Tucson engineers’ components aboard Endeavour’s final flight

By Patrick McNamara, Inside Tucson Business | Posted: Friday, July 29, 2011 12:00 pm

With the touchdown of the orbiter Atlantis July 21, the American Space Shuttle program officially ended. In addition to the well-publicized Tucson connection of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, the final days of the program carried another Southern Arizona link.

Packed away among the assorted experiments aboard the shuttle’s second to last mission, the Kelly commanded Endeavour, was the Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (LIFE) project.

Tucson engineering firm Lindel Engineering built components for the experiment, which The Planetary Society sponsored.

“We were really excited to participate in this program,” Marcos Martinez said, Lindel’s general manager.

Lindel was hired to build a set of titanium capsules designed to hold microorganisms that were tested in the orbiting environment.

News & Notes

Posted: Thursday, July 21, 2011 12:00 am

Arizona Daily Star

TUCSON

Bourque leases property for a manufacturing plant

Tucson-based Bourque Industries Inc. has signed a lease on a 20,000-square-foot industrial property on the south side.

The new location at 5333 E. Drexel Road will serve as a manufacturing plant for Bourque’s patented Kryron alloy – being developed as a strong and lightweight body and vehicle armor – as well as a pilot production facility for future Kryron applications, the company said.

Bourque, which is awaiting final certification of its body armor plate by the National Institute of Justice, recently announced that its armor stopped .50-caliber armor-piercing rounds during testing by the U.S. military at an undisclosed location.

Tucson firm wins contract to advance rare-earth technology

By David Wichner / Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Monday, July 11, 2011 2:00 pm

Tucson-based Materials and Electrochemical Research Corp. (MER Corp.) has won a $1 million contract from the U.S. Department of Energy to commercialize a process of converting rare-earth mineral ore into high purity metals.

The company was notified of the contract award today, MER CEO Jim Withers said, adding that a formal agreement still has to be finalized.

The project, which involves scaling up the process for commercial production, is expected to take about two years, Withers said.

MER was recently recognized with an R&D 100 Award from R&D magazine for the rare-earth technology. The method was specifically demonstrated for producing neodymium — a key material for supermagnets used in electric motors and other components — but it also can be used process other rare-earth metals, which are typically found together in ore deposits.

UA Healthcare opens cancer treatment center

Posted: Friday, July 8, 2011 5:00 pm

Inside Tucson Business

UA Healthcare has recently opened a Radiation Oncology Clinic at the Arizona Cancer Center at UMC Orange Grove, 1891 W. Orange Grove Road.

The clinic treated its first patient on June 13, using a Varian Trilogy Linear accelerator. The technology provides shorter treatment times for patients.

Tucson tech: On Net speed, we’re middle of pack in AZ

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Tuesday, July 5, 2011 12:00 am

Just how fast is Tucson’s Internet connection? By at least one measure, the answer is: a bit faster than average by national standards, but middling compared with other Arizona communities.

Online download speed tests show Tucsonans saw average speeds of 12.12 megabits per second as of Monday, according to the speed-test results based on a 30-day average by Netindex.com(www.netindex.com).

That’s faster than the national average of 11.13 Mbps, but Tucson lags behind the state average of 12.44 and is in the mid-range among 41 Arizona locations registering the required number of tests to rate. Phoenix was essentially neck-and-neck with Tucson, at 12.18 Mbps.

Arizona ranked 13th in speed among the states and the District of Columbia, according to Netindex.com, which is operated by Seattle-based Ookla.

Big projects constrained by rules, public concern, resources, report says analysis says

Land, water issues cloud prospect for solar energy

David Wichner Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Sunday, July 3, 2011 12:01 am

These are sunny days for Arizona’s solar-energy industry, with photovoltaic panels sprouting up on rooftops and major utility-scale installations planned across the state.

But some see clouds forming.

Land and water issues, including restrictive public-land-use policies and opposition from some environmentalists and neighbors, have stalled some major projects, a report by a University of Arizona law professor concludes.

Some of the most promising large-scale solar technologies – thermal systems that concentrate sunlight to make steam that runs generating turbines – may require too much land and water to be cost-effective and environmentally sound, says UA law professor Robert Glennon.

Tucson innovator in dog-training devices acquired by GPS firm

Garmin buys local electronics maker

Dale Quinn Arizona Daily Star | Posted: Friday, July 1, 2011 12:00 am

Satellite navigation company Garmin Ltd. has acquired a Tucson company that designs and manufactures electronic dog-training equipment.

The company’s main subsidiary, Kansas-based Garmin International Inc., signed an agreement to purchase Tucson-based Tri-Tronics Inc.

Financial terms of the deal, which was expected to close this week, were not disclosed.

Tri-Tronics has between 80 and 90 employees, said Ted Gartner, a spokesman for Garmin. The company’s current leadership will remain in place, Gartner said.

Tri-Tronics, at 1705 S. Research Loop, was founded in 1968 in Tucson by Jerry Gonda, according to the company’s website. It makes electronic collars used by trainers, breeders, hunters and pet owners.