Mohawk Innovative Technology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mohawk Innovative Technology, Inc. is a product and research and development technology company specializing in integrating advanced oil-free compliant foil bearings, magnetic bearings and non-contacting foil seals into high-speed rotating machinery, such as gas turbine engines, turbochargers, compressors, cryogenic pumps, variable high-speed motors/generators or machines that exceed the capabilities of rolling element bearings.
[edit] History
Mohawk Innovative Technology, Inc. or MiTi®, was formed in November 1994, by Dr. Hooshang Heshmat and three other principals, Mr. James F. Walton II, Ms. Melissa Heshmat and Mr. Michael J. Tomaszewski. The company vision called for developing and applying its technologies with other newly emerging technologies to develop an entirely new class of oil-free, high-speed rotating machinery. Oil-free air or process gases are essential for pharmaceutical, food and beverage processing, in medical equipment or devices and many industrial processes. The company’s early years were mainly characterized by conducting research and development programs for the United States Department of Defense (DoD), NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority NYSERDA to assist in commercializing its technologies in the areas of tribology, foil bearings, magnetic bearings, auxiliary or backup bearings and advanced seals. Many of the company’s early R&D efforts were supported by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and/or the Small Business Technology Transfer STTR programs. Both the SBIR and STTR programs were enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1982 as competitive programs designed to encourage high-tech innovation in small businesses that would support government program needs and the commercialization of innovative new products either directly or as offshoots of the technologies being developed to support government programs.
Based upon the success of its R&D efforts, the company has applied its oil-free bearing and seal technologies to rotating machinery systems with both domestic aerospace and major international companies. Developed oil-free systems have included motor driven air compressors for industrial use, cryogenic turboexpanders for generation of liquid oxygen and nitrogen, motor driven air blowers for automotive fuel cells, motor driven blowers for use in the food and beverage industries, small gas turbine engines for uninhabited aerial vehicles UAVs and more recently microturbine generators for distributed electricity generation using either natural gas or a variety of renewable energy sources. While conducting many of these research programs and working to apply the technology to product, alternative bearing coatings and test machine products have resulted. New high temperature, long life and low friction coefficient coatings were developed to support the bearing product. Also a special high precision Tribometer was developed to evaluate the friction, wear lubrication characteristics and life of solid lubricant coatings, shaft coatings and bearing performance under realistic operating conditions of high speed, high load and high temperature conditions.
[edit] Company and Key Personnel Awards
Winner of the 2003 New York State Small Business Manufacturer of the Year, the 2002 Small Business Administration’s National Tibbetts Award for contributions to the Small Business Innovative Research Program and the regional Small Business Council’s Innovative Enterprise Award, MiTi®’s sustained and groundbreaking efforts technology advancements and application in the commercial sector have been recognized regionally, state wide and nationally.
Commercialization of the high-tech products being developed by the company principals has included publishing results in technical journals sponsored by societies such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Society of Lubrication and Tribology Engineers STLE. The quality of the company’s R&D work is seen in the awards received from these societies and the selection of key individuals to be highlighted in industry publications:
ASME Edison Patent Award 2002
ASME IGTI Best Paper 1999
SAE Best Paper Award 2000
Tribology and Lubrication Technology TLT Magazine
