Inovati to Develop Green Metal Coating Technology, Nov, 17,1999

Company Awarded BMDO SBIR Contract to Produce Innovation

Santa Barbara, California --- Inovati announced today that it has received a $1,200,000 contract to further develop its proprietary Kinetic Metallization technology which will allow industrial customers to apply specialized metal coatings on high-technology products. The contract is sponsored by the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and managed by the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command (Huntsville, AL). The new process will provide an alternative to traditional coating processes known to be harmful to the environment, such as electroplating.

Kinetic Metallization uses no chemicals, no electricity, and no heat. Only an inert, noble gas is used to form coatings from metal powders. While this gas is harmless to the environment, Inovati would like to fully recycle the gas to further reduce costs. The specific focus of the SBIR contract is to first develop a gas recovery system, then a gas refining system to remove air from the recovered gas.

"It is a rare industrial process that can claim environmental friendliness, amazing new capabilities, and greatly reduced costs; but that is what KM offers our community," said Dr. Ralph M. Tapphorn, Vice President, Technology at Inovati. "We are excited about our collaboration with the BMDO SBIR Program because it has enabled us to explore a high-risk idea and develop it into a technology breakthrough. We are extremely optimistic that this will lead to additional advances that share desirable qualities with KM."

While most people are unaware of the fact, nearly all metals we come into contact with in our daily lives have some type of coating on them. This is especially true of the materials used in electronic components and other high-technology parts. Most of these coatings are applied with considerable environmental impact. For many applications, KM will reverse this trend.

Headquartered in Goleta, CA, near Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, Inovati has maintained a company focused on the development of its patented KM technology to create advances in the metal coating industry.

Inovati which recently moved to its new location by consolidating operations in Menlo Park, CA and Las Cruces, NM, has enjoyed additional funding support provided by the US Department of Energy and the US Army as well as several Fortune 500 companies. To find out more about this technology and the company behind it visit our website at www.inovati.com or email the company at presscontact@inovati.com.