A Mundelein technology firm is adding anti-terrorism to its roster and will begin marketing equipment that can detect and destroy biotoxins.
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“It’s a new market, one that’s a moving target,” said Gregory Halpern, chief executive of Circle Group Holdings Inc. “But it’s definitely a growth area.”
Anti-terrorism is a new direction for Halpern, whose company also is backing a high-fiber fat substitute called FiberGel that is intended to help dieters cut back on calories.
Both ventures are based on technology developed by government-sponsored research. Circle Group’s mission is to commercialize such research.
The new enterprise focuses on technology Circle Group has licensed from Brookhaven National Laboratory. One Brookhaven device, called a mini-Raman lidar unit, combines properties of laser light with radar to scan unknown substances and determine if they are known toxins.
Halpern is in talks with major chemical companies and hopes to form a joint venture to manufacture lidar devices and sell them to first responders like fire and police departments. Another target market will be hospitals, where naturally occurring biological agents are always a potential threat.
The other Brookhaven technology that Circle Group plans to market is called the ThraxVac. It’s a device that can capture spores from anthrax or other toxins and then use heat and moisture to activate them so they can be killed.
“When the spore is activated, it is at its most deadly state,” said Halpern, “but it also is most vulnerable to destruction. When you try to destroy spores in their dormant state, they’ll come back in a few months.”
Circle Group hopes to partner with a maker of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment to market its ThraxVac technology.
Non-metallic magnets: Academic researchers have found a material that may be the key to making magnets out of plastic or other non-metallic substances.
Chemists at Purdue University and the University of Southern California uncovered a material that contains no metal but has electrons that arrange themselves in a configuration normally associated with metals.
The finding suggests it may be possible to create plastics or other materials with magnetic properties.
“Non-metal magnets would have several conceivable advantages,” said Tyron Mitchell, a manager with the National Science Foundation, which funded the research.
Plastic magnets might be lighter and cheaper than magnets made from metal, Mitchell said. At the least, they would give materials scientists more versatility in designing new products.
Net calls: Enthusiasm for Internet telephony continues to build.
Westell Technologies Inc., the Aurora-based maker of telecom equipment, will roll out a new voice over Internet protocol product this spring.
Westell, a leader in providing DSL equipment to enable regular phone lines to carry high-speed Internet signals, will incorporate VoIP into new DSL products so phone companies can offer residential and small-business customers Internet voice service.
Besides selling the product to American phone companies such as Verizon Communications Inc., Westell hopes to gain traction in Europe, where DSL is quite popular and phone companies have shown great interest in VoIP.
The move was billed by Westell chief Van Cullens as evidence his company intends to be a player in the world of converged technologies.