MORRISVILLE, NC – A mechanical engineering company that has designed cell phones for Sony-Ericsson, hand-held scanners for Motorola and laptop components for Dell, has won the only grant from the Department of Energy’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to a North Carolina company. Porticos Inc. won a $1.7 million grant to develop technology for a new clothes dryer that could save 50 percent or more energy over current machines.

Gregory Patterson, president at Porticos tells us that the company, founded in 2003, is developing a totally different way of drying clothes. Existing clothes dryers suck air out of a home, heat it, and run it through the turning clothes to evaporate the moisture.

By lowering the pressure inside the dryer to near vacuum, the Porticos technology dries clothes at a much lower temperature. “Then the amount of temperature needed to transform the water from liquid to vapor is much less,” Patterson explains.

Patterson says the 11-person company expects to hire two to four new employees to help cover other work as staff works on the dryer technology.

The company also recently developed a cooling vest (www.porticool.com) that HAZMAT responders, firefighters and other people who have to work wearing a great deal of protective clothing or in high heat situations can don under their existing turnout gear to help stay cooler.

– By Allan Maurer

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Tags: ARRA, cooling vest, DOE, Energy, engineering, Gregory Patterson, Motorola, NC, Porticos, Sony Ericsson