Camcon Valve Lands Energy Award

Camcon rolling swing valve wins East of England Energy Group's Innovation Award

3 February 2004 - Cambridge, UK - Camcon Technology, the inventor and developer of the Camcon binary actuator, has won a prestigious Innovation Award, from the East of England Energy Group, for its energy-efficient rolling swing valve.

Twelve companies competed for the first prize, which was awarded to Camcon on 28 January, 2004.

Camcon's rolling swing valve has been developed specifically for applications in the unfiltered fluids environment such as oil, chemical processing and water treatment.

Its high speed, low energy consumption and long life characteristics are set to have a huge impact on offshore oil and gas production, where power consumption is a major issue.

"The East of England Energy Group was surprised by the breadth and the quality of entries and the presentations. We felt that the Camcon entry demonstrated a valve configuration in a different way with applications not just in the oil and gas industry but in other sectors as well and was truly innovative", said Paul Alcock, chairman of the awards judges."

"We are delighted to have received the Innovation Award from EEEGR. It is the best validation of our efforts to establish the rolling swing valve as a standard in the oil and gas industry", said Wladyslaw Wygnanski, inventor of the Camcon binary actuator and managing director, Camcon Technology."

The rolling swing valve, based on the principles of ground-breaking Camcon binary actuating technology, uses high power permanent magnets and a spring-loaded armature. It requires a very short electrical pulse to disrupt the magnetic field, causing the armature to switch from one stable position to another, thereby opening or closing the valve. No electric current is needed to maintain the ON or OFF position. This creates a unique opportunity to drive even multiple valve systems from a local battery.

Camcon has recently launched its bi-stable pinch valve for medical applications.

Camcon rolling swing valve characteristics:

• fast reaction time: three milliseconds
• low energy: less than one joule per change over, zero current consumption while in either of its two stable positions
• bi-directional flow permitted
• high pressure capability
• large orifice size
• suitable for unfiltered fluids

- ends -


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.