OIT Times: Joe Ponteri, Del Raymond, Alzeta Corp. Receive Inaugural OIT Awards
March 21, 2000
OIT Customer Day was the setting for its first ever artner of the Yearand echnology of the Yearawards. The award winners, chosen by an outside panel from nominations provided by OIT staff, represent the very best achievements and contributions from literally hundreds of OIT partners and supported technologies.
The selection panel helped narrow the list to three outstanding finalists in each category, with the winners announced from this select group at Customer Day ceremonies. A tie vote for Partner of the Year resulted in two winners in this category. OIT plans to make the awards an annual ritual at Expo, Customer Day or similar events.
OIT artner of the Year/b>
Joseph Ponteri
Mr. Ponteri is President and CEO of Global Metal Technologies, Inc., the parent company of Lester Precision Die Casting. Mr. Ponteri is a committed partner in the Department of Energy Metal Casting Industry of the Future initiative. Many of the technologies resulting from Metal Casting Industry of the Future R&D have been implemented at the facility and are currently saving Lester an estimated 5 billion Btus/yr. Mr. Ponterri demonstrated his commitment to achieving national energy efficiency goals by showcasing the technologies at Lester in November, 1999.
OIT artner of the Year/b>
Delmar Raymond
Mr. Raymond, of Weyerhaeuser, has been involved with the Industries of the Future since its inception. He has been a pioneer in championing and developing the forest products vision, Agenda 2020, a strategic planning document that describes where the industry will need to be in 20 years to be competitive. Mr. Raymond is currently co-chair of the Chief Technology Officers Committee that guides implementation of the forest products vision.
Finalist for OIT artner of the Yearbr>
Gunnar Hovstadius
Mr. Hovstadius, of ITT Flygt, has partnered with OIT since 1994. He has primarily worked with the Motor Challenge program, now Best Practices. Some of his contributions include initiating two Motor Challenge showcase demonstrations in 1995, helping to create a regional initiative to promote motor and pump systems that trained 1,000 people, and helping to instruct an additional 2,000 people on pump system optimization techniques.
OIT echnology of the Year/b>
High Temperature Radiant Burner
Alzeta Corp.
For this project, Alzeta identified a high temperature material that can be incorporated into earlier burner formulations at different levels, the highest for the most demanding applications, the lowest for more conventional boiler applications.The burner four commercial applications include: an award winning VOC destruction system, a high efficiency boiler system, SOGNO, a high efficiency generally residential heater and hot water heater, and Pyrocore radiant burners. This technology is now incorporated into 5000 units per year.
Finalist for OIT echnology of the Yearbr>
Novel Membrane-Based Process for Producing
Lactate Esters
Argonne National Lab and Partners
This process uses proprietary advanced fermentation, membrane separation, and chemical conversion technologies to convert renewable carbohydrate feedstocks into lactate esters. These esters are environmentally benign solvents that provide a direct replacement for petroleum-derived organic and chlorinated solvents, many of which are toxic or hazardous. Such solvents are widely used as cleaners, degreasers and product ingredients in industries like electronics manufacturing, adhesives, paints, printing, de-inking, and textile manufacturing. The ester solvents have the potential to replace about 80% of the 3.5 million tons of solvents used annually in the U.S.
Finalist for OIT echnology of the Yearbr>
Waste-Minimizing Plating Barrel
Whyco Technologies, Inc.
Whyco Technologies, Inc., has developed an innovative plating barrel used in the plating of metal parts. This new barrel employs an innovative thin-walled construction, differing from the traditional thick-wall design previously required to provide adequate structural integrity. The thinner wall provides increased flow-through, less clogging, and extended component life leading to 16% energy savings and 40% increased productivity over traditional barrels. To date, more than 395 of these plating barrels are being used throughout the country with an estimated annual savings of more than 150 billion Btu.