VICTORIAN based company Global Ears has shown the way in taking an innovative Australian invention from an idea to a prototype to an internationally successful product innovation in a very short space of time.
In doing so, the company has been declared the winner of the Small Business category of the 2008 Governor of Victoria Export Awards and has also claimed the Commendation for Innovation Excellence.
The compressed air technology has been successfully commercialised and is now exported and sold all over the world, especially to industrial users of compressed air tools and equipment.
The E.A.R.S technology (the initials stand for Exhausted Air Recycling System) resulted from the problems encountered by company founder and CEO Chris Bosua.
As a mechanical engineer he became frustrated by trying to make an air-tool work with an air compressor that was simply too small for the task.
He realised that the problem was waste as much of the energy that was employed to create the compressed air supply was wasted out the exhaust port of the pneumatic tool.
With a bit of ‘Aussie can do’ Chris invented a closed loop system where the wasted air is returned back to the compressor enabling the volumetric capacity of a compressor to be increased by up to 80 percent, while the energy used and power consumption can be reduced by as much as 40 percent, so effectively a smaller sized compressor can perform more significant tasks.
The result is a compressor which employs a special manifold that gives almost double the capacity and so E.A.R.S was born. As the project evolved other benefits were revealed.
There was a dramatic reduction in noise generated in the use of pneumatic tools like air drills with less pollution.
And with the energy consumption under continuous use dropping by 40% it was confirmed that the technology would have a favourable pay back time.
With the exhausted air being return to the compressor by hose the volume of dust, debris and other potentially hazardous emissions around a workshop or site is reduced. Along the way E.A.R.S won wide recognition including the 2006 edition of the ABC’s The New Inventors program and numerous other tool and technology awards.
Recently Global EARS has linked with CEJN a leading international pneumatic and hydraulic coupling manufacturer as well as 20 other distribution partners in Europe, North America, the UK and the Asia Pacific region which are considered to represent about 70 percent of the market potential for the technology.
Major licensing and joint venture agreements are already signed with two companies in Sweden and others in Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan and the UK which return licensing fees, royalties and profit shares. Already profitable as an unlisted public company with about 39 shareholders the company is currently making a new share issue to expand its capital base.
CEO Chris Bosua has recently exhibited at two major exhibitions in Stuttgart and Frankfurt which are considered the compressed air showcases of the world, especially to the major industrial markets of continental Europe.
Exhibiting at major international trade shows, including over 27 in the last eighteen months, has also created a growing international market presence amongst users of compressed air tools and equipment.
In fact Chris says he has spent 318 days of the last 365 days on the road overseas introducing the products to the international compressed air and air-tools market, signing new licensing agreements and delivering training courses.
For more information contact:
Global Ears
www.auears.com