lead to those problems.

The Wright State University and Premier Health Partners Neuroscience Institute is poised to change all that. Late last month, Wright State and Premier Health announced a partnership that will create the $22-million state-of-the-art institute and a new department of neurology within Wright State's Boonshoft School of Medicine.

Molly Hall, chief academic officer and vice president of academic affairs for Premier Health, says the institute will provide both a residency training program in neurology within Premier Health's hospital system and a mechanism for moving Wright State research into clinical trials. Such a program will help keep medical graduates in the region, attract new talent, and move the region toward national leadership in the neurosciences, she says.

The institute will focus on neurological problems that lead to movement disorders, says Tim Cope, director of the new institute and professor and chair of department of neuroscience, cell biology and physiology at Wright State.

As many as 95 new jobs will be created initially, but Cope says the ability to marry research with clinical trials will pave the way for  federal grants -- and more jobs and funding.

Premier Health will contribute $4.35 million over five years to form the new neurology department at Wright State; a department chair is to be named by the end of the year. The residency program is expected to be in place within four to five years. WSU, meanwhile, is raising $22 million for the 64,000-square-foot laboratory from state, federal and private sources.

Sources: Molly Hall, Premier Health Partners and Tim Cope, Boonshoft School of Medicine
Writer: Gene Monteith

Aileron in Tipp City is to private businesses what a pair of ailerons are to the wings of an airplane: help for a steady, successful flight.

This non-profit organization, created in 1996 by former IAMS owner Clay Mathile (originally called the Center for Entrepreneurial Education), offers valuable resources in the form of both knowledge and facilities. Its mission: "to create an environment for owners of private enterprise to implement professional management."

For example, in April, June and August (February's session is sold out) Aileron will conduct "The Course for Presidents." Topics include leadership, strategy, culture, people development, structure, and business controls. Other upcoming programs: "Becoming an Effective Board Member" and "Keeping Your Company Sellable."

And because many fledgling firms focus on their work and not their environment, Aileron lets them rent meeting space in the organization's 70,000-square-foot building on 114 acres near Dayton.

Mathile knows a thing or two about what makes commerce tick. Besides IAMS, he's worked for General Motors and Campbell's Soup.

"I believe that entrepreneurs perform the most noble acts of anyone in a free society. By putting their capital at risk and creating jobs for others, they keep the Great American Dream alive," Mathile says on the Aileron web site. "We believe that those who engage themselves in all that we endeavor to share will grow in knowledge and passion to take their business and their dreams to the next level.

About 1,500 companies have accessed Aileron's offerings. They come from a range of industries � excavating, information management, dining and elder care, to name a few.

Aileron employs 20, plus uses guest facilitators. The Client Advisory Council facilitates dialogue between users and Aileron personnel to ensure quality and spark fresh concepts.

Source: Kelly McCracken, Aileron
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs