Taking Uri Geller's spoon-bending trick to a much higher level, a Hermitage startup is developing a technology for forging, bending and extruding metals in a tech-transfer initiative with Penn State.
John Roth, a Penn State Erie mechanical engineer, is the father of the technology, which was developed and patented over seven years by Penn State and Ford Global Technologies.
Ronald Anderson of Anderal Technologies in Hermitage explains that DC electrical current is applied in a pulsating manner to all kinds of metals, requiring less pressure to form and shape them in a variety of manufacturing processes. And less pressure means easier, more control and less waste.
The company is investigating applications for the technology and received $25,000 from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA late last year to study its use with dual-phase steel in automotive manufacture. The steel is well suited to making lighter cars, but its hardness and strength also make it more difficult to form using traditional methods, Anderson says.
Besides automotive uses, “we believe our immediate focus is medical equipment,” he adds. “Small hand tools used in surgery, implants, any type of medical product that uses titanium.”
Anderal was established last year and currently employs Anderson full-time and three engineers part-time, working out of office and lab space at the eCenter@ LindenPointe technology incubator.
For the next year, Anderson expects the focus to remain on research and development, with commercialization the longer-term goal.
Source: Ronald Anderson, Anderal Technologies
Writer: Elise Vider