World Top 100 Innovation Award Winners Announced

12 Aug 09

The recipients of the 2009 R&D 100 awards have been announced. These awards salute the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year. Here are a list of just some of the winners in the metals and materials, mechanical devices, consumer products, electrical devices, energy devices, and safety equipment categories.

Metals and Materials

Materials science helps us develop the building blocks of next generation buildings, cars, bridges…pretty much whatever we choose to make. Many of the newest metals and materials processing techniques.

Composite within a composite boosts carbide toughness

The Univ. of Utah and Smith Technology, Smith International Inc. has introduced a major change to a drilling and machining tool material—cemented tungsten carbide—that can tackle some of the toughest infrastructure tasks.

Powder coatings gain color, lose wasteful inefficiencies

PPG Industries introduced a proprietary manufacturing process for powder coatings that eliminates the inefficiencies associated with the process. Duranar Powder Coatings are created by dispersing the resins, pigments, and other additives that make up a coating in water.

Nanomaterials increase wear plate toughness

The NanoSteel Company developed the Super Hard Steel Wear Plate for mining, processing and industrial applications, by going small. The SHS 9700 and SHS 9800 overlay wear plate system is formed by a carbon steel or low alloy steel substrate with a highly engineered weld overlay.

Nanostructures help polymers go with the flow

POSS Flow Additives from Hybrid Plastics, Inc. are a family of high temperature, nanostructured chemicals used as alloying agents to increase the flow of thermoplastic polymers, especially for high performance, high temperature thermoplastic polymers.

The Ford Mustang has seats of soy

After long period of development, Ford Motor Company and Lear Corp. recently began an industry-first use of functionalized soybean oil in the manufacture of flexible, polyurethane foam for automotive seating.

Olefin polymer an alternative to toxin-laden PVC

Flex Olé TPO Polymers from Dynamic Modifiers LLC are a family of environmentally sustainable, custom engineered thermoplastic olefin (TPO) resin systems that can be used to replace flexible polyvinyl chloride (PVC) compositions without disruption to the existing polymer extrusion.

Battle against damaging heat finds new hero

CarAl heat transfer material, developed by Applied Nanotech Inc. and Advanced Material Technologies Co. Ltd overcomes technical impasses of conventional heat transfer materials in its combination of heat diffusivity, high heat conductivity, low density, and thermal coefficient of expansion similar to electronics packaging materials.

Holey platinum brightens outlook for fuel cells

NanoCoral Dendritic platinum nanostructures for renewable energy applications are the first shaped Pt nanostructures, offering an opportunity for improving the cost and efficiency of fuel cells. The nanostructures are produced by controlling the dendritic metal growth that occurs during the chemical reduction of various types of aqueous platinum complexes, resulting in 3 nm metal arms separated by space of about 1 nm.

Organic thermal material changes phase, stalls fire

A new Fire-Resistive Phase Change Material developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Microtek Laboratories, and Advanced Fiber Technology, is the first organic PCM that can be applied in U.S. buildings without increasing their flammability.

Corrosion resistance taken to the next level

AFA: Alumina-Forming Austenitic Stainless Steels, developed by materials researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, represent a new class of high-temperature alloys that feature an increased upper-temperature oxidation (corrosion) limit that is greater or equal than 50°C to 200°C higher than that of conventional stainless steels.

Discovery of the third bandgap model

Single crystal silicon is the standard material for prevailing chipsets, but NASA Langley Research Center has developed a semiconductor material for ultrafast microelectronic applications that carries charge mobility to a new level while at the same time revealing an entirely new bandgap engineering technology.

Alternating blocks put polymers on performance path

A new catalytic block technology developed by The Dow Chemical Company has opened the door to a new type of block copolymers, with predictable, controllable chains of various type of blocks.

Mechanical Devices

From wheel bearings to robots, the field of mechanics is open to continued innovation. Strides in computing and automation have helped us build astonishingly complex mechanical devices.

Energy savings found in the labyrinth

The EcoTurn Seal was created by The Timken Company and the Federal Mogul Corp. as a way to save a sizable portion of energy expenditure. The seal uses non-contact labyrinth technology comprised of an elastomer seal element molded onto a stamped metal case and stamped metal shield component.

Magnetic bearings contained at last

To help companies experience some of the savings in mechanical wear, energy usage, and the lack of need for lubrication, Synchrony Inc. developed its Fusion Magnetic Bearing. Through design innovations, the complexity of the magnetic bearing system is hidden both to the designer and operator of the machine.

Consumer Devices

Not every revolutionary innovation recognized by R&D is intended for the lab or factory. Some have already found their way into consumers' hands.

Compact digital camera features SLR imaging

The World’s Smallest Interchangeable Lens Lumix System Camera, Model No. DMC-G1 from DSC Business Unit, Network Business Group, AVC Networks Company, Panasonic Corporation represents a new classification of digital camera: a compact, lightweight, digital SLR with a movable LCD screen, which offers the ease of use of a compact with the image quality of an SLR and interchangeable lenses.

Flexible heat exchangers get performance edge from graphite

GrafIHX RX Series Flexible Heat Exchangers from GrafTech International differ from conventional rigid aluminum plates in that they are made of graphite. This helps make them flexible and easy to cut, which reduces installation time. It also reduces overall costs, in both materials and energy savings.

Electrical Devices

Electrical devices run a wide gamut from computing to power supply to test and measurement equipment. The unifying principle is the use of electricity to enable creative solutions.

Solution heals damaged wires

Developed by the Univ. of Dayton Research Institute and Pinnacle System, PATCH—Power Activated Technology for Conductor Healing—is an applied aqueous solution or an inner insulation layer that enables powered wires to self-heal conductors exposed by damaged insulation.

Small processor enables mobile society

Intel Corporation’s Intel Atom Processor, featuring Intel's smallest processor and built with the world's smallest transistors, gives device makers and software vendors the ability to innovate around a low-power design that enables users to take the Internet wherever they go.

Silicon carbide powers higher temperatures

The High-temperature Silicon Carbide (SiC) Power Module developed by Sandia National Laboratories and partners is the world’s first commercial module of its kind. The 50 kW (1200 V/150 A peak) silicon carbide power modules are rated up to 250°C junction temperature versus the 150ºC limit for silicon technology.

Safety is buried in lithium battery

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Planar Energy Devices’ PowerPlane UX combines a solid-state lithium battery with a buried-anode architecture—invented at the NREL—to form an intrinsically safe, rechargeable microbattery with an extremely long lifetime.

FemtoScope expands time

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s FemtoScope is a “time microscope” that uses a single-shot, real-time process to stretch out the waveform and capture rare events that are difficult to reproduce.

Energy Devices

Energy is an unsurprisingly busy field of R&D, giving rise to creative solutions including nanostructured batteries, novel solar cells, and unusual fuels.

Self-terminating technology holds Li-ion energy in check

STOBA Battery Technology, pioneered by the Industrial Technical Research Institute, employs a self-terminating oligomer in its hyper-branched battery architecture to minimize the risk of internal short-circuits that lead to thermal runaway.

Leftover crops fuel ethanol production via mold

A new process pioneered at Iowa State Univ. and being commercialized by MycoInnovations is based on the leftovers from crop processing or on ammonia delignified lignocellulosic material coupled with two fungi fermentations and catalytic ultrasonication.

Thermal changes harnessed for perpetual power

With no parts to wear out, the Perpetua Power Puck, invented by a team from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Perpetua Power Technologies, Inc. is an environmentally-friendly power source able to provide sustained power to small electronic devices.

Inexpensive solar collector revamps cost structure

The SkyTrough Parabolic Trough Solar Concentrating Collector was designed to overcome these cost barriers of traditional solar cells by using a new reflector material: a weather-proof, low-cost, high-reflectance polymeric film instead of the traditional heavy, glass-based mirror.

High-efficiency solar cells, no organic material required

Nanocrystal Solar Cells developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Solexant is an ultra-thin solar cell based on dense nanocrystal films with no organic materials.

Electromagnetic data collection goes 3-D

To map the oceanic subsurface, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory combined computing power and controlled source electromagnetics (CSEM) to create the EMGeo ElectroMagnetic Geological Mapper to create the first commercially available technology for full 3-D geophysical imaging of industrial-sized EM data.

Pushing the envelope on Li-ion propulsion

The Argonne/Envia Composite Electrode Material Technology to Enable Plug-in Hybrids and All-Electric Vehicles from Argonne National Laboratory and Envia Systems is intended to provide energy and more longevity than any other Li-ion cathode material technology.

Safety Equipment

Today's metrics of performance are inseparable from issues of safety. Managing risk is crucial to services and industry alike, and demand creative solutions.

Aerial platform locates land mines

The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Land Mine Locator is a humanitarian aerial land mine detection platform designed to identify what today’s metal detectors can not.

For more information on these award winners, click here to visit the R&D Awards site.