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To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (36949)	5/4/2002 11:58:10 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69316

NanoMuscle wrestles with miniature motors A startup's wares could displace millions of tiny motors in toys, cameras, and cars. By Philip E. Ross April 25, 2002 A maker of tiny linear actuators could displace millions of miniature motors in toys, cameras, disk drives, and automobile controls. That's the hope of Rod MacGregor, cofounder and president of the startup NanoMuscle. Though his electric movers and shakers are about the size of a paper clip, their active part is a very thin wire with a nano-scale inner structure. "The alloy of nickel and titanium forms nano-size crystals that combine to make strands 50 microns across," Mr. MacGregor says. "Electric current rearranges them by heating." Founded in 1998, NanoMuscle is gearing up to provide millions of the metal muscles, each costing perhaps $1, for a still-classified Hasbro toy due in stores by the 2003 holiday season. The company, based in Antioch, California, also provides trial kits to designers, including a participating European automaker. NanoMuscle is now closing a $4.5 million third round of funding from that automaker and the VC firm CrossBow Ventures, which raises the company's total funding to $10 million. Earlier investors include Jetta, a Hong Kong toy manufacturer; Silicom Ventures, a Silicon Valley VC firm; and Ideo, a design firm in Palo Alto, California. NanoMuscle applies a 35-year-old discovery known as shape-memory alloy. Heat a wire made of this combination of metals past a critical temperature, and it contracts by as much as 40 percent, pulling in a linear direction--something motors, with their rotary motion, can do only with the help of bulky crankshafts. "They have about 1,000 times the energy density of muscle, and 4,000 times that of an electric motor," Mr. MacGregor says. In practice, it's only a 400-fold increase in the energy-to-weight ratio because the little wires are bound to a much heavier heat sink that cools them in preparation for their next contraction. Still, a 400-fold jump isn't half bad. It isn't good for Mabuchi Motor, the biggest maker of small motors, but NanoMuscle is targeting only a portion of the $12 billion world motor market--just the tiny ones used for back-and-forth motion. Mr. MacGregor estimates this niche market has a value of $3.8 billion. Cars are the real opportunity for NanoMuscle. But because car-design cycles take many years, while fad-driven toy cycles take only months, the more immediate showcase for the technology will be toys like Luke the robot. Luke--part of Mr. MacGregor's traveling show--can move his head, eyes, and jaws, simultaneously or separately, and in any order, all without making the slightest sound. In contrast, his companion, a motor-driven Furby, just repeats the same, hardwired routine, whirring and clicking, all while consuming five times as much electricity. True, not many toys need NanoMuscle's motive force. But consider Luke as a proof of concept for a bigger target: the typical luxury car has 170 motors. Write to Philip E. Ross. [Harry: The problem with this technology is the force applied is not consistent over the contraction range. It is hard to calibrate and hard to predict the level of force at an point as the purity of the metal is difficult to control.]