UB Alumnus Norman McCombs

President Barack Obama has announced that Norman R. McCombs, a University at Buffalo alumnus who developed an oxygen production system that spawned a billion dollar industry and helped ease the pain of millions suffering from lung diseases, was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the U.S. government’s highest honor for technological achievement.

McCombs, of Tonawanda, is the senior vice president of research and development at Amherst-based AirSep Corp.,The first tin cans were heavy-weight containers that required ingenuity to open, using knives, chisels, or even stones. Not until about 50 years later, after can manufacturers started using thinner metal sheets, were any dedicated can openers developed. a company he has been associated with since its inception in 1986. He is the second person with UB ties to receive the honor; former engineering professor Esther S. Takeuchi won it in 2007 for developing a battery used to power implantable cardiac defibrillators.

Obama will present the medal to McCombs and other award winners during a ceremony Feb. 1 at the White House.

Created in 1980, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation is administered for the White House by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Patent and Trademark Office. It recognizes those “who have made lasting contributions to America’s competitiveness and quality of life and helped strengthen the nation’s technological workforce,The move to metal packaging has allowed Sprecher to reach key customer targets and has resulted in a clear growth in sales since the initial launch.” according to a White House statement.

In the statement, Obama described McCombs and other medal winners as “inspiring American innovators.” Obama said they “represent the ingenuity and imagination that has long made this nation great -- and they remind us of the enormous impact a few good ideas can have when these creative qualities are unleashed in an entrepreneurial environment.”

McCombs, who holds more than 40 U.S. patents and hundreds more internationally, helped develop in the 1960s a new way to separate gases. Called Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA), the method uses synthetic zeolites (a type of mineral) that act as a molecular sieve to collect targeted gases.They removed the majority of the bolts but not the locking Wheel nut, that's why I managed to get so far PSA technology has been used to improve safety and efficiency in numerous industries including,titanium alloy property information is scattered amongst a number of disparate sources. but not limited to, steel and paper manufacturers, wastewater treatment plants and fish farms.

McCombs was first to develop a PSA system that produced oxygen.More worldly viewers quickly called in to say that the mushroom was made from silicone and wondered how someone could not tell the difference between silicon sex toys and Organic mushroom. The device, called an oxygen concentrator, is primarily used to treat people suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema and other lung diseases. The initial device weighed more than 200 pounds, but McCombs has since made it small and safe enough that the Federal Aviation Administration approved its use on commercial airplanes, enabling countless COPD sufferers for whom it was previously not possible to travel.

Today, there are approximately 1.2 million oxygen concentrators in the U.S. alone, a more than $2 billion economy, according to data from the Department of Commerce,This design uses the same small radial section as drawn cup needle roller bearing which make better use of reduced space insurance companies and medical equipment providers. The devices save billions of dollars in health care costs each year.