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Ron Sully, Director of Marketing


Welcome to OMNInews from Omnica Corporation, a product design and engineering company located in Irvine.
Enjoy our selection of news, trending topics, light reading, and what's happening at Omnica.                         

Ron Sully - Director of Marketing 


June 2015  
   
   OMNInewsOriginal  Thermal subsystems. Point-of-care, microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip,  and devices that use reagents require fluid control engineering. These and other types of projects frequently require heating or cooling elements to control temperatures. Sometimes we have to maintain a temperature range or achieve a specific target without overshoot. In this article  we discuss the variety of methods we use to meet these needs, including custom and off-the-shelf solutions.
                                                                     Volcano Therapeutics arterial test fixture.
    

    Design for reimbursement Profits for most products are based on how many they sell minus what they cost to produce. For medical devices there is another variable, one that some device makers investigate too late or not at all. Will it be covered by insurance?

 

Celebration of an effective breast cancer screening device we developed for a start-up company was short lived when our client discovered that use of the product in a doctor's office was not covered by insurance. We hear similar stories once or twice a year, so it is not a rare occurrence. According to a senior economic director at St. Jude Medical, there are five critical considerations regarding third party reimbursement stakeholders should heed when developing medical devices.   Neomatrix Halo breast cancer screening device.  

  

   Why start-ups fail  Experienced entrepreneurs know it's not just about the money. Others are surprised to learn that according to 100 start-up bosses, the number one biggest challenge is getting the team right. In this excellent article, lack of a competitive advantage and not serving a market need are two more of seven reasons some start-ups don't reach their potential.
 
  Transparent aluminum After all these years, it has finally arrived. The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has been researching magnesium aluminate (trade name, Spinel), for 10 years. The big news is the NRL have perfected manufacturing with sintering, a process that is transferable and scalable for industry.

    

The ceramic is much tougher, stronger, and harder than glass. It transmits infrared, and it can withstand sand and rain erosion. Near net shapes and clear plates up to 30 inches wide can be produced, offering opportunities like transparent armor, rugged windows, lenses and imaging systems with excellent optical quality.                            Spinel can be manufactured in any shape. 


   Read faster, without taking a class A start-up in Boston has patented a novel way to read faster than the 220 words per minute you're clocking right now. The technology, based on the premise that a lot of reading time is wasted by moving our eyes back and forth, was developed in the 1970s as Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP).

 

Spritz has re-imagined the one-word-at-a-time method by adding highlighted text and hash lines. They claim its users can easily achieve 300 to 600 words per minute with better comprehension than older techniques. But at high speeds, don't blink or you'll miss a sentence.   

 

The company is licensing the technology to websites, device and app developers. Their focus is to implement the tech on devices with constrained screen sizes like smart watches. for consuming chunks of information on the go.

       
  OMNICA News and Announcements . . .  
  

    Brian McManus, Mechanical Engineer  

You have probably noticed that we are no longer searching for a mechanical engineer. We found Brian McManus, the perfect person for the job. Brian has an MS in mechanical engineering from Villanova (near Philadelphia). Before starting with Omnica, he lived in Boston and participated in the marathon this year. He is an avid runner and jogs with his husky, Apollo.   

 

Here, Brian is involved in all aspects of mechanical design including concepting, assembly, and engineering.  He uses LabView for system design and development of new and existing fixtures.   

   
   
July Calendar Quiz  
Wow, this is a hard one. How many Omnica orbs are hidden on the dark side of the moon in the June calendar image? Any answer plus or minus 3 of the actual number of orbs will score you a Starbuck's coffee card. Yes, coffee for you. Make the best use of it by reading when to drink coffee for maximum effectiveness.
Contact me
if you want a 2015 desk calendar. I only have 5 left. 
 
 
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               Please Call:  Ron Sully - 949-472-0275

 
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   We are different than other product developers. Omnica is a  full service high-tech design and engineering firm in business for 30 years. We have 28 full-time employees (who have worked here for an average of 14 years), and perform all design and engineering services in house, at our Irvine facility. Our specialty is developing medical devices for both start-up companies, large firms like Abbott, Alcon, Quidel, Biosense Webster, Medtronic, and many others.