John Crane acquires division of Advanced Diamond Technologies, a company built on Argonne technology

• Ultrananocrystalline diamond-coated pump seals. John Crane plans to leverage one of Earth’s hardest materials to improve mechanical seal reliability and performance in difficult applications involving poor lubricating fluids, liquids above their atmospheric boiling point, and abrasive slurries.

John Crane, a global provider of engineered products and services headquartered in Chicago, recently completed the purchase of Advanced Diamond Technologies (ADT), Industrial Division. ADT was founded in 2003 through the licensing of technology from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

ADT, headquartered in Romeoville, Ill., is a leader in the development and application of diamond films for industrial, electronic, mechanical and medical applications. ADT was co-founded in 2003 by former Argonne Materials Science Division researchers Orlando Auciello and John Carlisle and Neil Kane, former Co-Executive Director of the Illinois Technology Enterprise Center at Argonne.

“John Crane’s purchase of ADT’s Industrial Division is further validation of the innovative research done at Argonne that underpinned the creation of ADT.” — Ushma Kriplani, Interim Associate Laboratory Director for Science and Technology Partnerships and Outreach, Argonne

The original research behind ADT started in the 1990s at Argonne in what was then known as the Chemistry Division (now Chemical Sciences and Engineering), supported by DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences program within DOE’s Office of Science. Industrial applications work was also conducted in Argonne’s Energy Sciences Division, supported by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). ADT moved out of Argonne in 2006.

ADT has expertise in a proprietary family of materials that capture the properties of natural diamond. Broadly referred to as ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD®) technology, this product is a diamond material grown through a patented chemical vapor deposition process.

John Crane plans to leverage one of Earth’s hardest materials to improve mechanical seal reliability and performance in difficult applications involving poor lubricating fluids, liquids above their atmospheric boiling point and abrasive slurries.

“John Crane’s purchase of ADT’s Industrial Division is further validation of the innovative research done at Argonne that underpinned the creation of ADT,” said Ushma Kriplani, Interim Associate Laboratory Director for Science and Technology Partnerships and Outreach at Argonne. “Every day, Argonne researchers do work that helps keep the U.S. at the forefront of science and engineering, makes life better and safer for its residents and spurs the economy.”

After working for more than 15 years as Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of ADT, Carlisle re-joined Argonne in 2016. He serves as Director of Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), a lab-embedded entrepreneurship program for innovators focusing on energy and science technologies. CRI is supported by EERE.

“It’s gratifying to see the research my colleagues and I conducted at Argonne years ago continue to blossom and make an impact,” said Carlisle. “I’m happy to bring my experience as a successful inventor and entrepreneur to my work as Director of Chain Reaction Innovations.”

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy supports early-stage research and development of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies to strengthen U.S. economic growth, energy security, and environmental quality.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.

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