Advanced Diamond Technologies Wins Prestigious R&D 100 Award

ROMEOVILLE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Advanced Diamond Technologies, Inc. (ADT), the world leader in developing and applying diamond films for industrial and electronic applications wins the prestigious R&D 100 Award for its UNCD^® Seals—deemed “one of the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year,” by R&D Magazine.

“We’re honored to receive this level of industry recognition and it validates our vision of diamond as an engineering material”

ADT’s patented, award-winning, and internationally recognized UNCD technology adds the exceptional hardness and low friction attributes of smooth, nanocrystalline diamond, to the demanding application of mechanical seals for fluid pumps. UNCD Seals improve reliability, save energy, and reduce costs in fluid pumping systems.

“Much of the innovation in mechanical seals over the last several decades has been in the materials used for the seal faces. Through the efforts recognized by this award, diamond is now available as a face material for seals. When it comes to durability and low friction, it doesn’t get better than diamond,” said ADT president Neil Kane.

The UNCD Seals resulted from a collaboration among ADT, John Crane Inc., and Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne). ADT developed a commercial manufacturing platform for producing UNCD Seals in volume with exceptional reproducibility and quality. John Crane, the world's largest manufacturer of seals, contributed significant engineering expertise and performed exhaustive qualification tests. Argonne provided materials characterization and testing through the support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (DOE-EERE) Industrial Technologies Program.

This is the second R&D 100 win for the UNCD technology. In 2003, UNCD marked the first-ever affordable diamond film suitable for mass production of a wide range of diamond-based microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices, biosensors, and microelectronic circuits.

“We’re honored to receive this level of industry recognition and it validates our vision of diamond as an engineering material,” said Kane.

About Advanced Diamond Technologies

ADT is a World Economic Forum 2007 Technology Pioneer, a Red Herring 100 Award finalist, and a runner-up for the Wall Street Journal’s Technology Innovation Award. A grant from the National Science Foundation’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program has made the development of UNCD Seals possible.

For more information about ADT, visit http://www.thindiamond.com. For more information about UNCD Seals, visit http://www.diamondseals.com.

For more information about Argonne, visit http://www.anl.gov.

For more information about John Crane, visit http://www.johncrane.com.