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| Brainy company uses noggins to create success |
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Inventions on demand Dr. Richard Pavelle is a man perpetually in search of ways to build a better mousetrap. As the president and founder of Invent Resources (IR). a Costco member company whose calling card is having "inventors upon demand," Pavelle and his band of modern-day Edisons help create inventions for businesses and individuals. Take the XLerator, for instance, a hand dryer produced by the Excel Dryer Corporation of East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, that dries hands three times faster than the average hand dryer. Four years ago Invent Resources began working with Excel, the nation's number-two hand-dryer manufacturer, to come up with a speedier product. Studies had shown that drying hands under a hand dryer often took up to 45 seconds - as opposed to the average of 12 seconds it took to dry off with paper towels. "We used a new concept in drying hands by recognizing that most of the energy that goes into drying hands is in the evaporation of the water," says Pavelle. "But if you blow the water off the hands during the first three seconds, then you can spend seven seconds or so actually evaporating the water and you've reduced the drying time by a factor of three or four." The XLerator, which you'll now find in the bathrooms at Disney World among other places, is one of more than 200 products whose development Invent Resources has helped guide. Along with the 10-second hand dryer, IR's creations over the years include the microwave coffee maker, the electronic checkbook calculator and the golf club head with the expanded "sweet spot." The company has received more than 100 patents for its inventions, and the annual client sales resulting from its intellectual property total around $4 million. Ten years ago, Pavelle and fellow partners and scientists Sol Aisenberg, George Freedman and A. Ze'ev Hed - independent inventors and consultants - joined forces to pool their collective brain power. Since then the group - whose members range in age from 58 to 76 and hold advanced degrees in physics, mathematics, material sciences and engineering - has worked with companies as diverse as Mattel and Victoria's Secret, and has served the small inventor as well. Pavelle explains that often a person will come to Invent Resources with a concept for a new product and IR will help them build a prototype, develop it and get a patent. Only when a project is considered feasible does IR charge a fee. "One often talks about someone who is an expert at a company and he can give you every reason why something can't work," says Pavelle. "Whereas we take the approach that we're too stupid to know that it can't work. We try to find ways of solving problems." Every Tuesday, the four inventors meet in the Boston area to entertain clients, brainstorm and compare ideas about current projects and potential inventions. If they don't have potential clients coming in that day, the group kicks around concepts that could potentially be sold to companies. What's next in the IR pipeline'? Pavelle says the company is working on "a new type of snack food that is healthy and has no fat in it," and a device to measure the sharpness of a knife blade. "We've talked over the years about the possibility of developing a device indicating whether a knife was sharp which could be part of an electric knife sharpener," Pavelle says. "If it wasn't sharp, the machine could tell you that it's not and you have to continue sharpening." What remains sharp is the scientists' zeal for coming up with new solutions to seeming insoluble problems. "There's great pleasure," says Pavelle, "in seeing a solution that nobody has ever been able to see." Richard Deitsch has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, including Vibe and The San Diego Union-Tribune. He is the author of three children's books and is currently working on his first novel. He resides in New York City Member Profile |
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