Cleveland : Innovation + Job News

Rapid Charge Technologies, LLC says its patented technology can charge off-the-shelf batteries in minutes.

The Cleveland-based company, formed last year, is a subsidiary of Potential Difference, Inc. (PDI), Nevada, which designed and built an all-electric car with a top speed over 100 mph and a range of 140 miles. The Acura TL body and chassis has an all-electric drive train powered by 40-kilowatt hours of lithium ion batteries, rechargeable in about three hours.

Results verified by the University of Akron show recharge times as low as 31 minutes for lead acid batteries and 19 minutes for relatively inexpensive lithium ion phosphate batteries in all-electric and hybrid automobiles. RCT is formalizing its go-to-market strategy and identifying potential partners and alliances.

A $2 billion firm, with one third of the forklift market, has evaluated RCT's test data and agreed to test the technology. A distributor for a leading fast-food chain and a battery manufacturer have also agreed to a test.

PDI received a $500,000 U. S. Department of Energy Fiscal 2011 Appropriations grant for work to be done (in part) at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. In July of 2009, RCT received a $25,000 grant from the Lorain County Community College Innovation Fund to develop the initial prototype in collaboration with the University of Akron. PDI received $85,000 for further development and testing from North Coast Opportunities.

At the moment Elliott Small, Jr., president and founder, says he is the only full-time employee, with everyone else being "some kind of a contractor."

"We expect that before the end of 2011 we should have orders for the [forklift] chargers, with hiring beginning toward the end of the year," says Small.

Source: Elliott C. Small, Jr., Rapid Charge Technologies
Writer: Patrick G. Mahoney

As millions of Americans opt for joint replacement surgeries each year, new composite materials and new surgical practices are contributing to more successful outcomes than ever. Still, one complication -- nerve damage -- remains a chief concern for surgeons.

Now, a Cleveland-based medical company has introduced a tool to help doctors choose what tissue to cut during surgery, and more importantly, what not to cut.

The Checkpoint Stimulator/Locator, developed by orthopedic surgeons and biomedical engineers from medical technology incubator company NDI Medical, is a small, hand-held device that allows doctors to electrically stimulate muscles and nerves during the operation, mapping their location and health. Designed to be used with one hand, the single-use device has a small probe at its front that allows the surgeon to highly target specific nerves, or test nerves and muscle tissue at varying depths through regional stimulation.

The result is more complete neurological picture for doctors, and fewer complications for patients.

The stimulator is the flagship product of Checkpoint Surgical, spun out from NDI Medical in August 2009 to market the new device. Checkpoint Surgical was launched with a $1.1-million investment from Cleveland-based venture development organization JumpStart and has since picked up additional investments as the stimulator's potential has become clear. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its use last fall, and the company embarked on a pilot launch through select hospitals throughout the country.

"Satisfaction with the Checkpoint Stimulator has been almost 100 percent, which is uncommon for a new product," says Checkpoint Surgical President and CEO Len Cosentino. "Of the 40 surgeons that have used it so far, the overwhelming majority of them have been very happy with the device."

Several of the hospitals involved in the pilot launch have already stepped up with orders for more of stimulators, he adds.

Source: Len Cosentino, Checkpoint Surgical
Writer: Dave Malaska

Wireless technology already helps us with everyday tasks like changing TV channels, making phone calls and surfing the web. Before long, it will help people stay alive, too.

Endotronix Inc. is developing a system that enables doctors to monitor a patient's status remotely and therefore, be able to intervene quicker when life-saving action must be taken due to conditions such as hypertension, abdominal aortic aneurysms and congestive heart failure.

The system uses miniaturized wireless and implantable pressure sensors licensed from Cleveland's NASA Glenn Research Center in 2008.

The pressure sensors implanted in the patient's body collect valuable data that is sent to a hand-held or wearable device. That device wirelessly transmits the data to the doctor.

The company, which has facilities in Cleveland and Peoria, Ill., got $250,000 from JumpStart Ventures of Cleveland last month.

"We're excited about it," says Michael Lang, of JumpStart, citing the technology's ability to save time and money and extend life.

Endotronix also is a portfolio company of The Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise, a project of the Lorain County Commissioners, Lorain County Community College, and the Ohio Department of Development; and reportedly has gotten $400,000 from a group in Illinois, too.

Source: Michael Lang, JumpStart
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Experts are studying Northeast Ohio's energy opportunities for development of a regional action plan. Long term goal: boost the area's advanced energy industry and create jobs.

Westlake-based Newry Corp., a management consulting firm, and NorTech Energy Enterprise, of Cleveland, want data on energy storage, transportation electrification, smart grid and biomass/waste-to-energy activities.

From this month to July, 2011 they will be collecting information from a wide range of sources using a variety of techniques. The process will help identify the unique strengths of the region in the specific sectors; characterize the global market drivers and opportunities; assess the competitive landscape; and outline regional opportunities for growth, according to NorTech Energy Enterprise.

Nortech engaged Newry after a national competitive search, citing the firm's experience with similar initiatives. Newry, which also has offices in Chicago and New York, was founded in 1987.

Newry's "depth and breadth of market experience and knowledge in advanced energy" qualified it to partner with NorTech for this, Rebecca O. Bagley, president and chief executive officer of NorTech, said in a news release.

NorTech Energy Enterprise is the year-old advanced energy initiative of NorTech, the nonprofit, technology-based economic development organization serving 21 counties.

Source: Kelly C. South, NorTech
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

The Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities (CCBDD) is finding new ways of teaching its clients to become self-sufficient.

With the decline of the area's manufacturing and "sheltered workshops," new jobs are being created in agriculture, retail, the arts, and even doggy daycare.

A so-called "city farm" program uses vacant city land to raise broccoli, tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers as a means of teaching new skills to persons with mental or physical challenges.

The first farm, at East 55th and Stanard, employs 10 of the agency's clients, says Lula Holt-Robertson, general manager of public information and communications for the CCBDD.

Another program operates a "dollar store" called Just-A-Buck in Parma's Midtown Plaza. Unlike the original Dollar Store, everything in Just-A-Buck is just that . . . a buck.

Plans are in place to open two more stores next year. Also slated for next year is a dog daycare and boarding facility. And HeARTworks, a store in the Galleria, markets the artwork of persons with developmental disabilities. Between the programs, from 50 to 75 persons are employed at any one time, Holt-Robertson says. 

Within three to five years, the County hopes to employ 100 clients on ten city farms. A second farm will occupy property owned by City Hall, near the Free Stamp sculpture in Willard Park.

Source: Lula Holt-Robertson, CCBDD.
Writer: Patrick Mahoney

Your fridge conked out and you need it fixed before the roast goes bad. Problem is, the repair company can't say exactly when a technician will be out. Does "sometime between 1 and 5 p.m." sound familiar?

TOA Technologies of Beachwood has tackled the problem by developing a system it says can schedule the repair technician, cable guy or TV installer in a one-hour slot with a 96 percent on-time rate.

On Tuesday, TOA released its 2010 Cost of Waiting Survey, which polled consumers in the U.S., Germany and the UK about their waiting experiences. TOA found that American adults wasted about 2.75 billion hours waiting in the past year � the equivalent of 1 million people being out of work for a year.

The cost to businesses is significant, says President and CEO Yuval Brisker, noting that 21 percent of respondents reported switching companies because of long waits. Nearly half called customer service to complain about their experiences � an additional cost to companies that contract with call centers.

TOA's approach rests on its ability to analyze individual employee performance to understand how long he or she will take for each assignment, Brisker says. Not only does TOA's solution generate employees' daily schedules, but it provides customer notification and tracking functionality, he says. All of which help service companies keep their customers.

Founded in 2003, TOA launched its services in 2004 and has raised $17 million in two rounds of venture capital, including assistance from two Ohio Capital Fund partners: Cleveland-based Early Stage Partners and Draper Triangle Ventures.

Brisker predicts current year revenues to rise 75 to 80 percent over last year. Meanwhile, TOA has grown from two employees in 2004 to 200 worldwide today � about 40 of which will staff the company's new headquarters building when it opens in Beachwood next month.

Source: Yuval Brisker, TOA Technologies
Writer: Gene Monteith

In the early '90s companies in need of material-exposure experiments in space came to Bob Schmidt, the founder of Orbital Research Inc. Schmidt's company would arrange to fly the samples on board the NASA space shuttles.

"Our logo shows a globe with a shuttle flying around it," says Fred Lisy, Orbital president since 1997. "Our goal was to give those new materials systems some pedigree by exposing them to the harsh environment of low Earth orbit . . . We don't do that anymore."

After nine successful shuttle experiments, NASA lost its funding for the program. Schmidt then shifted his focus to Cleveland Medical Devices, leaving Lisy in charge of Orbital.

These days, Orbital's core technologies are aerodynamic controls and microdevices for the aerospace, defense, transportation, medical, and wind turbine industries. Inc. Magazine and the Weatherhead School of Management have recognized the fast-growing company.

The company develops miniature control actuation systems (MCAS) for attitude and flight control for air vehicle platforms. The systems enhance maneuverability, range, and in-flight course corrections while minimizing size, weight, and cost. They have been deployed on hit-to-kill projectiles, fixed-wing vehicles, UAVs and Slender Bodies for enhanced vehicle control.

"I work on everything from unmanned air vehicles, roughly six inches by six inches by 12 inches, to medical monitoring systems to combat obesity, and weapons steering systems for munitions ranging in size from 40mm to 155mm rounds," Lisy says.

Orbital received $175,000 from the state through the Ohio Third Frontier's Research Commercialization Grant Program and raised over $1 million in matching funds. The product is a FDA approved disposable dry Electrocardiograph (ECG) Recording Electrode that requires little or no skin-surface preparation.

Orbital has 23 employees with annual sales of about 3 million dollars, but expects significant growth.

Source: Fred Lisy, Orbital Research
Writer: Patrick Mahoney

The algae may not be greener on the other side. Executives at Algisys LLC are looking at sites in Ohio for the Cleveland biotech startup's first manufacturing plant.

No timeline or other details about the site selection process have been disclosed.

Algisys specializes in cost-effective growth and harvesting of algae for the production of nutritional oils and high protein biomass. These " algal omega-3 oils" and high protein additives are used for the multi-billion-dollar supplement, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, pet food, and animal feed markets.

Current industry practice is to obtain the nutritional oils from fish, which eat algae.

Algisys has an exclusive global license on the intellectual property and technology created at Virginia Tech by Dr. Zhiyou Wen, its chief science officer, over a 12-year period.

Things are moving fast for the company incorporated in July, 2009.

"We have letters of intent from prospective customers, we are looking at manufacturing facilities in Ohio, we have secured new funding, and we will be one of the presenters at the Ohio Early Stage Summit VI put on by the Ohio Capital Fund," said Matthew M. Minark, vice president of business development.

Algisys has received funding from BioEnterprise in Cleveland, the Center for Innovative Food Technology in Toledo, and Tower Wealth Management in Shaker Heights.

Plus, this summer, Algisys got funding from the Cuyahoga County New Product Development and Entrepreneurship Loan Fund; this spring it was awarded a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Phase I grant.

Sources: Matthew M. Minarik and Charles L. Roe, Algisys LLC
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

A $5-million federal grant is aimed at revving up the skills of Ohio's displaced auto and other workers, training them for jobs in the growing bioscience world.

The grant was awarded to BioOhio, a nonprofit, Columbus-based bioscience accelerator, for its Ohio Bioscience Industry Workforce Preparedness Project. BioOhio doled grants to Cincinnati State Technical and Community College,  Columbus State Community College,  Cuyahoga Community College, Lakeland Community College,  Owens Community College and Sinclair Community College.

The initiative will take place over three years, and more than $2.8 million of grant has been set aside for tuition reimbursement and trainee scholarships

The dollars will be used to create new programs or build on new ones at the colleges, which are partnering with employers and labor, workforce development and non-profit organizations to develop programs to retrain and identify workers in Ohio's auto and other declining industries.

The program is focused not just on education and training but moving people into jobs through the public and private partnerships says Dr. Bill Tacon, Senior Director, Workforce & Education at BioOhio.

"We will help them find a job. We're not simply training and just letting them go. Each has an industry advisory board, and when we got the grant the industry advisory board signed a letter of commitment saying they are looking at new potential hires," Tacon says.

The program has a goal of retraining 660 displaced or underemployed workers in declining industries

Northeast Ohio is leading the charge, because the region's colleges have several programs in place that likely will spread to other campuses, Tacon says. For example, Cuyahoga Community College and partners have a medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing program that could be implemented across the state.

Source: Bill Tacon, BioOhio
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Founded in 1995, Dovetail Solar and Wind began modestly, installing solar systems for rural-Ohio residents seeking to go off-the-grid. Solar panels were incredibly expensive � but still a substantial savings for many who could not afford to have a utility company run power to their homes.

A little federal and state legislation changed everything. For the better.

"Prior to 2006, it was almost all residential," says Dovetail vice president Alan Frasz. "The (Energy Policy Act of 2005) offered a 30 percent tax credit. Businesses took notice."

Then, a second tremendous boost for the company, Frasz says, came from the renewable portfolio standard bill that Ohio approved in 2008, requiring 25 percent of the state's energy to be generated from alternative and renewable sources.

"We doubled our business," he adds. "We've been growing quite a bit in the last in few years."

A member of the University of Toledo Clean and Alternative Energy Incubator, Dovetail now provides energy systems for solar electric, solar thermal and wind � and has installed 175 systems such across Ohio and its neighboring states.

"We expect to finish the year between six and seven millions dollars in sales," Frasz says. "In a worldwide economy, the beauty of renewable energy is that the wind and sun are free. They don't put out any pollution � and renewable energy creates clean, green jobs in Ohio, as opposed to other places."

There are now offices in all corners of Ohio: Athens, Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. In 2006, there were just a handful of people employed with the company. There are now 32 full time employees, but Frasz says that number could hit 50 by the end of 2011.

"Rather than having this money going out of the state and burning in a smoke-stack, let's take some of that and put it into renewable energy," Frasz says.

Source: Alan Frasz, Dovetail Solar
Writer: Colin McEwen

ZIN Technologies traces its roots back to 1957, the days of the Cold War and the great "Space Race" between the U.S. and the former USSR. Back then, the company provided aerospace design and fabrication services to NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), the forerunner of NASA. Then, in 1961, ZIN received its first NASA contracts -- and has never looked back.

Today, the Cleveland company specializes in man-rated, space-flight hardware design, development, fabrication and operations. The company has developed more than 133 payloads, which have logged thousands of hours in-orbit. Zin also transfers its advanced engineering service and products, developed for space flight, to other specialized markets such as aeronautics and medicine.

"We are one of a few small businesses with the expertise and core competencies to provide space flight hardware from development through operations," says Carlos Grodsinsky, vice president of technology.

While ZIN made its name in outer space, the company recently has gone where it had not gone before: the biomedical industry. ZIN partnered with the Cleveland Clinic to form ZIN Medical, a remote patient management company. Ohio Third Frontier funding helped the company commercialize its services and ZIN is currently seeking venture capital financing.

"We are commercializing remote physiologic health-monitoring technology that we jointly developed for the tracking and management of astronaut crews in-orbit," says Grodsinsky.

Over the past few years the company has boasted double-digit growth and increased its headcount to about 200. ZIN expects continued growth in 2011.

Source: Carlos Grodsinsky, ZIN Technologies.
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

Wendell Turner is no newcomer to the food service business, starting in 1981 in supplies and equipment and, later, as a packager and distributor of foods. In 1990, he discovered a gap in the ethnic foods arena and founded Heritage Fare, a successful, Atlanta-based packager and distributor of down-home Southern cooking.

Despite his previous successes, Turner was always looking for more volume.

"That's what led us to the Garrett Morgan program through NASA," he says. And that's how Cleveland-based HF Food Technologies was born.

The NASA program, which helps small businesses identify new technologies for commercialization, alerted him to a US Department of Agriculture-developed product that replaces existing fats with a substitute called Fantesk -- a mixture of starch, water, and one or more oily substances.

The value? The substitute can replace unhealthy fats in meats, pastries and other foods while preserving flavor, mouthfeel and reducing fat for consumers.

Now licensed by Turner's HF Food Technologies under the name Nutrigras, the substitute has made its way into the marketplace. Assisted with an initial $250,000 investment from JumpStart, HF Food Technologies is working "primarily with beef, pork and more recently bakery products," Turner says.

"If you could take a ground sirloin steak, you could take 15 percent of the meat block out and replace it with 15 percent of the Nutrigras," Turner explains. "And in bakery products, we've shown reductions of up to 80 percent in butterfat."

Turner, who is CEO of both HF Food Technologies and Heritage Fare, says the product is being sold through distributors and "we have a number of restaurants that are using the product. And we just received one of the most important certifications for us -- the Ohio Department of Agriculture."

HF Food Technologies is located in mid-town Cleveland, was formed in 2005 and currently has five employees.

Source: Wendell Turner, HF Food Technologies
Writer: Gene Monteith

Take a quick look around you. Chances are good that something you'll see has a part in it made by Ferro in Cleveland. That's because Ferro is almost everywhere. In fact, the computer on which you're reading this issue of hiVelocity probably contains some Ferro parts. Ferro parts are also in your cell phone and in your car.

Ferro was established in 1919 to produce porcelain enamel frit. Today, Ferro is a leading global supplier of advanced materials for a broad range of manufacturers. What Ferro makes today enhances the performance of products in the electronics, major appliances, building and renovation, pharmaceuticals and industrial markets.

Ferro manufacturers and markets electronic materials in the form of high-purity powders, pastes, and tapes for many electronic applications. It also supplies innovative glass colors and coatings, which add value to automotive, flat and container glass in the global market.

Ferro's Pfanstaiehl Laboratories produce high purity chemistry for health and beauty products. Polymer additives by Ferro improve the characteristics of plastics. Ferro is one of the world's largest suppliers of porcelain enamel, which protects cookware, small and large appliances, and building panels.

Ferro also makes liquid colors, dispersions, gelcoats and CordoBond plastic colorants for filled and reinforced plastics. Finally, Ferro is the world's leading supplier of ceramic glaze coating and a major supplier of ceramic color.

The company has grown to 5,200 employees around the world.

Source: Ferro
Writer: Lynne Meyer

The Cleveland HeartLab is taking its life-saving technology to heart. A real heart, that is.

The company � affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic � has developed a profile of tests focused on managing and reducing inflammation, a root cause of heart disease.

Using an enzyme immunoassay (a biochemical technique used to detect the presence of an antibody in a sample), CHL uses its CardioMPO technology to test for myeloperoxidase in human plasma.

The product received its FDA approval in May of 2005 for use on the market. Cleveland HeartLab purchased that technology in Nov. 2009 from Cleveland-based PrognostiX.

Cleveland HeartLab, located on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic, bills itself as a specialty clinical laboratory and disease management company focused on novel molecular biomarker technologies and the creation of proprietary diagnostic tests.
But the company doesn't stop there. CHL also runs a research and development laboratory where next-generation cardiovascular disease biomarkers are being developed for use in the clinical community.

CHL has a significant pipeline of tests protected by exclusive intellectual property and target large, under-addressed markets. In addition, an agreement with the Cleveland Clinic provides the company access to intellectual property developed at the Clinic in the areas of cardiovascular and inflammatory biomarkers.

The company is keeping itself busy. In August 2010, the HeartLab hosted the summer symposium "Where Inflammation Meets Lipids," with doctors attending from all over the world.

"Things are going great," says CHL spokeswoman Rachele Rhea. "We are super swamped right now."
 
Source: Rachele Rhea, Cleveland HeartLab 
Writer: Colin McEwen