Canadian technology company makes big splash in Europe with outstanding patent

Founders of WhalePower nominated for prestigious European Inventor Award

TORONTO, April 24, 2018 /CNW/ - WhalePower Corporation of Toronto is delighted to announce that its co-founders have been nominated as finalists for the prestigious European Inventor Award for 2018, sponsored by the European Patent Office. Stephen W. Dewar of Toronto, Ontario, Dr. Frank E. Fish of Downington, Pennsylvania, and Dr. Philip Watts of Long Beach, California have been granted patents for their Tubercle Technology in Canada, the US, China, and in Europe, pending in India. Their second patent caught the attention of the EPO. It was selected from an elite group of about 500 others by a distinguished jury comprising 12 leaders in business, politics, science, academia, research, and intellectual property.  There are five categories within the Award and three finalists within each category. Dewar, Fish, and Watts are finalists in the Non-European category. The winners will be announced at an Award ceremony on June 7 in Paris, France.

WhalePower's patent shows how turbines, compressors, pumps, and fans may be made more efficient, and quiet, by adding bumps called tubercles to the leading edges of their rotating blades. This invention was based on an insight of Dr. Frank Fish, a biologist who studies how animals move through water. Surprised to see bumps on the leading edges of a humpback whale's flippers, he surmised that they must convey some kind of movement advantage, although, for more than 100 years, engineers had assumed that the leading edges of wings, flippers, or fans must be smooth. Dr. Fish and Dr. Philip Watts, an expert on tsunami behavior, ran a simulation which showed that the humpback's bumps do help make these whales, the size of an average bus, acrobatically agile.  Stephen Dewar, an inventor and nature documentary filmmaker interested in whale behavior, read about their work.  He proposed that they form a company together to create more sustainable machines by mimicking the humpback's clever trick – one refined by over a million years of field tests. They formed WhalePower and have developed tubercled blades for use on wind turbines, computer fans, and HVLS fans. The latter are manufactured by licensees in Canada and in China. The production, sale and distribution of these fans employ hundreds. The fans quietly cool warehouses, barns, and factories in 38 countries, using 25% less energy to move 20% more air than similar systems.

"WhalePower would like to thank the European Patent Office for its interest in this green technology,  and the governments of Ontario and Canada for supporting early stage developments," says Dewar. "It's a great honour to be a finalist."

For more information, images and videos, please visit the European Patent Office website, and the WhalePower website. For information about the HVLS fans, visit Envira-North Systems'website or Shanghai FastLink's. For interviews or quotes from WhalePower, please contact Danielle Dewar at [email protected]. For more information on the Award, please click here.

SOURCE WhalePower Corporation

Danielle Dewar, Phone: [phone], Email: [email protected]