Chapchal to Chair Digital Valve Pioneer Camcon Technology

5 November 2002 – Cambridge, UK – Camcon, a British start-up that has invented a digital valve described as the first fundamentally new approach in the control of liquids and gases since the Industrial Revolution, today announced that it has appointed Danny Chapchal as chairman.

Dubbed a “corporate midwife” for his success in commercialising early stage British inventions, Chapchal will work with Camcon to develop an intellectual property-licensing model for the digital valve, which provides significant improvements in speed and accuracy over traditional valve designs.

Camcon is looking to license its digital valve into vertical market applications and expects to secure its first deal before the end of the year. The company will sign a manufacturing partner in a similar timeframe to make developmental versions of the digital valve under contract.

The application areas under active study by potential licence partners include industrial handling, engine fuel management, oil industry valve control, vehicle suspension systems and medical dosing applications. Additionally, three research institutes are exploring its potential in other fields.

Camcon’s binary valve design is based on a fundamentally digital approach making it ideally suited for high speed, programmable digital control. Camcon has recorded operating speeds up to 100 times faster than are achievable with traditional valve designs, while using far less energy.

“Camcon is a classic British invention that needs to be taken to a world stage. Its valve offers very precise high speed control of liquids and gases. By comparison all traditional designs of valve look clumsy. Camcon’s digital valve has the potential to do for gas and liquid, something akin to what the transistor did for electronics,” said Danny Chapchal, Chairman, Camcon.

Chapchal who is also CEO of Nottingham based Bit-Arts, a British company developing digital rights management technology for PC and mobile applications, will spend a day a week with Camcon.

Until recently, Chapchal was chairman of Post Impressions, a British developer of post production equipment for high definition television and digital film production between 2000 and 2002. Chapchal recognised the need to take the technology to the global broadcast market and subsequently negotiated the sale of the company to Snell & Willcox.

Chapchal left light emitting polymer pioneer CDT in 2000 after a majority stake in the company was purchased by US investment firms Hillman Capital and Kelso Investment, valuing the company at £80 million.

Under Chapchal’s direction, CDT showed the world’s first light emitting polymer television display in conjunction with Seiko-Epson in February 1998 and announced relationships with Philips, Hoechst, Hewlett-Packard and Delta Electronics.

In a career of over thirty years as a business leader, Chapchal has held chief executive positions and directorships at several leading technology companies including Integrierte System Grafische Industrie GmbH (ISGI), SQL Systems International, Fifth Wave Technology and Xenotron Holdings Plc.

Chapchal is a fluent French speaker and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and the Institute of Directors. He is passionate about the arts, particularly classical music and opera.

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About Camcon
Based in Cambridge, UK, Camcon Technology is a small fast growing company focused on the research and development of the Camcon binary actuator. Camcon binary actuating technology has been 15 years in development and is the invention of Camcon founder Wladyslaw Wygnanski.

The high-speed, low energy consumption, low heat dissipation and long life characteristics of the Camcon binary actuator mean that it has applications in a whole new range of areas, as well as being a replacement for existing actuator and valve technologies.

Camcon Technology licenses its technology to customers, typically on a field-of-use basis. The company develops pre-production prototypes for customers on a consultancy basis and then hands over designs either to its customers to manufacture in volume, or to a manufacturing partner.

Camcon is funded by ACUS Management Partners, an active management venture capitalist that specialises in funding early stage technology companies. For further information see: www.acus.co.uk.