Third Wave Systems Recognized by SBA

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA; Washington, DC) has recognized Third Wave Systems (Minneapolis, MN) as one of the 2016 recipients of the prestigious Tibbetts Awards for their years of technological contributions to the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.

Named after Roland Tibbetts, who is renowned as the father of the SBIR program, the award recognizes individuals, organizations or projects that made a visible technological impact on the socio-economic front and exemplifies the best in SBIR achievements. Winners are selected based on the economic impact of their technological innovation and the extent to which that innovation served federal research and development needs, encourages diverse participation and increased the commercialization of federal research.

Third Wave Systems develops and sells materials-based modeling software and services that dramatically reduce the costs of machined components, accelerate design cycles and improve part quality. Their software is used by top aerospace, automotive, medical and cutting tool manufacturers to improve their machining processes and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace by machining in a virtual environment that avoids trial-and-error testing and gets products to market faster. “This award is recognition of the hard work from our team and the vision of our government and commercial customers,” said Kerry Marusich, the president of Third Wave. “It is an honor to be recognized.”

“Today we celebrate and honor the important technological advances pioneered by these small high-tech firms — from breakthroughs in additive manufacturing to genomic research to novel cancer therapeutics,” said SBA administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet during the recent ceremony in Washington. “These innovators are creating jobs and building new industries while helping to address many of the nation’s most pressing challenges.”

Since 2001, when Third Wave Systems received their first SBIR award, the program and its funding have played an important role in moving the company’s innovations forward by allowing them to enhance new technologies for government projects and then transitioning them for commercialization. Additionally, the program has given them the opportunity to collaborate with other American industrial partners who benefit from early stage research and provide feedback on new capabilities to ensure the newly implemented techniques meet the needs of the marketplace. New technologies and opportunities from the SBIR also mean Third Wave Systems has been able to employ more engineers to help aid in the additional new work the technology brings.

This level of research and development funding has directly contributed to the commercial success and high level of technical innovation at Third Wave Systems and their continuing efforts to develop, demonstrate and transition their modeling of gear machining processes on the Gear Hobbing Predictive Model, a Phase 2.5 SBIR project for the U.S. Navy that predicts and improves residual stresses and distortions while reducing the overall cycle times and costs for transmission gears.

Recently, Third Wave Systems completed a SBIR project with the U.S. Air Force and demonstrated 20 percent to 50 percent cycle time reductions on jet engine components made of expensive and hard-to-machine titanium and nickel alloy materials. The company is now commercializing that technology through the F-135 supply chain, as well as the original manufacturers of commercial jet engines and their suppliers.

Third Wave Systems joins other previous Tibbetts Award recipients that include NAVAIR, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cleveland Medical Devices, NOVA Engineering and Orbital ATK.

www.thirdwavesys.com