FIRM
MENTORS A NEW PROGRAM GIVES SMALL, MINORITY-OWNED FIRMS A CHANCE TO GAIN EXPERIENCE
FROM LARGE CORPORATIONS
Four
corporations and three individuals publish intents with OK ABLE Commission
Mea
Corporation duo banned as directors
National
City Corporation to Buy Fidelity Bankshares for 4.35 Times Revenue
Renewable
names in demand by corporations
WHEN
CASH IS KING AT CORPORATIONS, BANKS SEE GREEN, TOO
Women's
council to discuss big corporations
Event
Brief of Q2 2006 Thoratec Corporation Earnings Conference Call - Final
About
Cordis Corporation
Apache
Corporation - CFO Interview
Boise-based
OX-GEN Corporation is breathing new life
CIRI
plans shopping, entertainment center MULDOON Native corporation says it hopes
to lure Target
Cisco
System revolutionizes Saudi Post Corporation's network infrastructure
Dana
Corporation Earns TRITEC Supplier of Year Awards for Second Consecutive Year
Democrats
criticize Risch property tax plan They say raising sales tax, cutting property
tax would help corporations and real-estate investors
Boise-based OX-GEN Corporation is breathing new life
When the fire alarm goes off in the Boise building that houses the OX-GEN Corporation, no one worries about pressurized oxygen sitting in tanks. The company has developed closely-watched portable oxygen systems that don't require pressurized tanks that can explode in a fire. The Boise-based firm's oxygen delivery system is evolved beyond the pressurized delivery system currently used in canisters, such as those used by firefighters. OX-GEN systems, Vice President Mark Michaud and spokesman Rob DesAulniers said, are easy to use, safe to handle and safe to store. They expect the first model to go on sale in November — available to consumers over-the-counter. The company's first product to make it to the market is a portable system that chemically generates oxygen. It generates 30 minutes of oxygen and has been certified for emergency use by the Food and Drug administration, DesAulniers said. The company has also developed a sport unit which can generate 10 minutes of oxygen for therapeutic use. OX-GEN is also developing a self-contained self rescue unit, for use in mines. The company believes it will generate two hours of oxygen. "Our biggest thrill is to save a life," President Frank Fosella said. "We have bottled water and cell phones, but we don't have oxygen." At the beginning of the decade, Fosella ran a firm that developed and marketed new products. One of his clients had an idea for a flame retardant suit and oxygen system that a person could keep rolled up in a desk. The client managed to develop the suit, but couldn't find a way to safely store oxygen. The only solution available required careful mixing of several chemicals, which took about 13 minutes. Instead of carrying on with the old way of storing oxygen under pressure, the company began exploring ways to create it. Fosella got the idea for how to do it from the weak seal on an IV bag. He knew what chemicals needed to be mixed to create oxygen. By storing them in an IV bag, they could stay inert until the seal was broken. With the assistance of TechHelp, a local consulting company that helps clients develop prototypes, they were able to develop the IV concept into a working unit. The problem, Fosella said, was that it only generated one liter of oxygen for 10 minutes, well below the requirement set by the Food and Drug Administration of six liters a minute for 15 minutes – the minimum standard for a product to be approved for emergency use. (The original design became the sport model.) They tried making the bag bigger to meet the FDA requirement, but that required a pouch so enormous that an average person would never be able to break the seal, Michaud said. So they went back to TechHelp. The second time around, they came up with a canister design, which allowed a higher volume of chemicals. Four separate chambers hold water, hydrogen peroxide, a magnesium and platinum catalyst and sodium bicarbonate — all at normal pressure, according to the company. A user can open a valve and drop the internal plunger into the catalyst, and the system will start producing oxygen through the top. The design has several patents pending. The biggest secret about how it works, Fosella said, is the percentage of each of the chemicals used in the mixture. Based on how the chemical ingredients would behave in a normal environment, company representatives guess that the design probably has a two-year shelf life. Since the chemicals aren't under pressure, OX-GEN believes the canister can be stored. In the event of a fire, the plastic on the canister is the only thing that could melt. OX-GEN has begun looking into using the chemical system to develop a self-contained self rescue unit for miners to use in emergencies. According to a report to West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, entitled The Sago Mine Disaster, 12 miners died because their safety devices failed while they were waiting to be rescued after an explosion at Sago killed one miner and propelled debris and carbon monoxide into the mine shaft,. The report states that the OX-GEN unit showed promise and was an "obvious advance." "We must immediately take steps to accelerate development of the next-generation (units)," states the report. "…no one has stepped forward to assist researchers, inventors and manufacturers interested in getting a 21st-century product into the hands of 21st-century miners." The company discovered that the self-contained oxygen rescue units currently in use require six steps just to get the oxygen flowing. Miners have to take deep breaths to inhale the oxygen, and the mouthpiece on the system overheats. The prototypes developed by OX-GEN require only three steps to generate oxygen and deliver the oxygen through a face mask, which allows miners to continue to talk to each other while they breathe. The units are priced to be competitive with comparable pressurized units, though OX-GEN officials expect the potential market to be much larger. They expect to have customers in retail, construction and schools – any place that would benefit from having emergency oxygen on-hand.