Author: Editorial Team

CRG celebrates 20 years in business

In March, 2017 CRG celebrated 20 years of successful business. Over the years its business model has transformed from straightforward R&D to becoming a technology commercialization incubator, forming new start-up companies based on the advanced technologies and products it has come up with, much of the research funded through government SBIRs/STTRs.

So far, three new companies are experiencing success as subsidiary spin-offs of CRG: Spintech LLC, Advantic LLC, and NONA Composites LLC, now called Kineticure LLC. More spin-offs are on the drawing board, taking advantage of technologies ranging from structural power supply to specially designed patient litters that stabilize patients with head and spine injuries.

In an economic climate that has been marked with one of the longest recessions since the Great Depression, CEO Patrick Hood is grateful that CRG and its employees have persevered and continue to develop great ideas that change how people do things.

CRG receives seventh When Work Works award

CRG received its seventh When Work Works award for 2016. The award, which highlights exemplary workplace practices among employers across the U.S., is given by the Families and Work Institute and the Society for Human Resource Management.

Employers are ranked on six factors of effective workplaces: a culture of trust; opportunities for learning; work/life fit; supervisor support for work success; autonomy; and satisfaction with earnings, benefits and opportunities. Read the Dayton Daily News article here.

CRG featured in DBJ Cover Story – Innovation Machine

(l-r) Spintech president Craig Jennings, NONA Composites president Ben Dietsch, CRG president and CEO Patrick Hood, Advantic president Brad Doudigan

On May 8th, 2015, the Dayton Business Journal published a cover story about CRG titled “Innovation Machine.” The article highlighted CRG’s spin-off businesses Advantic, Spintech and NONA Composites and the industries they target.

“Patrick Hood spent years trying to perfect a model to commercialize products from his research and development firm. Seems he found the right formula and now the Dayton region stands to benefit.” If you’re a DBJ subscriber, read the full article here.

Dayton Chamber of Commerce: 2015 Soin Award Winner, NONA Composites

On April 13th, 2015, the Dayton Chamber of Commerce FOCUS magazine released an article about NONA Composites, LLC. NONA Composites is this year’s recipient of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce’s Soin Award for Innovation. The award, created in 2007 and named for its sponsor, local entrepreneur Rajesh Soin, recognizes a company with a unique product that exemplifies the region’s tradition of innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Soin Award is designed to identify, honor and financially assist a company in the Dayton region that demonstrates the historical innovative spirit of the community. It carries a $25,000 prize – no small matter when a company is less than two years old. “We’re still a very small business and every dollar counts,” said NONA Composites President Ben Dietsch. “This award has helped us go a long way in being able to continue to reach out from a sales and marketing perspective and do some internal product development.”

The article highlights the REACH project that NONA Composites was instrumental in completing. Read the full article here.

DBJ: Beavercreek firm’s fix for nuclear waste problem a success

The 30-meter crane boom constructed of lightweight materials by CRG and NONA Composites

On February 23rd, 2015, the Dayton Business Journal published an article about the success of CRG’s REACH project. Last fall, Cornerstone Research Group Inc. and its subsidiaries made a 95-foot long crane-like structure for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. A drum burst inside a storage room at the plant, causing major issues, and the room needed to be “video mapped” before it could be sealed off permanently.

Said the article, “Cornerstone’s crane was a success as the DOE recently finished the video project, which is now being reviewed by its Accident Investigation Board while plant workers dismantle the crane. That success will bolster the company’s national reputation, which should attract more high-profile work and lead to additional jobs.” Typically a project like this crane would have taken about six months to make, but Cornerstone Research did it in seven weeks. Read the full story here. Below is a video of the REACH camera boom in use.

CRG’s camera boom enables safe spill inspection

On February 1st, 2015, Composites World published an article about CRG’s REACH project. Commissioned for the US Department of Energy’s (DoE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, NM, this very long 32-meter camera boom for the DoE’s appropriately named REACH project was designed for and built with carbon fiber composites, and then tested in only seven weeks, enabled by No Oven, No Autoclave (NONA) technology developed by a subsidiary of CRG, NONA Composites. The beam was light enough to be cantilevered from a steel support mounted to the pictured mobile frame.

The completed REACH system was deployed and tested six times by week seven, including tests of the camera transport rover. It was then transported to WIPP, assembled and used for training before deployment in following months. Read the Composites World article here.