Word: omnitech
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...fact, though, Parish, 36, is on the side of the angels--or at least of the late Princess Diana and the Nobel Peace Prize committee. Omnitech's gadgetry aids in detecting and detonating buried land mines. If that is in one sense an exceptionally narrow market, in another it is a phenomenally broad one. About 110 million mines are thought to be scattered around 70 countries, from Angola to Cambodia. They kill or maim some 24,000 people a year. And only about 100,000 mines a year are being deactivated, vs. 2 million new ones planted...
...Enter Omnitech. It makes a kit that converts a tank, humvee or even bulldozer to remote-controlled operation. Small boxlike compartments strapped onto the vehicle, each containing an assembly of wires, cables and machined steel parts, turn the steering wheel and work other controls. The "driver" sits up to a mile or so away in front of a panel with one or two joysticks or a steering wheel and a small TV screen, manipulating the vehicle like someone playing a video game. Light vehicles carry gear that pinpoints the location of the mines for later destruction. Alternatively, tanks push heavy...
...that's just from the U.S. military. Though no contracts have been signed yet, Omnitech's exhibits at defense fairs in Bangkok and Abu Dhabi attracted Thai and Qatar representatives, who have opened active negotiations. In Canada and Norway the company has been invited to bid on outfitting vehicles with mine-clearing machinery. In Japan, Omnitech is angling to join a consortium that hopes to undertake a cleanup of unexploded World War II ordnance in China. For countries that need to clear minefields but lack the money to buy Omnitech's kits, which cost $125,000 to $150,000, Parish...
Looking beyond land mines, Parish foresees Omnitech technology being used in all sorts of repetitive and dangerous tasks--moving ore or tailings in a mine, hauling toxic wastes from an old dump, fighting oil-field fires. Omnitech is talking with Barbados and Jamaica about rigging vehicles used for dock transport in loading and unloading ships...
Altogether, Parish expects half his future volume to come from foreign sales. "Robotics is now where the computer industry was at the outset," he enthuses. And for now there are enough land mines around to keep Omnitech busy for years, doing well by doing good. --Reported by Richard Woodbury/Denver...