Global Group Launches Thermo-Pur and its Leap-Frog Technology
October 11, 2011
To Provide Revolutionary Heat-transfer Innovations to Automotive, Power Industries
GREENVILLE, SC – October 11, 2011 – A global group of researchers and executives launched Thermo-Pur Technologies, LLC, which will provide automotive, power generation and refrigeration industries with radical new heat-transfer products that leapfrogs multiple generations of technology.
Heat-exchanger technology has not produced a breakthrough in six decades, until Thermo-Pur Technologies (TPT) put together its global team of experts in thermodynamics, metals, and lasers. Thermo-Pur Managers bring decades of successful research and, most importantly, applications to create these heat-exchanger and metal-shaping innovations.
Thermo-Pur, with operations in Greenville and Moscow, simultaneously announced two patent filings:
• The first covers technology relating to heat exchangers built from thin stainless steel through LaserTherm® technology, and;
• The second protects the Company’s manufacturing process that involves laser metal-bending.
“Thermo-Pur’s technology leaps beyond 100-year-old technology and 60-year-old manufacturing practices to provide needed innovations that will bring heat exchangers into the 21st Century and will enable greener approaches to automobiles and power generation,” Jeff Hesla, President, CEO and Manager of Thermo-Pur, said. “Thermo-Pur will deliver its multi-lateral offerings via manufactured products and technology licenses to Global 100 and Fortune 500 OEMs.”
The results of Thermo-Pur’s innovations for heat exchangers include thinner metal with high durability and heat-transfer capabilities that generates lower costs, improved fuel usage and decreased weight and space utility—the latter particularly important to the automotive industry. TPT’s proprietary technology offers creative opportunities for designers and engineers with increased capabilities for reliability and temperatures in radiators, intercoolers, EGR, and oil coolers, resulting not only in bolstered mileage but also in reduced CO2 emissions. Other significant results include diminished manufacturing costs, weight and space by forming stainless steel multiple times greater than current capabilities.
Thermo-Pur, based at CU-ICAR in Greenville, has engaged Clemson University and its professors in a host of collaboration projects in automotive.
“Our mutual TPT and Clemson University projects bring together ideas and applications from across the globe to advance the automotive industry,” Dr. Imtiaz Haque, Executive Director of Clemson’s Carroll A. Campbell Jr. Graduate Engineering Center, and Professor and Founding Chair of Automotive Engineering at Clemson University, said. “Thermo-Pur possesses significant innovations that address very important issues such as manufacturing cost, light-weighting, and improved energy efficiency and should receive quick acceptance by the automotive industry. With CU-ICAR synergies, we look forward to more such innovations.”
Automobiles typically incorporate 12 heat exchangers. The automotive and heavy vehicle radiator market is an almost $17 billion market, restrained by an inability to improve margins and prices because of an 85-percent-plus cost of goods (COG) margin. Thermo-Pur is capable of reducing overall OEM costs and eliminating up to two-thirds of the weight of a typical radiator.
With rapidly escalating fuel prices, the automotive industry, in particular, faces the challenge of improving mileage efficiency (MPG) and reducing emissions. Thermo-Pur Technologies produces significantly lighter-weight heat exchangers at a lower cost than traditional intercoolers, EGR coolers, oil coolers, AC condensers, or radiators. Thermo-Pur technology also helps manufacturers meet regulatory goals.
The market for heat exchangers is not limited to the automotive industry. Industries, ranging from power generation to marine, aerospace and military, need to increase heat loads, and this has driven demand for heat-exchanger solutions. These provide effective air-cooling systems, product efficiency, lower per-unit acquisition costs, increased energy efficiency, sustainability, and conservation of natural resources.
Local TPT managers include CEO Hesla;
• Dee Wood Kivett, Vice President of Operations;
• Victor Kent, Vice President of Manufacturing, and;
• Simon Izaguirre, Military Division Business Manager.
In Moscow Managers Alexander Belokon and Michael Sinkevych, Vice President of Engineering and R&D, conduct product and high-speed laser welding research.
About Thermo-Pur Technologies, LLC
Thermo-Pur Technologies, LLC, based at Clemson University’s CU-ICAR in Greenville, SC, employs metal-forming innovations that revolutionize heat exchangers for industries ranging from automotive and power generation to marine and aviation. Thermo-Pur’s primary target is the automotive industry, where automobiles and heavy weight vehicles represent a $17 billion radiator market. TPT’s proprietary technologies generate increased capabilities for reliability and temperatures in radiators, intercoolers, EGR, and oil coolers, resulting not only in bolstered mileage but also reduced CO2 emissions. Other significant results include diminished manufacturing costs, weight and space by forming stainless steel multiple times greater than current capabilities.
