Some more DD on FOCS. Very impressive. Now throw in the fact that they can do this all wireless and all I can say is WOW>
=========================================================
Company Profile
FiberChem develops produces, markets and licenses its patented fiber optic chemical sensor (“FOCS®”) technology, which detects and monitors hydrocarbon pollution in the air, water and soil. The Company has developed a range of products and systems based on FOCS®, which provide continuous monitoring capabilities with real-time information. The Company also is developing a range of sensor products based on its Sensor-on-a-Chip® technology for a wide variety of environmental, consumer, commercial, industrial, automotive, medical and military applications.
Founded in 1987, FiberChem has invested in excess of $25 million in research and development relating to a wide range of technologies, and has focused on products for environmental monitoring and industry. Notwithstanding the impact of governmental regulations or lack thereof with respect to the Company's markets, FiberChem recognized that the State of Florida represented a short-term opportunity for aboveground tank leak detection and set about getting its sensor products specified. At the same time, the phase-out of Freon® presented the Company with an opportunity to establish its technology as the preferred replacement for the existing Freon®/Infrared method for measurement of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in process water streams at offshore platforms.
The Company has substantially enhanced the value of its development initiatives with Texas Instruments, Inc. (“TI”) for its Sensor-on-a-Chip®. By working together with the Optoelectronics Group within TI's Semiconductor Group, the Company has expanded the scope of the joint marketing activity in the chemical sensor marketplace. The short-term result from this process has been development work on a number of new products including, but not limited to:
a hydrocarbon vapor sensor for a gasoline retailing applications;
a carbon monoxide sensor for residential, medical and automotive use;
sensors for the detection of chemical warfare agents;
a fail-safe flammable gas sensor for a household appliance control system and
a breath alcohol sensor for an ignition interlock device for automotive use.
The Company's distinguished customer list includes:
BP/AMOCO
Shell Oil
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Texaco
Florida Power
TOSCO
Industrial Scientific Corporation
Unocal
Kerr Mcgee
U.S. Military
Pennzoil
Milestones and Key Developments
Feb 2000
DULLES, Va., Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- ORBCOMM Global, L.P. (ORBCOMM), the first commercial provider of global low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite data communication services, today announced that its value-added reseller, Intrex Data Communications Corporation of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Dallas, Texas, plans to merge with FiberChem Inc. of Las Vegas, Nevada The combined company will be named DecisionLink Incorporated.
Intrex has spent five years developing several large-scale, proprietary communication systems that use the ORBCOMM satellite network. Using the ORBCOMM system and the Internet, the UDN allows a customer to monitor and control remote or mobile assets such as gas wells, pipelines, compressors, storage tanks, offshore platforms, utilities or service vehicles directly from a desktop PC via the Internet.
DecisionLink will bring together Intrex's UDN and Fiberchem's advanced fiber-optic chemical sensors with the ORBCOMM network to provide customers with critical environmental information used for pipeline leak detection, oil production, water quality monitoring and industrial wastewater compliance monitoring.
Feb 2000
FiberChem Inc. through its wholly owned subsidiary FCI Environmental Inc. (FCI), announced that it has signed an agreement to cooperate with a division of TNO, the Dutch research organization, to develop FCI's sensor technology for an application of immediate interest to the food and beverage industry.
The project is also partially funded by Coca-Cola Enterprises-NL.
May 1999 - FiberChem just signed a 5-year cross-licensing agreement for certain sensor technologies with Bosch Telecom, a major German manufacture of automotive and communications equipment. This agreement will allow the Company access to certain Bosch technologies to markets that help move the Company away from its reliance on the regulated community. Each of these markets has multi-million dollar revenue potential. The first application of the Bosch technology is expected to be in the medical marketplace.
February 1999 - FiberChem has an agreement with Gilbarco, Inc., to develop sensors which will enable Gilbarco to be first to market with a new line of products. This product line is expected to meet the anticipated national regulations expected to be announced by the end of 1999 and to be certified by the California Air Resources Board. Gilbarco is the largest supplier of retail gas pumps in the United States.
December 1998 - FiberChem has a strategic alliance with Whessoe Varec, a division of Endress+Hauser of Switzerland, for the Florida Aboveground Storage Tank market, where compliance is mandated by the end of 1999. A Company's PetroSense® line is the only continuous certified leak detection product which provides the lowest priced compliance option for a 1,000 tank segment of the market.
Market Overview
FiberChem's primary markets are the petroleum production, refinery and distribution chain. Major oil companies, distributors and retailers of gasoline, diesel and aircraft fuel are important customers. Other important markets and customers include remediation companies, environmental consultants, shipping ports, airports and military bases. The markets for sensors that transcend the petroleum hydrocarbon marketplace are very diverse and addressed directly by Company personnel. The Company is not dependent on any one major customer.
FiberChem was founded to address key environmental regulatory applications. The deemphasis of such activity in the mid-1990's led the Company to pursue other markets. In the absence of strong Federal regulatory activity, the Company has focused on states and other opportunities. The primary strategy has been towards Strategic Partnerships with industry leaders, such as Gilbarco and Whessoe Varec. Partnerships with industry leaders, such as Amoco, also play a key role in developing acceptance of its technology in the always conservative oil industry.
Management believes that the distinctive capabilities of the Company's FOCS® technology provide competitive advantages in its markets. The Company is unaware of any other product in the marketplace that can monitor petroleum hydrocarbons at all three desired monitoring points, i.e., the vapor area above the water, the floating hydrocarbons at the water/air interface and the hydrocarbons dissolved in the water. Management believes that this capability, coupled with the FOCS® rapid response to a wide variety of petroleum hydrocarbons, provide the Company with a competitive advantage. In particular, the wide dynamic range of the measuring technology allows the detection of new leaks on top of old contamination. The Company's Florida certification is a direct result of this capability.
Investment Highlights
The Company has been awarded 29 patents on various aspects of its technology and owns key product trademarks.
The Company has development agreements with Bechtel, IWACO (Holland) and Bosch (Germany).
Its Sensor-on-a-Chip® technology was developed in conjunction with Texas Instruments. If the markets develop as expected, the Company should be profitable and cash flow positive on a quarterly basis by the end of 1999.
|
