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Originally published on 02/21/2002
If you ever get a chance to hear Steve Jurvetson speak, take it. He's managing director of the VC firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and lately he's been on a wild nanotechnology kick. He was in full pitch mode Tuesday night, when he chaired a panel for the MIT-Stanford Venture Lab. Steve's introduction drilled straight into the computational opportunities he sees in nanotechnology. Of course, he highlighted the nanotech companies he's invested in.
Many these firms have yet to bear fruit, and may not for several years. This is to be commended -- real venture capitalists take the long view, betting on technology trends that aren't obvious to everybody.
But there are interesting transitional companies -- those that exploit nanoscale (molecular) properties of materials for macro effects. For example, I recently enjoyed talking with NanoMuscle's CEO Rod MacGregor. NanoMuscle makes small (but not microscopic) linear "muscles" that combine the well-understood properties of nickel-titanium wire (trade name Nitinol), which contracts slightly when heated or when a current passes through it. The company's products use clever physical packaging to multiply the range of motion and the force available, and to decrease the time it takes the wires to expand again once they've contracted.
NanoMuscle is attacking an extremely large market: electric motors. In thousands of products, traditional rotary motors generate linear motion using gears and cams. NanoMuscle actuators reduce the complexity, weight, and cost of this inelegant hack by producing linear motion that can be more directly applied. The products also use less power for the same amount of work, and they are silent.
NanoMuscle's first big customers will be toy manufacturers. Unlike many nanotech companies that are still essentially lab experiments, the company already has a sizable customer, Hasbro, with which it recently signed a $10 million contract.
- Rafe Needleman
email: rafe-needleman@catchoday.com
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