ACT Receives National Award for Innovation and Economic Growth

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Feb 28, 2011, 07:00 ET

LANCASTER, Pa., Feb. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT), a premier thermal solutions provider, today announced that it has received a Tibbetts award from the Small Business Administration (SBA). SBA presents the awards nationally to small companies and individuals that have advanced technical innovation and economic growth through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

ACT's Tibbetts Award recognizes the company's work in meeting the U.S. government's needs for advanced thermal management systems and commercializing the technologies in diverse applications. ACT was specifically noted for its development of Constant Conductance Heat Pipe products and technology. The now multi-million dollar business initiated from a 2005 SBIR grant to investigate heat pipe heat exchangers for manned spacecraft. ACT has successfully marketed this technology in the aerospace/satellite industry and is now an industry-wide recognized supplier of these critical thermal control components.

Named after Roland Tibbetts, who was instrumental in developing the SBIR program, the Tibbetts award is presented annually to awardees based on economic impact of their technological innovation, benefit to federal R&D needs, increased commercialization of federal needs and diverse participation. Due to budget constraints, the award had not been issued in three years. Of the thousands of firms participating in the SBIR program, only 44 companies were recognized with this award.

Dr. Jon Zuo, Founder and President of ACT, and Dr. William Anderson, Chief Engineer, accepted the award at a ceremony in Washington, DC on February 15, 2011. Administration officials including Karen Mills, SBA Administrator, and Aneesh Chopra, Chief Technology Officer of the United States, addressed the award ceremony. A private reception was later held at the White House.

"This is a proud day not only for Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc., but also for the City of Lancaster," said Sean Greene, SBA's Associate Administrator for Investment and Senior Adviser for Innovation. "Companies like ACT represent the best in American ingenuity."

"We are grateful for the opportunities provided to by the SBIR program to develop technologies that benefit our sponsor, our community and our customers," according to Dr. Zuo. "I am proud of our employees who have worked so diligently to define and develop thermal technologies and markets that need them. We continue to be actively engaged in the SBIR process and look forward to creating more opportunities that benefit all parties."

Profitable since inception in 2003, ACT has been recognized as one of the fastest 50 growing companies in Central Pennsylvania in three of the last four years. ACT is a developer and manufacturer of advanced heat pipes, pumped liquid and two-phase loops, and thermal storage devices. ACT specializes in technology development and custom thermal product design and manufacturing. ACT's technologies have been used in applications from spacecraft thermal control to catalytic reactor cooling to medical surgery temperature control. ACT's quality system is certified to ISO9001:2008 and AS9100-B. ACT currently serves customers worldwide in Aerospace, Military, Commercial, and Government R&D markets. Many of these customers are in the Fortune Global 500 list.