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July 11, 2005

No static at all | A Mechanic Falls maker of static-control devices moves into a new market

By Rebecca Lamet
For nearly 20 years, Mechanic Falls-based Electro Static Technology focused on manufacturing and selling static control devices for printers and copiers. The company had captured a sizeable portion of the market; nearly every printer and copier in the country sported its little black brushes, which discharge static electricity from paper as it exits the machines.

Though the company, which was founded in 1984, has a patent on the technology, knock-off versions of the brushes have been introduced over the years. General Manager William Oh says the cheaper versions have not affected EST's bottom line to a great degree, but their existence does encourage the company to innovate outside of its niche market. "To stay in business in Maine you have to continually introduce new products," he says. "That's how our product migrated into the electric motor market."

Oh is referring to the Aegis SGR, a static-dissipating part used on motor bearings to prevent destructive electrical current from discharging in the motor shaft. Oh says he recognized the need for the Aegis when he saw a customer adapting one of the company's printer brushes for other static problems. "Then I realized this technology can be used for anything," he says.

Eventually, after doing what he describes as a great deal of patent research, Oh found that the electric motor industry was the one with the greatest need for a solution, and his staff tweaked EST's existing technology to create the Aegis. In May, EST launched the new product, which is aimed at an entirely different market than the one in which the company has operated for 21 years. One of the greatest challenges as production and marketing of the Aegis moves forward, says Oh, is learning the intricacies of a new industry. "We just released it, so we're still in the process of educating [people] about it," he says.

If Oh has his way, EST's new product will be accepted by the AC motor community as a solution to the industry's long unsolved problem of uncontrolled shaft currents. So far, Oh says EST has been successful in capturing the support of the manufacturers that tested the product and some after-market repair companies, but ultimately even end users of AC motors ˆ— operations ranging from hospitals to pulp and paper mills ˆ— will need to demand the use of the Aegis in order for it to be a integral part of the AC motor landscape ˆ— and a significant contributor to EST's bottom line.

The recent Electrical Apparatus Service Association conference in Nashville, Tenn., was a platform for the company to catch the attention of potential buyers from original equipment manufacturers like AC Electric Corp. in Bangor and Auburn, which hadn't yet heard of EST's new venture, to electrical motor service centers that repair failed bearings.

"It's got a pretty broad potential for electric motor applications," says Chuck Yung, EASA's technical support specialist. He says EST's product was well received by the conference's other exhibitors, "we had over 2,200 people at the convention and the majority are buyers." Buyers that he says have been searching for a solution to the shaft current problem for years.

Going to ground
EST started producing brushes for the print and imaging industry when James McNulty established the company in 1984. In 1999, EST was acquired by Illinois Tool Works Inc., a national company with 650 business units that design and produce engineered equipment.

Today, EST supplies more static control devices to the industry worldwide than any other company, according to Oh; its largest market is in China. But Oh says the company has reached a plateau in sales in recent years, meaning it needed to expand its product offerings in order to remain successful. While Oh did not disclose EST's annual revenues, he says, "There is a life cycle to any product."

And that's where AC motors come in. In the early 1990s, AC motors began using variable frequency drives to fluidly change motor speed. Think about an air conditioner that has a knob that increases and decreases the motor's intensity gradually; a VFD makes that possible. Variable frequency drives induce electrical current as the motor's bearing travels back and forth through its shaft ˆ— a current that can severely damage the bearings. The Aegis SGR discharges the current by surrounding the bearing with conductive microfibers that ground the electricity in the shaft.

The shaft current problem has been a stumbling block for AC motor manufacturers for years, and Oh says major companies are continually spending money on research and development to find solutions, from covering the bearings in a nonconductive ceramic material to using conductive grease as an electrical discharge. And, he says, while bearing companies have come up with temporary ways of masking the problem, the industry lacked a permanent solution ˆ— and that's what he thinks EST has developed. "What we have found is the first, most effective, maintenance-free device," he says. (The company expects to receive a patent on the device in the next year.)

Bill Potts, operations manager for Philadelphia-based bearing supply parts and repair company Bartlett Bearing Co., says his options for dealing with the problem are prohibitively expensive for some customers. While there were a variety of ground brush systems available, they all required expensive installation and extra wiring. "There are different and controversial perspectives to take on their solution," says Potts. "[But] we just thought [the Aegis] was the cat's meow; the system [EST] offers is simplistic in installation and lasts a lifetime."

EST came at the shaft current problem from outside of the industry's ongoing search for solutions and Yung thinks that's a good thing; "I'm of the impression that it's always good to talk to someone with a different perspective, someone that's not encumbered by tradition," he says.

Potts says he's interested in using the Aegis in addition to preexisting solutions. But he's a little worried about product availability because of the company's size ˆ— Oh declined to disclose the number of employees working at EST, but the company operates in a 26,000-square-foot facility ˆ— and what he sees as a huge and immediate need.

The situation doesn't worry Oh, who says he is confident in his company's ability to produce for any demand. At present, the product is being assembled by hand, but "we have the capacity for high-speed manufacturing," says Oh. "As volume builds, we develop the machine necessary to meet it; it's a step-by-step approach."

If Potts and the other AC motor manufacturers at the recent EASA conference are any indication, EST's venture may have a bright future. "It solves all sorts of problems for end users," says Potts. "And with its simplicity, we're at a point where we are more than ready to put in our order and stock their product."

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