Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania to Invest $1,805,441
The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania Board of Directors approved the investment of $1,805,441 in support of regional economic development.
Ben Franklin announces the following early-stage company investments.
Advanced-Tec Materials, LLC
West Hazleton
BFTP Investment: $100,000
To conduct materials testing to optimize the characteristics of formulations and finalize production equipment requirements. Advanced-Tec produces environmentally sound industrial materials, including insulation and fireproofing materials, using proprietary formulations of recycled coal-combustion fly-ash. These materials exhibit fire- and heat-resistant characteristics that create extremely versatile composites that require no heat curing.
Blue Spark Interactive
Kingston
BFTP Investment: $35,000
To appoint a business consultant to further develop Blue Spark’s strategic plan for vertical market penetration and engage an intellectual property firm to enhance the company’s patent position. Blue Spark has launched “Mom’s Messenger,” a two-way, real-time communications platform that will change the way business professionals communicate. The company’s proprietary technology offers “next-generation” communication to various vertical markets.
CEWA Technologies
Bethlehem
BFTP Investment: $146,000
To complete design, construct, and test a prototype of a new kind of point-concentrated solar power dish that will deliver power at a lower cost due its novel design and the materials used in its construction. The dish, called a toroid solar collector, will be fabricated, assembled, and then tested at Northampton Community College’s Bethlehem campus. The dish is capable of providing thermal power for HVAC, power generation, desalination, and process heat applications at a cost comparable to fossil fuel-based sources of energy.
Discovery Machine
Williamsport
BFTP Investment: $75,000
To develop collateral materials, in the form of text and demonstrations, for entering new markets, attracting partners, and promoting software sales. Discovery Machine (DMI) developed a suite of novel, patented software tools that enable companies to capture, manage, automate, optimize, embed, and network the knowledge found in the experience of their key employees. Companies’ needs to retain the expertise of staff will grow as the “baby boomer” generation continues to move into retirement, taking their institutional knowledge with them. In addition, DMI’s technology helps protect a company’s human capital in the event that it experiences a merger or acquisition, and/or staff recruiting by competition.
EBL International
Bethlehem
BFTP Investment: $100,000
To accomplish key system development tasks and secure important operational partnerships to support EBL’s efforts to deploy its product in China. EBL International is pioneering an innovative employment-based lending model for providing credit cards to working-class people in countries where credit rating systems do not exist. EBL’s custom application will be developed to efficiently facilitate the interactions among employers, workers, banks, and merchants to provide a new approach to employment-based lending.
EthosGen
Dallas
BFTP Investment: $125,000
To develop and beta test on-site renewable biomass-based energy production systems. The systems use new Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) greenhouses to grow high-energy- value crops. These highly efficient, non-edible grasses are harvested and converted into fuels to produce electricity on-site. Current competitive open-field biomass systems cannot be located where the energy is needed, nor can they produce a continuous supply of fuels.
eVendor Check
Hawley
BFTP Investment: $100,000
To further enhance the current software for the company’s web-based customer feedback system for procurement professionals. eVendor Check’s clients reduce risks associated with vendor selection by using patent-pending survey tools and a supporting database, rather than the conventional, less-effective telephone-based method of vendor investigation. eVendor Check will develop automated product features, establish on-line tutorials, and mobile applications to enhance the user experience and increase sales.
Geostellar
Ben Franklin TechVentures, Bethlehem
BFTP Investment: $150,000
To complete a software platform that computes the precise renewable resource potential over vast landscapes, providing location-specific energy intelligence. Geostellar is testing and commercializing a geomatics processing software platform. This platform applies mathematical models to data pertaining to the earth’s atmosphere and surface. The software identifies the best utility-, commercial- and residential-scale solar power sites for particular configurations based upon the resources, land use, transmission, and other factors. Additional software models are under development for natural gas, kinetic hydro-power, advanced biofuel feedstocks, and wind power location analysis.
Gleason Custom Kitchens
Moosic
BFTP Investment: $100,000
To implement operational efficiencies and market development activities at this manufacturer of custom-built and standard cabinetry for residential and commercial applications. This will allow the company to respond to increased sales volume and expand its presence in additional markets.
HealthOneMed
Allentown
BFTP Investment: $50,000
To complete an integrated marketing plan and action plan to commercialize HealthOneMed’s first product. HeathOneMed produces the Dispense-a-Pill (DAP), a patented device that dispenses prescription and non-prescription pills according to a programmed schedule. The DAP combines the features of disparate medication devices including pill boxes, dispensers, and medication alert devices into an integrated intelligent medication management system. Features include audible notification to the individual that it is time to take pills, automatic pill dispensing, and telephone notification to family members and/or caregivers when pills are not taken. HealthOneMed’s DAP addresses the growing issue of accidental medication non-compliance.
Hydro4GE
Scranton
BFTP Investment: $35,000
To complete product beta testing, licensing documentation, and branding necessary for full release of Hydro4GE’s new Online-Development-Environment (ODE) software tool. This platform allows programmers to generate and support whole database systems from high-level specifications. Traditional software construction practices are often repetitive and labor intensive, and thus prone to error. Hydro4GE’s software delivers substantial programmer productivity gains, rapid application prototyping, and dramatic ongoing support efficiencies. This significantly reduces programming time and increases the accuracy in attaining the desired software program functionality.
Makefield Therapeutics
Ben Franklin TechVentures, Bethlehem
BFTP Investment: $50,000
To continue pre-clinical testing toward commercializing Makefield’s innovative, proprietary, nanoparticle-based drug delivery platforms. The company has begun two development efforts in applications that offer extensive market opportunities, with the potential to generate a pipeline of additional medications. The first program is in anti-infectives, therapeutics in which drug resistance is a critical and growing problem in both community and hospital settings. Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be severe, rapidly spreading, and life-threatening, and currently represent a significant burden to worldwide healthcare systems.
rVibe
Ben Franklin TechVentures, Bethlehem
BFTP Investment: $100,000
To continue commercialization of video conferencing services for sales training and other business instruction. rVibe’s software platform provides multi-point, high-definition, live-streaming video conferencing. Through its proprietary, highly interactive services, client companies significantly reduce training costs while retaining the effectiveness of communications.
Snake Creek Lasers
Hallstead
BFTP Investment: $100,000
To experimentally verify a new opto-thermal laser-resonator theory and advance current laser designs to improve output-power tunability and reproducibility over large ranges. Snake Creek Lasers is a premier supplier of miniaturized lasers, laser modules, and high-power cryogenic lasers for defense and commercial applications. This investment will also help the company to identify secondary sources for critical components.
SolarPA
New Tripoli
BFTP Investment: $50,000
To complete proof-of-concept research for a new, proprietary coating that enhances photovoltaic effects and improves the efficiency of solar cells. SolarPA’s single-layer anti-reflection coating improves optical absorption, thermal transport and emission, light concentration, manipulation, emissivity, reflectivity, and scattering, thereby maximizing the solar energy available for conversion into electricity. This results in increases in solar module efficiency up to 10% and reduced manufacturing costs by up to 10% as compared with current silicon-based technology. The reduced manufacturing costs translate to reduced prices to the consumer, thereby enabling broader market adoption of solar energy.
SuccessTSM
Tobyhanna
BFTP Investment: $50,000
To create a graphical user interface for the company’s product that addresses Disaster Recovery Management (DRM) in a cost-effective and affordable manner. SuccessTSM has created a platform that works with IBM’s widely used Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) system to make the DRM process easier, faster, and more reliable through an easy-to-navigate graphical user interface. The product addresses long-identified compatibility issues with the TSM product. The interface will be developed through a series of beta tests, leading to a final product and launch.
Taylored Building Solutions
Taylor
BFTP Investment: $100,000
To develop a distribution channel strategy for marketing construction components to the site-built industry in residential housing. Taylored Building Solutions (TBS) custom manufactures housing components for builders in whatever configuration or degree of completeness they require. TBS will also continue with its previous focus, supplying modular home builders with complete homes, and expand their target market to the site-built industry.
XiGo Nanotools
Bethlehem
BFTP Investment: $100,000
To train partners in high-growth markets in the Asia/Pacific region in the use and marketing of the Acorn Area™ product to enhance sales. Also identify additional distribution partners in the region and introduce products to the Asian technical community at leading conferences. XiGo manufactures the Acorn Area, a patented, shoebox-size device that rapidly measures the wetted surface area of nano-particles using magnetic resonance. Nano-particles are minute; they typically have diameters that are 1/1,000th the diameter of a human hair. Measuring the wetted surface area of nano-particle directly relates to product performance in many industrial applications including energy, electronics, ceramics, and pharmaceuticals. Nanoparticle properties are key predictors of material performance, and currently there are no efficient methods to measure wetted nano-particle surface area.
Ben Franklin announces the following established manufacturer company investments.
Crispin Valve
Berwick
BFTP Investment: $11,600
To determine fluid-flow characteristics for all valve sizes up to a 96” diameter. Crispin Valve manufactures butterfly valves for the municipal water industry, and has designed a new product line which will allow the company to expand its market. Actual flow data will be collected under a series of flow conditions and positions in a flow test facility, allowing for extrapolation to other values based on results.
East Penn Manufacturing Company
Lyon Station
BFTP Investment: $25,000
College Partner: The Emerging Technologies Application Center (ETAC) at Northampton Community College
To develop process-optimization strategies in support of the company’s new advanced battery products. East Penn Manufacturing, the largest manufacturing employer in Berks County, produces thousands of different sizes and types of lead-acid batteries, battery accessories, and wire and cable products for a variety of applications. East Penn seeks to reduce the product drying time while minimizing substrate heat in order to maximize product through-put.
Electro Chemical & Manufacturing Company
Emmaus
BFTP Investment: $15,000
University Partner: Lehigh University
To develop an adhesive that will allow lined vessels used in production to be implemented in applications requiring a greater range of temperature and pressure conditions than the company’s current product line. Electro Chemical Engineering & Manufacturing Company produces thermoplastic- and fluoropolymer-lined steel vessels used to manufacture, distribute, and store corrosive chemicals. The company will work with the Lehigh team to characterize the properties of existing adhesives against the required criteria of the new applications. Once the new adhesive is optimized and tested, the company will transfer the new adhesive to production.
Keystone Potato Products
Hegins
BFTP Investment: $12,500
College Partner: The Emerging Technologies Application Center (ETAC) at Northampton Community College
To conduct a feasibility study to establish the technical and economic viability of a wind energy plant at the Keystone manufacturing site. Keystone produces dehydrated potato flakes and dehydrated potato flour, as well as fresh cut potatoes. The firm currently fuels the plant’s extensive thermal requirements using nearby landfilled gas.
Kraft Foods
Allentown
BFTP Investment: $50,000
University Partner: Lehigh University Enterprise Systems Center
To conduct a baseline sustainability assessment at Kraft’s Lehigh Valley facility to identify opportunities for the implementation of alternative energy sources and greatly improved energy efficiencies for process improvement. Kraft Lehigh Valley produces snacks, confections, and quick meals. It has a strong reputation in the Kraft network for innovation as a facility that develops and implements a pipeline of new approaches.
L&H Sign Company
Reading
BFTP Investment: $11,800
College Partner: The Emerging Technologies Application Center (ETAC) at Northampton Community College
To assess the technical and economic feasibility of a proposed rooftop photovoltaic array to address the energy needs of this producer of commercial signage and merchandising systems. Also evaluate an existing coating, drying, and curing operation to identify additional energy-saving measures while increasing product throughput.
Noble Biomaterials
Scranton
BFTP Investment: $13,650
College Partner: The Emerging Technologies Application Center (ETAC) at Northampton Community College
To conduct a mine pool geothermal feasibility study at the company’s facility site in Lackawanna County. Geothermal processes may be utilized to control the temperature of water used in production and to provide environmental humidity and temperature control in critical areas of the plant. A global leader in bacterial management solutions, Noble Biomaterials develops, manufactures, sells, and markets advanced antimicrobial technologies designed to manage all forms of bacterial contamination for medical, defense, industrial, and consumer markets. Noble’s core technology, X-STATIC®, is a proprietary silver-based antimicrobial solution used for mission-critical applications including advanced wound care, infection control, and odor elimination. Noble has more than 200 licensees, including Johnson & Johnson, NASA, 3M, US Special Operations Command, adidas, and others.
Strong Industries
Northumberland
BFTP Investment: $49,891
University Partner: Lehigh University Enterprise Systems Center
To identify and implement operational improvement opportunities that developed during the company’s recent business transformation and growth. Strong Industries was originally a molder of various consumer goods, including a line of pet products. Since then, Strong has grown significantly and has transformed the company to focus on the pool and spa market. The Lehigh team will generate specific recommendations to improve both the production operation and business processes.
Ward Manufacturing
Blossburg
BFTP Investment: $50,000
University Partner: The Pennsylvania State University
To design, build, install, and implement a demonstration-scale core making machine at Penn State, and a full-scale version at Ward Manufacturing Company. Ward produces malleable and cast iron fittings. The demonstration machine at Penn State will be designed to process low-volatile organic compound (VOC) binders as those binders are optimized. The equipment at Ward will immediately facilitate a 29% reduction in the energy needed to make cores using conventional binders. Energy savings will grow as the low-VOC binders are fully adapted for use by Ward.
Tags: 