NanoMech named as Edison Award finalist

NanoMech Industries of Springdale has been named as a 2017 finalist for an Edison Award in the category of Metal Production for one of its nanoengineered products, the patented nGlide Superflo superplastic forming coating lubricant.

Gold, silver and bronze awards designations among the finalists will be announced at an event Thursday (April 20) in New York City.

It’s the third time in four years that NanoMech has been named a finalist. It received the silver award for its GuardX product in the Material Science category last year and the silver award for its TuffTek product in the Processing Materials category in 2014.

“It’s exciting to see companies like NanoMech continuing Thomas Edison’s legacy of challenging conventional thinking,” Frank Bonafilia, Edison’s Awards’ executive director, said in a NanoMech press release.

nGlide is a spray-on protective lubricant that can withstand high temperatures and is intended to increase the efficiency and performance of metal processing, according to NanoMech.

Dr. Ajay Malshe, chief technology officer and founder, said: “nGlide Superflo has the ability to make the SPF (superplastic forming) process a reality for advanced vehicle bodies including for automotive (manufacturers) such that advanced energy-saving body designs can be realized.

“They are manufactured by stretching sheet-metals more than 100%, and traditional lubricants fail due to friction, resulting in ruptured parts with production yield. The problem is at nanoscale and therefore the solution must be at nanoscale and nGlide Superflo is the most advanced nanoengineered, multi-functional coating for metal-forming applications manufactured in high volume and at an affordable price,” Malshe said.

nGlide is water-based, and NanoMech advertises it results in 30% increase in productivity.

James Phillips, chairman and CEO NanoMech said in the press release: “Globally, automotive vehicles, aircraft, race cars, spacecraft and motorbikes demand complex aerodynamic and aesthetically appealing body shapes that simultaneously increase fuel efficiency, control and safety.”

Deborah Wince-Smith, CEO of the Council on Competitiveness in Washington, D.C., and a member of NanoMech’s Board of Directors, praised the company and product in the release. “NanoMech and nGlide are at the leading edge of a resurgent U.S. manufacturing capability — one that is not dumb, dirty, dangerous and disappearing — but is smart, safe, sustainable and surging,” she said.