The Year in Tech
A look at some extraordinary and innovative developments in the state’s technology, manufacturing, and business realms over the past year.
BY PHIL BOLSTA, WILLIAM GURSTELLE, CHRIS MIKKO, AND S.M. PEDERSON
Minnesota’s technology and manufacturing communities have a well-deserved reputation as rich sources of products, trends, and ideas. Consider, for instance, the fire-fighting hand grenade from Fireaway LLC. Or the new see-through credit card from 3M. Or Medtronic’s new “brain radio,” which is still years away from the marketplace, but already has observers around the world buzzing about its possibilities.
Those are only a few of the items you’ll find in our annual look at some of the best and brightest ideas, inventions, and companies that the state has to offer. Read on for the rest.
Fastest Way to Lift 3 Tons of Dirt
To the average driver, 12.5 miles per hour doesn't seem particularly fast. But to a skid-loader operator, that speed is like Jeff Gordon at Daytona. Grand Rapids based ASV Inc. has quickened the pulses of warehouse workers and landscapers around the world with the SR-80, an 8,000 lb., rubber-tracked skid loader that's powered by an 80.5-horsepower, turbocharged diesel engine. The plucky little machine features 20-inch-wide tracks, can lift 3 tons of wet dirt, and can be used for everything from landscaping to homebuilding to utility excavations. Fastest Way to Lift 3 Tons of Dirt To the average driver, 12.5 miles per hour doesn't seem particularly fast. But to a skid-loader operator, that speed is like Jeff Gordon at Daytona. Grand Rapidsbased ASV Inc. has quickened the pulses of warehouse workers and landscapers around the world with the SR-80, an 8,000 lb., rubber-tracked skid loader that's powered by an 80.5-horsepower, turbocharged diesel engine.The plucky little machine features 20-inch-wide tracks, can lift 3 tons of wet dirt, and can be used for everything from landscaping to homebuilding to utility excavations.
http://www.asvi.com
Clearest New Idea in Credit Card Design
Once dominated by conservative grey and green looks, ATM and credit card designs have become increasingly exuberant and artistic in the past decade. 3M Co. has added a new wrinkle to that evolution with the Vikuiti Clear Card Filter, a material that can be used to produce fully transparent ATM and credit cards. The material features a proprietary infrared light-blocking optical film laminated between two clear sheets of PVC.The film reflects the infrared light that ATMs and other card readers use to detect the presence of a card. According to 3M, the IR filter passes all international standards for payment cards, and the cards can even accept full four-color printing with conventional inks and some translucent inks.
www.3M.com/imagineacard
Best Civilian Use for a Hand Grenade
Under normal circumstances, hand grenades are destructive objects. But the Stat-X First Responder is a grenade that saves. Made by Minnetonka-based Fireaway LLC, the device is designed to be lobbed into fires by firefighters, police, and members of the military.The grenade is filled with a fire-extinguishing agent that streams out of the can after it’s thrown.While it has the potential to extinguish a fire all by itself, its intended use is to “knock down” or suppress the growth of a fire until other traditional methods are brought to bear.
www.statx.com
Best New Idea for Inattentive Drivers
The DARPA Urban Challenge is a U.S. Army-funded, winner-take-all contest in which the maker of the first autonomous (self-driving) vehicle that successfully completes a prescribed race course wins a boatload of money—a cool $2 million.The majority of today’s autonomous vehicle developers use a laser-based distance measuring system from Bloomington-based SICK Inc. The system features sensors that use laser light to measure distances between cars and objects and barriers. Since they don’t require special reflectors or markers, the sensors are ideal for collision prevention in Automated Guided Vehicles (or AGVs, in Armyspeak.) During the previous Grand Challenge, all five finishing teams used SICK measurement sensors in their vehicles.
www.sickusa.com
Best New Way to Get Buff
Home gym cramped for space? Torque Fitness Inc. has an answer.The Andover company has figured out a way to cram more than 100 different exercises into a small home gym that uses less than 77 square feet of floor space.That’s more than 1.3 exercises per square foot, virtually guaranteeing you won’t get bored during your routine.The company’s flagship product, the TQ-9, is a two-station system that cleverly links pulleys, cables, and levers with a 200 lb. weight stack. At an MSRP of $3,999, it’s a great way to feel the burn in your delts, pecs, lats—and wallet.
www.torquefitness.com
Biggest Breakthrough in Indoor Air Pollution Abatement
Shock Doctor Inc. is a major player in the niche market of mouthguards, athletic supporters, and other protective gear for athletes. Now the company’s foray into nanotechnology has the potential to freshen up the air in locker rooms from coast to coast.The Plymouth company has announced plans to incorporate nanoscale-engineered metallic silver particles into the fibers of its products, which will provide permanent antiodor and antimicrobial protection. Locker room attendants everywhere rejoice at the news.
www.shockdoctor.com
Safest New Way to Transport Precious Bodily Fluids
If your ice cream melts on the way home from the grocery, that’s one thing. But if you’re stuck in a traffic jam in July with a container of blood products bound for the operating room, that’s an entirely different story.With that in mind, Baxter-based Minnesota Thermal Science LLC has developed a new type of thermal container designed to safely transport blood no matter what the traffic and temperatures are. Because it does not rely on wet ice, the new container can reliably hold blood within the FDA-defined storage requirement of 1 to 6 C for up to 12 hours. Instead, a special phase change material is embedded within the container walls, maintaining the temperature of the payload area at a steady 4 C.
www.mnthermalscience.com
First Step into the Final Frontier of Medicine?
Fridley-based Medtronic got its start with pacemakers, and over the years helped introduce such innovations as coronary stents, implantable drug delivery systems, and wearable glucose-monitoring systems. Now it’s moving into a yet another new realm. The company’s engineers have been working on an implantable “brain radio” that will help doctors monitor and control disorders such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and depression by collecting data from different neural stimulators.While the company has made strides on the project of late—developing an ampli- fier that filters out natural brain and body noises along with semiconductor buzzing—the radio is still in the design stages and thus years away from use.
www.medtronic.com
Brightest Idea in UV Management
It’s a small, but not-inconsequential decision for the average desk jockey. On one hand, you can open the office blinds and enjoy the warmth and glow of the sun (a necessity for winter in Minnesota). Doing so, however, forces you to contend with glare and the harsh effects that UV rays can have on your office furniture. Enter Sage Electrochromics Inc.The Owatonna-based company’s signature product is SageGlass coating, which features five layers of thin ceramic films that are applied to insulated glass and charged by the application of low-voltage DC.Turn on the current and the layers darken. (The process can be reversed at night.) The result: SageGlass lets in light, cuts down on glare and UV rays, and allows users to control the degree of solar warmth they want—all without blocking the view. According to the company, SageGlass windows allow 9 percent of the sun’s energy to gets through glass and penetrate into a building; with standard nonresidential windows, more than 30 percent of the sun’s energy can radiate through. The results are showing for the firm—in the last year alone, it’s garnered a slew of national and industry awards for the technology, secured $16 million in VC financing, and won recognition as a true “cleantech” company.
www.sage-ec.com