Environmental Protection Agency Makes Grant Award to NanoMech

Nanoparticle-based Solid-lubricant Coating can Dramatically Reduce Friction

Fayetteville, Arkansas - The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to NanoMech, LLC (www.nanomech.biz) to fund development of a nanoparticle based nature-inspired lubricant coating. One high value application of is for cutting tools. Manufacturers can reduce environmental disposal and other costs associated with liquid coolants by switching to dry machining using NanoMech's nanoparticle solid lubricant coated tools.

Nanoparticles are the smallest scale materials currently available to scientists for industrial applications. They range in size from about 1/1,000th to 1/10,000th the width of a human hair. "A unique nature inspired domes plus reservoirs surface morphology of the coating refreshes the surface of contact with lubricants constantly, leading to significantly reduced friction and wear. In comparison, current state of art for combining the hard phases and soft phases for dry machining is usually in layered structures, where the soft phases wear away quickly leaving only the hard phases behind.," says Ajay P. Malshe, Chief Technology Officer of NanoMech.

"NanoMech's core technology for the creation of nanoparticle-based coatings have a nearly endless number of high commercial potential applications," noted Calvin Goforth, president of Virtual Incubation Company, a technology enterprise development company that is accelerating NanoMech's growth. "Solid lubricant coatings alone represent diverse applications from cutting tools to engine parts and represent only a single sliver on our strategic applications chart - all based on NanoMech's patented and patents pending process."

Nanoparticles' peculiar properties of very high surface area and strong cohesion pose a big challenge to delivery of the materials. Special approaches are required to apply these coatings and NanoMech is at the forefront of creating commercial scale systems. NanoMech is commercializing nanoparticle electrostatic coating technology originally developed by a research team at the University of Arkansas. The commercialization of this innovative technology enables the creation of new classes of nanostructured coatings not otherwise practical with conventional approaches.

This new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award is for $225,000. This is the sixth SBIR award NanoMech has received since the beginning of 2003.