NanoDynamics' plans go beyond building a better golf ball
By FRED O. WILLIAMS
News Business Reporter
Ronald Colleran/Buffalo News : NanoDynamics co-founder Richard L. Berger hopes fuel cells are as much of a part of the company's future as its new golf balls.
Buffalo, NY — December 27, 2004 — When they launched NanoDynamics in Buffalo in 2002, Keith A. Blakely and Richard L. Berger didn't plan to build a better golf ball.
It was an employee who came up with the idea for a more accurate flying projectile. Blakely, the chief executive, dismissed it at first — even though he's a self-described hacker whose own game could use some help.
"My first reaction was 'no, we're not in the sporting goods business,' " he said.
Far from it. The 50-person company makes esoteric things like engineered industrial powders. Nanoscale refers to materials one-thousandth the width of a human hair and smaller — the neighborhood of buckyballs, not golf balls. Among the projects in development at the waterfront site is a ceramic fuel cell that converts propane gas to electricity.
But in business as in golf, it can pay to change your stance. Now a miniature driving range, surrounded by nets, sits incongruously next to labs and machinery in NanoDynamics' cavernous building on Fuhrmann Boulevard, a former Ford assembly plant.
The company's "NDMX" golf ball, to go on sale next year, uses a hollow metal core to push weight to the outer edge of the ball. That reduces spin, which means less tendency to veer off course, explains Berger, company president and chief operating officer. Advanced materials in the ball's springy core should also improve performance.
"It won't go further; it'll go straighter," he said. Less spin means "you won't hook as much or slice as much."
Blakely said his game improved with an NDMX prototype, but he wouldn't reveal his score. "That," he said laughing, "is a highly proprietary figure."
But in the golf equipment business, being too good can be a liability. NanoDynamics is preparing to apply to the U.S. Golfing Association, the sanctioning body for golf equipment.
"You can't come up with a super ball." Berger said.
At the association's testing center in Far Hills, N.J., engineers scrutinize about 1,000 balls a year. Applicants are given a calibrated mechanical whack and have their speed checked by laser. Balls that carry over 317 yards are disqualified.
Candidates that make the cut are included in the association's 25-page list of conforming balls. Professional tournaments abide by the list, and many players and retailers follow suit.
"We want to maintain the challenge of golf — if the game becomes too easy, people will stop playing it," said Dick Rugge, senior technical director of the testing center.
Any feature that changes the nature of the game may result in restrictions on equipment. A new rule could be in order "if (makers) came up with something that never went out of bounds, or bounced off the water." he said.
A former technical director of the association, Frank Thomas, has given his endorsement to NanoDynamics' ball, which will be unveiled to the industry at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando in January. Thomas is founder of Frankly Golf and works as a technical adviser for NanoDynamics.
The design should give non-elite golfers more control without stretching the boundaries of the sport, he said in an e-mail interview. "The objectives of the USGA rules are not to penalize the average golfer." Thomas said.
For NanoDynamics, a hit in the golf world could mean big business. Capturing 5 percent of the market would mean sales of $200 million, Blakely said. The company aims to market its own ball while licensing the NDMX technology to others.
Another objective of the ball is to draw attention to the company and its technological capability. On that score, the NDMX is already a success. It has been noticed by USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications.
"In retrospect, it may turn out to be one of most important decision we've made, in terms of visibility of the company and demonstrating the value of nanotechnology." Blakely said.
Blakely, 48, was the founder and longtime head of another Buffalo technology company, Advanced Refractory Technologies, now part of Tyco unit M/A-Com. After he sold that business in 2001, he teamed up with Berger, 58, a former executive at ART, to launch NanoDynamics.
They and independent investors invested about $20 million to get the venture going, Blakely said. As its new technologies come to market, the company's cash flow should swing positive within a year or two, he said.
With four business units focused on materials, components, energy and innovations, the venture works to commercialize technology developed in-house development as well as ideas acquired from other researchers.
One project involves an improved process for making carbon nanotubes. The carbon lattice structures, related to buckminster fullerene or buckyballs, have potential uses in electronics, composite materials and drug delivery. But their adoption has been held back by the cost — $500 a pound and up, Blakely said. He thinks that techniques refined at ART could boost production yields and cut costs by 90 percent.
NanoDynamics is also working on fuel cells that run on propane gas, building on work done at ART, Berger said. A 50-watt fuel cell can power lighted advertising and vending machines as well as military field gear far from an electrical outlet. Larger models can power homes and commercial buildings. "We hope to bring them down to $1,000 or so," Berger said. Even toy manufacturers are looking at the technology as a future alternative to batteries, he said.
As for golf balls, the company is evaluating where to locate production, and "Buffalo is clearly on the list." Blakely said.
Although the NDMX has potential to be the company's biggest seller in the near term, priced at $90 per dozen, it isn't going to turn NanoDynamics into a sporting goods maker.
"We are a nanomaterials company." Blakely said, "so producing the metals, ceramics and carbon nanomaterials that go into golf ball construction, or fuel cell construction, microelectronics or semiconductors, is really what we're focused on."
About NanoDynamics™
NanoDynamics™, Inc. is a leading company in the field of nanotechnology and manufacturer of superior nanomaterials that will dramatically improve the form, function and performance of a wide range of both industrial and consumer products. The Company is uniquely positioned, utilizing proprietary and protected technologies, to commercially manufacture economical, high quality nanomaterials that will enable revolutionary advancements in industries including electronics, semiconductors, consumer products, fuel cells, transportation, energy and biotechnology. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.nanodynamics.com.
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