Albuquerque, NM An unusual side of Sandia National Laboratories will be on display Thursday, April 26, from 1-1:30 p.m. in Sandia's Robotic Manufacturing Science and Engineering Laboratory (RMSEL). Russian scientists from SPEKTR (pronounced SPECTOR), a fledgling Russian company, will meet that afternoon with the founder and president of the leading African-American-owned investment banking firm, M.R. Beal, to learn how to finance the manufacture of an innovative wheelchair seat intended to prevent development of potentially deadly pressure sores. The seat was originally developed by Calif.-based Numotech, Inc., which is expected to seek a New Mexico company to perform the final assembly, testing, and long-term servicing of the seat, once components are provided by the SPEKTR organization.
A non-operative prototype of the wheelchair seat, to be displayed at RMSEL Thursday, uses a series of air pumps to automatically inflate and deflate air bladders that prevent pressure sores from forming. Such sores the dreaded results of extended immobility are caused by insufficient blood circulation in the patient's soft tissues. The sores can become infected and result in amputations and even death. Expected to be present at the media opportunity are Jim Tegnelia, Sandia VP for Department of Defense Programs; Bernard Beal, president of Wall Street-based M.R. Beal & Co. Investment Bankers; Dr. Robert Felton, president of Numotech; and a representative of SPEKTR. Each will give a five-minute talk on the contribution of his group to the project, and then answer questions.
The $3 million project, when signed, will be a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between Sandia and Numotech, funded under the US Department of Energy's Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) program. Researchers will address industrial engineering and assembly problems, as well as materials improvements needed to create a manufacturable version of the FDA-approved pr
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Contact: Neal Singer
nsinger@sandia.gov
505-845-7078
DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
24-Apr-2001