Press Releases
MesoCoat Wins $2 Million Ohio Third Frontier Award to Commercialize Advanced Wear and Corrosion Solutions
February 16, 2011
Abakan Inc. (OTCQB "ABKI") ("Abakan") announced today that MesoCoat, Inc., a portfolio company, along with their partner University of Akron (UA) have received a $2 million award from Ohio Third Frontier (OTF) under the Advanced Energy Program (AEP) to accelerate the commercial demonstration of CermaClad™, a high speed fusion cladding process, and development and qualification of CermaClad™ nanocomposite ceramic metallic (cermet) materials, along with Ceramers being developed at UA for advanced energy and infrastructure applications.
In this partnership MesoCoat has partnered with UA’s new Corrosion and Reliability Engineering (CAREs) program to qualify advanced corrosion resistant coatings, to develop a pipeline of trained corrosion engineers and scientists to support MesoCoat’s explosive growth, and for UA to develop new materials using MesoCoat’s CermaClad™ high speed fusion cladding equipment. A portion of the award will be used to construct a new powder coating and high speed cladding facility at UA, which will be used for advanced coating development by UA and MesoCoat staff, and will be used to train students and new staff in the technology. The project research objectives are to qualify coatings for advanced energy (wind, clean coal, nuclear, and hydro as well as transmission systems), including heat exchangers, boilers, super heaters, reactors, pressure and storage vessels, and transmission wire. The facility and researchers at UA will assist MesoCoat with Research and Development tasks, freeing up resources at MesoCoat to focus on deploying coating solutions and serving commercial customers. The award also helps MesoCoat support the construction and staffing of their new 11,000 sq. ft. coating facility.
Robert Miller (CEO, Abakan Inc.) stated, “The $89 billion paints and coating industry is going through a renaissance today; providing huge opportunities for innovative firms that can build products that address the challenges industrial firms face as they battle wear and corrosion to protect and extend life of their metal assets and replace the hazardous materials currently under EPA watch list, that they have historically used for wear and corrosion protection. Esteemed awards like the OTF Award, NIST award and other highly competitive awards totaling over $7 million in the last 2 years, coupled with other validation received from multiple industries reaffirms our belief that MesoCoat’s CermaClad™ and PComP™ technologies will help us lead the multi-billion dollar metal protection and life extension market”.
About Abakan Inc.
Abakan invests in companies that develop transformational surface modification solutions and technologies. Current portfolio investments include two Ohio based companies, MesoCoat, Inc. and Powdermet Inc. MesoCoat is fast becoming a world leader in metal protection and repair through their "long life" cermet coatings and "high speed" metallurgical cladding technologies. MesoCoat’s solutions have already been the recipient of three prestigious R&D 100 awards, a Technology Innovation Program Award (TIP) for 100 year life coatings by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the NorTech Innovation Award for high performance environmentally friendly coating materials. Powdermet’s Nanomaterials Research and Manufacturing Center is the go-to-research center for US government agencies seeking expertise in high end ceramic and nanotechnology metal segments. They are currently developing two market solutions including next generation materials that have 3 to 5 times the strength and hardness of current metal alloys as well as light weight, energy-absorbing materials.
About The University of Akron
The University of Akron is the public research University for Northeast Ohio. The Princeton Review listed UA among the “Best in the Midwest” in its 2010 edition of Best Colleges: Region-by-Region. Approximately 29,300 students are enrolled in UA’s 300 associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral and law degree programs and 100 certificate programs at sites in Summit, Wayne, Medina and Holmes counties. For more information, visit www.uakron.edu.
Forward-Looking Statements
A number of statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties including technological obsolescence, market acceptance of future products, competitive market conditions, and the sufficiency of capital resources. The actual results Abakan may achieve could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to such risks and uncertainties. Abakan encourages the public to read the information provided here in conjunction with its most recent filings on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. Abakan’s public filings may be viewed at www.sec.gov
Abakan Inc.
www.abakaninc.com
Robert Miller, Chief Executive Officer
Phone: (786) 206-5368
Email: [email protected]