Product Launches
< How close are they to marketing the product? >
That is hard to answer because they can address 7 different markets and those can be broken down even further.
PRO launched its first commercial products in 2006 in the Universal Grease market. TechroBond enhanced grease is now used commercially in the railroad industry, in railcurve applications. TechroBond is used as a substitute for Molybdenum Disulfide (MOLY) in grease, a very expensive compound that enhances lubrication and prevents performance deterioration. Initial field results have resoundingly confirmed PRO's calculations - grease formulated with TechroBond enhanced every aspect of performance, and was shown to increase lubrication by 40% to 200%. These results have now been confirmed independently by Chicago based Falex Labs, and PRO is preparing for a full commercial roll out of TechroBond formulated universal grease products, suitable for applications in automotive, railroad, construction, manufacturing, aerospace and heavy engineering applications.
While we expect a steady stream of products and applications to be commercialized over the next 1-2 years in grease, metalworking fluid, hydraulic fluid and other applications, our largest addressable markets by an order magnitude or more are oil additives and specialty coatings. These markets are potentially multi-billion dollar opportunities for PRO and the key to these markets resides in advanced development tests and discussions that we have ongoing with the leading U.S. industrial and energy companies. While there are no guarantees that all or any of these relationships will result in material agreements, it should be highlighted that these are not research collaborations but development efforts geared towards bringing commercial products to market by 2009. Each of these key efforts is subject to strict non-disclosure agreements protect both intellectual property rights but also to shield competitors from their "go to market" plans.
Ongoing conversations with the key industrial players include standard development practices such as combining respective intellectual properties to introduce a next generation product. There are also ongoing discussions that may result in exclusive relationships with some of these key industry players. Historically, it has been envisioned that the commercialization program would be preceded by a series of announcements, it is entirely possible that TechroBond will enter into an exclusive arrangement to the preclusion of other automobile manufacturers, oil companies and/or chemical companies which could accelerate the business model by several years.
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