TECHINNOVATION TECH OFFERS

The company offers a suite of innovative automated liquid handling systems, hardware and software for process automation designed to enhance precision, efficiency, and scalability in biological research. The industry currently faces significant challenges with semi or full automation of laboratory equipment, including high costs, limited flexibility, and manual errors. These bottlenecks hinder the efficiency and reliability of complex laboratory processes. The company's technology addresses these issues with a range of flagship products that provide cutting-edge automation for tasks such as genomic and proteomic analysis, drug discovery, and clinical diagnostics. The systems feature modular assembly, allowing for easy customization and scalability to meet the evolving needs of life science laboratories. This flexibility ensures that the solutions can adapt to various experimental setups and requirements. One of the unique value proposition of the company's technology is its ability to significantly reduce costs up to 90% compared to traditional automation systems. This cost-effectiveness is achieved through innovative mechanical design, advanced software integration, and efficient hardware utilization. Additionally, the systems boast the largest consumables library in the industry, providing researchers with a wide range of options to support their specific needs. The company is actively seeking software and OEM partnerships to further enhance its product offerings and expand its market reach. By collaborating with key partners, it aims to continue driving innovation and providing top-tier solutions to the life sciences industry.

Sensor technology for smart homes and smart building services has undergone significant evolution and advancements over time. Initially designed as stand-alone devices without communication capabilities, sensors have advanced to interconnected wireless communication systems with built-in antennas powered by batteries. The latest advancements include next-generation low-power wireless reception technology, enabling the design and manufacture of long-lasting wireless sensors with miniature batteries. These advancements have greatly benefited the development of wireless sensors such as smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, sirens, fire alarms, heat alarms, and more. A Japanese corporation has developed a new low-power wireless technology that significantly enhances synchronization, standby reception, and driver processes during the sensor's wireless communication cycle.

In the development of communication networks, various challenges emerge in achieving wireless signal coverage in certain areas, while the cost of deploying traditional wired Ethernet remains prohibitive in specific locations. Industries accustomed to slower wired communications now seek high-speed alternatives to facilitate IoT integration and enhance operational efficiency, yet they are hesitant to undertake extensive rewiring efforts. Building networks across diverse settings, including buildings, condominiums, and factories, often encounters significant cost hurdles. This is primarily due to the need for multiple Wi-Fi repeaters to cover areas with poor signal reach, as well as the requirement for numerous network switches and construction work involving cable installation under floors and above ceilings. A solution lies in technology that facilitates data communication over existing wires within facilities, such as flat cables, twisted pair wires, coaxial cables, and power lines. The effective communication speed varies from several Mbps to several tens of Mbps, depending on the type of cable and the wiring environment. Moreover, this technology seamlessly integrates with Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and other existing infrastructures, providing a cost-effective approach to network construction. By leveraging these technologies, it becomes feasible to establish society's network infrastructure at a reduced cost, particularly in challenging environments such as concrete structures, underground areas, tunnels, and spaces with metal walls.

Bioprocessing technologies used in scaling manufacturing production typically uses scale-up and scale-out approaches through microcarrier-based stirred tank bioreactors, wave bags or cell stackers and multi-layered flasks. However, during the research and development process of cell and gene therapies, there is a significant technical gap between basic research methods and these manufacturing process development, which causes problems such as increase in time and cost of the development process. Cell and Gene Therapy manufacturing is an emerging area in the biopharmaceutical industry that must overcome high barriers of resource, capacity, and cost constraints. Therefore, it is extremely important to consistently consider and design a culture process from R&D to commercialization as a closed system with a certain size of scale-up and automation.  This technology introduces a robust and economically viable culture process in a closed culture system which comprises of an automated cell culture medium change device that can be installed in commercial CO2 incubators, where the device is coupled with a patented microwell bag and V-shaped adhesion cell culture bag, capable of both spheroid culture (3D) and adhesion culture (2D). This novel technology has established a culture method that meets the requirements of clinical use by improving sterility, reproducibility, and operability, and produces a large number of uniform-sized clusters. The technology owner is seeking partnerships and collaborations with institutions, hospitals, biotechnology and biopharmaceutical firms. 

Paper packaging is a versatile material used for a wide range of products. Its widespread adoption is due to its renewable and relatively low-cost resource along with environmental benefits such as recyclability and biodegradability. While paper packaging offers several advantages, some drawbacks of the material include porosity and the lack of barrier properties against moisture, oil, and grease. To overcome these limitations, conventional coatings such as polyethylene (PE) or polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been employed to impart the required barrier protection. However, during the paper recycling process, it is difficult to repulp the coated paper due to several factors and results in reduced recyclability of such packaging materials. The technology on offer is a water-based coating formulation that can be applied onto paper packaging surfaces to act as a barrier against grease, liquid water, and water vapour. The coating imparts barrier protection functionalities, improving the paper’s resistance to grease, liquid water, and water vapor significantly. Use of bio-sourced constituents in the coating also improves product sustainability. As the coating’s constituents are repulpable, recyclability of the paper packaging can be achieved. With increasing awareness of reducing packaging waste, the deployment of this technology will offer companies a recyclable paper packaging with notable barrier properties. The technology owner is seeking for R&D co-development, test bedding and IP out licensing opportunities of this technology with interested companies.

The Reconfigurable Workspace Soft Gripper (RWSG) is a bio-inspired, pneumatically actuated, shape morphing soft robotic gripper that is capable of rapid reconfigurability. It features passive retractable nails, bi-directional foldable petals, and a flexible palm to adapt to various grasping and manipulation tasks and requirements. The ability to rapidly reconfigure allows the RWSG to grasp a wide range of large, thin, hard, delicate, and deformable objects. These capabilities make the RWSG a uniquely advantageous tool for high mix low volume manipulation and packing scenarios such as food assembly, packaging of groceries, and packing of consumer electronics.

Excessive use of nitrogen-based fertilizers leads to nutrient runoff into water bodies, which can severely harm aquatic ecosystems and cause eutrophication. Therefore, it is important to treat wastewater containing these nutrients. This technology takes an innovative step by not only removing nitrogen from wastewater but also recovering it and converting it into ammonia, the key ingredient in fertilizers. Using electrocatalysis technology and cost-effective non-precious metal catalysts, nitrogen is recovered from municipal and industrial wastewater. The technology is suitable for businesses with space constraints, as it comes in a decentralized and scalable device. The technology provider is looking for partners to test-bed the technology, including but not limited to owners of green roofs, urban farms, greenhouses, and household planting sites, as well as wholesalers and retailers of plants.

Lithium-ion battery technology using graphite anode material is widely used in consumer electronics, electric vehicles and energy storage systems. However, for high-power, ultra-fast charge/discharge applications, e.g., regenerative braking in cars, electric buses, batteries for aircraft/marine sectors, graphite anode material is less preferred due to safety and performance limitations. Currently, lithium titanate oxide or LTO battery technology is one of the commercially available solutions for high power applications. LTO battery is a type of rechargeable battery that has a longer cycle life, faster charging and safer than conventional lithium-ion batteries. Despite these advantages, LTO battery is up to two times more costly than conventional lithium-ion batteries in the market, and has considerably lower specific energy density of about 60-110 Wh/kg than conventional lithium-ion chemistries, e.g., 90-165 Wh/kg for LFP and 150-270 Wh/kg for NMC.   The technology proposed by the Singapore-based research team relates to a method to synthesise a proprietary formulation of lithium-ion battery anode consists of mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO2) material and robust LiMnFePO4 cathode. The research team's organisation holds patents related to synthesis of mesoporous TiO2 and LiMnFePO4 materials. This novel anode formulation for high power batteries is potentially able to reduce the production cost to about US$250 per kWh from US$500-600 per kWh for LTO, according to preliminary estimates by the team based on manufacturing capabilities in China. The cost reduction is derived from the use of cheaper TiO2 raw materials (vs. LTO) and the simple manufacturing process. The mesoporous TiO2 anode material can be integrated into existing manufacturing lines for lithium-ion cells without the need for new equipment. This TiO2 Li-ion cell chemistry offers inexpensive high power and safer battery technology. Using 18650 cylindrical cell of mesoporous TiO2 anode material with manganese-based cathode material, the cell achieved superior charging rate performance of up to 4C, energy density level of 70-100 Wh/kg and a cycle life of about 5,000 cycles, while retaining 80% of the initial capacity. The research team anticipated that the TiO2 cells will have up to 30% better energy density than LTO cell technology and 40-50% lesser cost than LTO technology. The research team is seeking industry partners to collaborate for a 5-10 kWh test bed project on a fast-charging application including uninterrupted power supply (UPS), regenerative braking and etc. The research team is able to tap on their in-house facilities to fabricate mesoporous TiO2 cells (21700 or 18650 format) using the novel anode formulation.