ACT Awarded over $6M in R&D Contracts
Lancaster, PA October 16, 2018 – Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) announced today that it is continuing its rapid technology diversification through multiple R&D contract wins. In 2017 and early 2018, ACT was awarded over 18 new contracts totaling more than 6 million dollars through government-funded Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR), Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) and Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) programs. These contracts were awarded from several different government agencies, including DOE, DOD (Air Force, Navy, Defense Health Agency), NASA, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
According to Dr. Richard Bonner III, Vice President of R&D at ACT, “These awards demonstrate ACT’s continued diversification into R&D areas such as advanced modeling, desalination, combustion, and our continuing development of unique test rigs.” More information on ACT’s R&D can be found on ACT’s R&D page, and ACT’s technical papers.
Notable examples of recent awards include:
- Brackish Water for Condensation Irrigation (USDA)
- Enhanced Dropwise Condensation for Improved Dry Cooling Efficiency (DOE)
- A Novel Process Modeling framework for Linear Friction Welding (Air Force)
- Plasma-Assisted Low-Temperature Combustion and Ignition (DOE)
- Hybrid Heat Pipes for High Heat Flux Applications (NASA)
- Electrically Isolated Hybrid Two-Phase Cooling System (DOE)
- PCM-based Ocean Thermal Energy Harvesting (Navy)
- Solar Thermal Assisted Vacuum Freezing Desalination of Seawater at the Triple Point (DOE)
- Spectrographic Thin Film Measurement Technology for Wafer Process Control (DMEA)
- Loop Thermosyphon Enhanced Solar Collector (DOE EERE)
- Variable View Factor Two-Phase Radiator (NASA)
- Limb Cooling Device to Preserve Ischemic Extremity for Prolonged Field Care (Defense Health Agency)
- Spouted Bed Reactor Designs for Thermal Desorption of Mercury Compounds (DOE)
- Stabilized Particles for Volumetric Energy Density Enhancement of Liquid Fuels (Navy)
- Innovative Technology Development to Enhance Fossil Power System Efficiency (DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory)
This year, ACT has continued to expand its R&D into new areas such as:
- Advanced Computational Modeling
- Desalination
- Combustion and Nanoparticle Enhanced Fuels
- Pumped Two Phase Cooling
- Custom Thermal, Fluid, and Mechanical Systems
- Advanced Coatings
- Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
Many of ACT’s R&D programs are in collaboration with industrial and academic partners. Some of the academic partners in the past year include: Case Western University, Florida State University, Iowa State University, Lehigh University, University of Maryland, Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), UCLA, University of Texas Austin, and the University of Southern California.
In 2011, ACT was awarded a Tibbets award from the Small Business Administration (SBA). SBA presents the awards nationally to small companies and individuals that have advanced technical innovation and economic growth through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
“Many of ACT’s products were initially developed on SBIR and STTR programs, including Constant Conductance Heat Pipes, PCM Heat Sinks, and Copper-Water Heat Pipes for spacecraft thermal control,” said Dr. William Anderson, Chief Engineer for R&D at ACT. “We continue to commercialize SBIR research, most recent with ICE-Lok™, a thermally enhanced wedgelock developed on an Air Force SBIR program. SBIR.Gov has ranked ACT in the 90th percentile for commercializing SBIR/STTR programs.”
For more information about these emerging technologies, visit our website.
ABOUT ACT
ACT specializes in advanced thermal technology development and custom thermal product manufacturing. ACT designs and manufactures PCM heat sinks, cold plates, HiK™ plates, heat pipes, custom thermal, fluid, and mechanical systems, and pumped liquid and two-phase loops for customers in diverse markets including Aerospace, Electronics, Temperature Calibration, Medical Device, and Energy Recovery Systems.
ACT’s team consists of personnel with established track records in technology development, commercialization and production. Many of them were involved in the pioneering work on heat pipes, loop heat pipes and other single and two-phase heat transfer devices. They are the inventors/co-inventors on numerous U.S. and international patents and the authors/co-authors of hundreds of scientific publications.
ACT’s Facility measures more than 200,000 square feet (2025), including office, laboratory and manufacturing spaces. With ISO9001 and AS9100 certified quality system in place, the facility has designed and manufactured high quality, cost effective, thermal management solutions for hundreds of mission critical satellites, and numerous military and commercial applications. ACT’s diverse R&D efforts are developing thermal solutions for tomorrow’s emerging technologies.
For more information about ACT, please visit www.1-ACT.com.