Jul 10 2013
The editors of R&D Magazine announced NanoMech’s TuffTek® as a winner of the coveted R&D 100 Award. This award places TuffTek® in an elite class of innovative products and recognizes it as one of the most technologically significant products introduced in the marketplace of the past year.
“2013 has been an excellent year for NanoMech,” Chairman and CEO Jim Phillips said. “The company continues to gain momentum and receiving the ‘Oscar of Innovation’(as the award is commonly referred to in the industry) is a tremendous honor for the NanoMech team.”
TuffTek® has redefined and revolutionized the cutting tool industry by significantly improving the heat resistance of the tools as well as their precision and wear resistance. TuffTek® performance increases represent a monumental improvement in the cutting tools industry and are due in large part to the new product’s nano-composite patents using bio-inspired and nano-engineered technology for advanced machining of automotive and aerospace components.
As the world economy begins to ramp back up, it is the innovators, Phillips notes, who will help drive results, efficiencies and ultimately profitability. “TuffTek® is a ground-breaking product that is manufactured using Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM). When applied to cutting tools, TuffTek® dramatically increases the tool’s precision cutting performance, durability and sustainability while significantly decreasing the company’s costs to manufacture. It is a win-win product, for the customer, the market and the environment.”
Deborah Wince-Smith, CEO of the Council on Competitiveness (www.compete.org) and also a member of NanoMech’s Board of Directors, praises NanoMech for their innovative work. “In a world of turbulence, transition and transformation, nothing matters more to the competitiveness of companies and countries than innovation and manufacturing prowess. The ability to develop and deploy the most cutting-edge tools and products to bolster U.S. advanced manufacturing will deliver outsized benefits to the U.S. industrial base. NanoMech and TuffTek® are at the leading edge of a resurgent U.S. manufacturing capability - one that is not dumb, dirty, dangerous and disappearing; but is smart, safe, sustainable and surging.”
Dr. Ajay Malshe, Chief Technology Officer and Founder, was honored by the award and immediately thought of those with whom he has worked. “NanoMech could not have received this prestigious award without the tireless work of our world-class team of scientists, including Dr. Wenping Jiang, Vice President of Manufacturing. I would also like to thank the teams at the Nano Materials Science and Engineering Institute (Mechanical Engineering) at the University of Arkansas, the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency for their contributions over the years.”
NanoMech is the only Arkansas company on the 2013 Top 100 list.
The R&D Top 100 list was established in 1963 and over the past 51 years has recognized such revolutionary products as the flashcube (1965), the automated teller machine (1973), the halogen lamp (1974), the fax machine (1975), the liquid crystal display (1980), the Kodak Photo CD (1991), Taxol anticancer drug (1993), lab on a chip (1996), and HDTV (1998). More recent breakthroughs that have earned R&D 100 Awards include next-generation magnetic resonance imaging machines, laser-based metal-forming tools, and the building blocks for fusion experiments.
About the R&D 100 Awards
Widely recognized as the “Oscars of Innovation,” the R&D 100 Awards identify and celebrate the top technology products of the year. Past winners have included sophisticated testing equipment, innovative new materials, chemistry breakthroughs, biomedical products, consumer items, and high-energy physics. The R&D 100 Awards spans industry, academia, and government-sponsored research.
About R&D Magazine
Since its founding in 1959 as Industrial Research, R&D Magazine has served research scientists, engineers and technical staff at laboratories around the world, providing timely, informative news and useful technical articles that broaden readers’ knowledge of the research and development industry and improve the quality of their work. R&D Magazine is a publication of Advantage Business Media.