In 1974, Andy Dembicks searched the Southeast for the ideal
place to raise his family and start a new business. It was the small luxuries —
such as weather, proximity to recreation and quality educational institutions —
that brought the New York City-born and New Jersey-bred entrepreneur to
Raleigh. He owned and operated Southern Case, the manufacturer of Craftsman
power tool and chain saw carry cases for Sears, Roebuck and Company. But in
1995, Dembicks started a new company — Andrews Toolworks — and began
manufacturing Craftsman Professional router bits for Sears and Ryobi router
tables for Home Depot. The company’s interest in the hard metals used to make
the router bits led to an even “bigger” discovery — the world of
nano-technology and the science of friction and lubrication (tribology).
In September 2007, the company commercialized its research
and formed Fusion-Tech Inc. (www.fusiontechnanogies.com), a Raleigh-based
company that uses nano-technology programs to increase total fuel economy and
reduce wear in capital equipment and minimize atmospheric emissions. While the
word “nano” is a reference to size, and a nanometer is one billionth of a
meter, Fusion-Tech’s successes are anything but small. Dembicks and his
employees applied the science to the reduction of friction in internal
combustion engines, power trains and firearms. They found that nano-compound
modified lubricants form microscopic bonds on surfaces of engines,
transmissions, universals and wheel-bearings, creating harder surfaces and low
friction. This means an improvement in rifle performance, fuel efficiency and
most notably, a reduction in hydrocarbon emissions.
“The nano fills in the ‘valleys’ or hiding places for
hydrocarbons that hide from the engine ignition,” Dembicks said. “So, in
addition to reducing the carbon footprint through better fuel efficiency, users
also help reduce internal combustion engine pollution. This technology has huge
national implications.”
Fusion-Tech manufactures and distributes patented
nano-ceramic surface treatments, oil and fuel additives, and gun barrel
lubricants. The company targets non-military, medium to large-sized fleet
operators, such as couriers, trucking companies, law enforcement agencies and
retailers. Fusion-Tech has also formed a strategic alliance with the Department
of Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University and
will have exclusive rights and use of the intellectual property resulting from
the partnership. In addition, the company is working with federal government
officials and will meet with representatives at Fort Bragg in upcoming months.
The US Olympic Biathlon Team tested Fusion-Tech compounds
and reported a 35 percent improvement in the performance of their rifles, and
the New Jersey Institute of Technology reported a 25 percent performance
improvement on badly worn 30-06 rifles. In the realm of internal combustion
engines, a local law enforcement agency reported a 13.3 percent improvement in
fuel efficiency using Fusion-Tech nano-compounds. A national lumber
distribution company reported a 21-34 percent fuel efficiency improvement with
reduction of hydrocarbon emissions in their fleet of trucks of over 93 percent.
Despite the company’s advances, Dembicks said it is critical
to get the word out on Fusion-Tech’s technology and claims — a goal he hopes to
remedy when new regional and national partnerships are formed.
“The biggest challenge we face is making people believe that
our technology does what it says it does. We have done groundbreaking research
right here in Raleigh, and we have to show prospective customers that the
claims we are making are true,” Dembicks said. “This technology will make our
military safer in battle, reduce our dependency on foreign oil and make the air
we breathe cleaner. We have to make everyone aware of this opportunity.”
When he isn’t experimenting in tribology or nano-technology,
Dembicks, now 66, enjoys spending time with his wife, Shelley, driving around
town in his Ford Thunderbird and writing recipes and cooking in his commercial
kitchen. Clearly, it’s the “small stuff” that has, and will continue to have, a
big impact on the life of Andy Dembicks.