When Alternative Fuel Systems finishes moving into its new building near the airport, the whole company will be under one roof for the first time.
The move comes after three locations in as many years, says Walter Brooks, chairman of the board.
Alternative Fuel Systems (TSE - ATF) has been working simultaneously at two locations in Calgary and one in Burlington, Ont. The new building was put up by Remington Development Corp. in its Deerfoot Tech Centre.
It covers 51,000 sq. ft. with offices at the front and production, engineering, test and research space at the back.
The new location will make meetings and communications easier and more efficient. Before the move, shuttles were needed even when the engineering department needed a part, says Brooks.
A lot of research at AFS goes into developing the company’s computer-controlled fuel management systems, which convert gasoline or diesel engines to natural gas.
The building will include engine test cells that can simulate all the work that faces a vehicle’s working engine, including the stress of going down hill.
The company starts with a commonly used model in an engine family and creates a specific retrofit kit for it. Repeated testing addresses a range of emissions from particulates, or diesel soot, through to a variety of gases. “We’ll be one of the leading emission test labs in Canada,” Brooks adds.
The latest computer control of the fuel system is important to meet emissions standards, but also for fuel economy and performance.
“Sophisticated computer controls are one of our real strengths,” says Brooks. The company is enjoying growing sales to the western United States as well as offshore markets. The vice-president of sales was in Germany last week and Iran two weeks ago, adds Brooks.
Iran is one place where converting to natural gas pays for itself with no government subsidy. Compressed natural gas is five cents a litre there and is viewed as a waste product from the production of oil for export. If it weren’t burned in vehicles, reducing urban pollution, it would be wastefully flared.
Your office wasn’t meant to be cellphone-proof, but if reception is lousy in that part of the building and major customers have your cellular number — you have a scenario with “bad day” written all over it.
However, a startup technology company in Ottawa says it has a solution. Spotwave Wireless Inc. has developed a way to let cellphones and other wireless gadgets work inside buildings, including the places that have been problem areas.
Cellphone carriers would be the customers for the Spot Cell product, says Shane Young, the company’s president and CEO. Spot Cell is in beta trials with cellphone carriers this summer.
Spot Cell has an outside unit and an inside unit, the latter in the area of the reception trouble.
The device is “aware of the signal environment,” so it is constantly adjusting itself. Young says it’s not just a signal booster, devices that have been around for while and take some engineering skill.
“This is plug-and-play, like having the (communications) engineer in the box,” says Young.
“Now you can get the kind of service that people expect today. They really do expect cellphones to work everywhere,” he adds.
Spotwave expects to ship Spot Cell in the fall.
Spotwave is also working on a product to allow safe, reliable coverage inside moving vehicles.
The mobile product is in the research phase, but already people are asking for it, says Young.
The target market is business users who can’t afford to miss an important call.
A Calgary-based hotel owner has declared a distribution to its investors for this month.
Royal Host Real Estate Investment Trust will pay eight cents a unit July 31 to unit holders of record of June 29.
Royal Host owns the Travelodge master franchise for Canada, owns 36 hotels, manages 77 properties and franchises 91 locations.
It controls almost 16,000 guest rooms in the mid-market to high-end segments. Royal Host units trade on the TSE as RYL.UN.
The Royal Bank of Canada has signed a multi-year deal for mortgage technology with an e-commerce technology company.
Basis100 Inc. will provide its HomeBASE mortgage technology, allowing the bank’s mortgage sales staff to submit applications electronically to a central processing centre.
The software can also receive customer applications.
