Company developed a spectrometer that can look inside the microwave reactor and determine the concentration of the reactants and products of a reaction as it is taking place
DeltaNu has won a prestigious R+D 100 award for 2005.
R+D 100 awards are the so-called 'Oscars of Invention', according to the Chicago Tribune.
DeltaNu manufactures spectrometers for chemical analysis.
A new product released in 2005 is the Investigator, which is used to follow high speed chemical reactions that are accelerated by microwaves.
The microwave process is called microwave assisted synthesis and follows the same principle as a microwave oven.
Chemical reactions that take hours by traditional heating methods take place in seconds in a microwave reactor.
The primary market for these reactors is drug discovery, where large pharmaceutical companies want to develop new drugs as rapidly as possible.
One of the problems microwave assisted synthesis faces is that reactions occur so rapidly that traditional chemical analysis techniques are unable to follow the extent of a chemical reaction.
To solve this problem DeltaNu developed a spectrometer that can look inside the microwave reactor and determine the concentration of the reactants and products of a reaction as it is taking place.
"This innovation is far more sophisticated than the microwave reactors themselves", Keith Carron, CEO of DeltaNu states.
The project took a little over a year to complete, and Carron recently installed the first system at one of the world's largest drug manufacturers, AstraZenaca.
DeltaNu is working with CEM in Mathews, North Carolina, to sell embedded systems in CEM's microwave reactors.
"We are very gratified to win such a prestigious award", said Rick Cox, VP sales and marketing for DeltaNu.
"Our core technology and emphasis is Raman spectroscopy, and our R+D team is the engine that drives DeltaNu products to niche markets".
"This further substantiates that they are one of the most innovative group of engineers and chemists in their field".
As a pioneer and a global leader in small footprint and handheld Raman spectrometers, DeltaNu has an insight for developing unique, high performance spectrometers for academics, industry and OEM applications.
Since opening its doors in 1997, DeltaNu has teamed with several development partners from the University of Wyoming, and the Wyoming Business Council recently aided DeltaNu by helping negotiate a bank loan which allowed DeltaNu to move into their new location in Laramie.
"DeltaNu is a great example of the kind of technology business we are trying to develop in Wyoming," said Wyoming Business Council chief operating officer Bob Jensen.
"The Business Council is happy to have been able to help in the growth of DeltaNu".
"These kinds of technology-based jobs are what we and the university is striving to help generate".
DeltaNu has capitalised itself solely from the Small Business Innovative Research grant programme.
Since its inception DeltaNu has been awarded over US$3.7million dollars for R+D.
That funding has led to over six products that range from educational tools to very advanced chemical ID systems for homeland security.
