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Technology Stocks : Turbodyne Technologies Inc. (TRBDF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nathan Hansen who wrote (2939)	3/4/1999 11:34:00 PM
From: Far Side	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 3458

My visit with Turbodyne at the SAE Congress. I should first explain that this is one heck of a big show in Detroit. It's a real "who's who" of the automotive business. Turbodyne had a significant booth (roughly 2000 sq ft) with Turbopacs displayed in all models, mosfets, dynachargers, Baja Metal stuff as well as Optima Wheel products. The first person I met there was a very nice lady from Optima Wheel (who could share no further insight about TRBD other than information on Optima wheel). Paul Schwartz then introduced himself and explained his role at Turbodyne on the east coast. Paul is a business development manager for TRBD out of NYC. He has been working with various government, environmental agencies along with certain Transit and Waste management companies in the States to encourage them to buy and install TRBD products. I was glad to find out that the company has devoted a resource like Paul to this key area. He's good. He's got some great on ideas and approachs on closing business in the municipal and industrial sales areas. Then Prof. Hofbauer showed up with two young TRBD engineers in tow . They had just returned from a technical session (diesel fuel injection combustions systems)and I had a good opportunity to talk with them. Prof. Hofbauer and these two engineers are currently working on the dynacharger designs which will be incorporated into the final designs for 3 OEM engines in the near future. The engineers (originally from the Propulsion Research Institute) are very big on TRBD's technology and spoke very highly of Prof. Hofbauer. Prof. Hofbauer has development an excellent core team of applied engineers to the Turbodyne engineering team. Under Prof. Hofbauer's close supervision, they basically take the invented design (Dynacharger) and incorporate a prototype into to a final engine application (in this case a 1.9 litre VW engine.) I then introduced myself to Prof. Hofbauer. He was very approachable man who sat down with me in the TRBD booth and used a laptop presentation to show me some of the challenges TRBD had been faced with in dealing with heat coming from the engines. He went on to explain how they developed some very innovative concepts to solve these issues. We then discussed how the impact of the mosfet had the potential to beone of the most significant achievement in recent years in automotive power innovations. It quickly became very clear to me that having the technology is one thing and applying it is quite another. Incorporating the current Turbopac or Dynacharger designs into a specific engines design takes a serious amount of integration design and testing time prior to it ever hitting the production line. That work is going on today at Turbodyne and will continue as OEMs buy into to the superior Turbocharger technology which Turbodyne enjoys today. Half way through my discussion, a team of engineers from Renault arrived at the TRBD booth. I had to break up my talk with Prof Haubauer because Paul explained to me that one of the people in the group was the chief engine engineer for Renault it was appropriate for me at that time to allow Prof. Hofbauer to dialogue with them. This chief Renault Engineer gentleman and Prof. Hofbauer started talking and it was very interesting to watch the body language. The three french engineers were mostly listening while Prof. Hofbauer talked to them about Dynacharger benefits and progress Turbodyne was making with other european OEMs. Then Walter Ware showed up next. WW is a real seasoned, polished professional. We had a good chat. Things are moving along very well at Pacific Baja and Optima Wheel now that all internal moves have been completed. Though the DD is progressing slower then they would like due to the political arena they have to work in, Walt clearly emphasized that the Turbocharger side of the company is where a considerable growth for the company existed. Walt said though wheel manufacturing and aluminum casting would continue to be a core competency for the company the future was in the new technology. Later in the afternoon, I met Mr. Peter Kitzinski who gave me his perspective on the progress of the company within their european division which looks very bright for 1999. The European market for Turbochargers is even larger than the U.S. but the sales cycle take time. The addition of Prof. Hofbauer to the TRBD was essential to the building of long term relationships with TRBD's future Euro OEM customers which will enhance the Corporation's ability to capitalize in these key markets. I feel I should comment that I did not see any one from Allied Signal at the SAE show or at the TRBD booth. Just an observation. So it was a good show and Turbodyne did a great job there. I hope it pays off in the future. Jim