UMaine spin-off company’s technology earns safety award

Technology created by a spin-off company of the Laboratory of Surface Science and Technology (LASST) at the University of Maine has won a top safety award.

CF Industries, a North American manufacturer and distributor of agricultural fertilizers, recently presented a 2016 Stephen R. Wilson Excellence in Safety Award to staff at its Port Neal laboratory in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.

The award was given as a result of a collaboration between the Port Neal lab and Orono Spectral Solutions, Inc. which led to the development of a new safety process.

Using OSS’s patented ClearShot technology, CF Industries staff developed a process that eliminates the need for lab technicians to be exposed to dangerous chemicals while reducing test time from eight hours to 20 minutes, according to an OSS news release.

ClearShot technology offers a game-changing alternative to an expensive, environmentally hazardous and time-consuming process in the fertilizer industry, the news release states.

The Stephen R. Wilson Excellence in Safety Award is an annual award that honors a facility that has best embodied CF Industries’ culture of safety excellence by implementing innovative ideas that enhance safety practices and strengthen safety culture, according to the company.

Bangor-based OSS is an innovative, optical-based solid phase extraction membrane surface technology company. More about the award and technology is on the OSS website.