Someone told me about this article, so...
I did a Google and found a half dozen references to it. It makes excellent reading, although I am perplexed as to why some of this information wasn't shared with us by Integral.
Cheers
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Buzz builds around Integral's plastics technology
Plastic that conducts electricity just might be one of those sleeper technologies that comes from nowhere to make a big splash, in ways hard to anticipate.
That's what the founders of Bellingham-based Integral Technologies Inc. are hoping as they nurse their tiny, and money-losing, company into life.
The company has been gaining some attention recently. Its ElectriPlast technology was one of two "enabling technologies" to win a "best of innovations honoree" award at the January Consumer Electronics Show 2007, Jan. 8-11, in Las Vegas. The other was Intel's Core 2 duo processor.
Integral's entire business plan is pegged to just one product, the electricity-conducting plastic compound its inventor calls ElectriPlast.
Chief Technology Officer Thomas Aisenbrey, who invented the material, said it can be used as a lighter and stronger substitute for metal cables carrying heavy current loads in applications such as military ships and aircraft where weight is an issue. The company also is touting applications that include heated steering wheels, heated automotive coffee-cup holders, and more efficient cell phone antennas, all of which would be cast from ElectriPlast's conductive plastic.
The conductive aspect of the material, the result of compounds containing any of several conducting metals or carbon, can be incorporated into a wide array of plastics and rubbers, he said.
Tom Loep, managing editor for Plastics News in Akron, Ohio, said his publication has been writing about the company's evolution for four years.
"It's slowly building, I think, it's finding niches here and there," he said. He added that other companies also are trying to develop similar products, and that manufacturers are "cautious" about adapting the new technology.
"It's interesting, I don't think it's game-changing," he said of ElectriPlast technology.
On one level, there's not much to Integral Technologies: six employees in a Bellingham office and three years of losses of about $2 million a year.
But CEO Bill Robinson, a Canadian who made a fortune in mining and then came out of retirement at 50 to run Integral, said he's positive about the company's prospects.
Integral's primary focus has been nailing down the intellectual property rights for ElectriPlast, with 111 patents filed on uses for the material, and 22 granted so far. In April, Robinson is expecting to win the core patent for the proprietary formula itself, which he believes will make the company dominant in the market it's creating.
"We spent the last three years working on the patent portfolio and intellectual property, because that is the company's asset," he said. "We'll license companies to use ElectriPlast technology, and we will sell them pellets on a per-pound basis."
Most recently the company has signed two product licensing agreements: with Adac Automotive of Grand Rapids, Mich., to produce auto parts from the material, and with Esprit Solutions Ltd., a U.K. company, for aerospace applications.
"This year you'll see quite a few more licenses taken out by companies," Robinson said.
In both cases, the companies haven't yet committed themselves to making marketable parts from the material.
"We will work together with those companies to get them the material they need, to do research and development to make production decisions," Robinson said. "When you're a new innovative material, it's tougher because nobody else has it."
Integral also is licensing the actual production of the material to Jasper Rubber Products Inc. of Jasper, Ind., in a contract announced Nov. 30. Jasper is a 53-year-old plastic and rubber producer, with $72 million in annual sales, said Jasper President Doug Mathias.
Integral Technologies is publicly traded, although its stock trades only as an over-the-counter Bulletin Board stock. But the stock has been climbing strongly, albeit from small beginnings, moving from 60 cents a share at the beginning of the year to $3.22 a share at deadline Jan. 17.
While Robinson said he could not predict when the company would become profitable, he added that he considers the company on a good track with a unique technology, growing interest in the market and little need for large capital expenditures. His strategy has been to keep the company small and focused on its technology and on marketing, and let others deal with production.
"I'm not in the business of hiring people and buying machinery, that's ludicrous," he said.
Integral Technologies has so far raised $19 million through five separate stock offerings, and Robinson said he has no present intentions to raise more in that manner.
"The company is in good shape, with $3 million in bank right now, and no foreseeable expenses in the foreseeable future," he said.
