{"id":178567,"date":"2015-03-28T18:16:56","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T21:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=178567"},"modified":"2015-11-02T13:30:43","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T15:30:43","slug":"a-range-of-innovations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/a-range-of-innovations\/","title":{"rendered":"A Range of innovations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"M\u00e1rio

L\u00e9o Ramos<\/span><\/a> M\u00e1rio Stefani (far left<\/em>), director of R&D, and researchers from his team, at company headquarters in S\u00e3o CarlosL\u00e9o Ramos<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Operating in the fields of medicine, manufacturing, optical components, and aerospace and defense systems, Opto Eletr\u00f4nica, a company in S\u00e3o Carlos in inland S\u00e3o Paulo State, was established in 1985 by researchers and former students of the S\u00e3o Carlos Institute of Physics at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (IFSC-USP).\u00a0 Over the past 30 years, the company has developed and manufactured laser equipment such as barcode readers, sensors for missiles, diagnostic and surgical devices, primarily in opthalmics, in addition to lenses and cameras for satellites.\u00a0 The company boasts a technology portfolio that in 2010 enabled it to achieve sales of R$80 million. It had 450 employees, 85 of whom were devoted exclusively to research and development (R&D).\u00a0 But then trouble came knocking on the company\u2019s door.\u00a0 In 2014, Opto\u2019s sales fell to R$21 million and it was left with 150 employees, only 22 of them in the R&D division.\u00a0 By December 2014, the company had entered judicial reorganization, a formal legal measure to avoid bankruptcy, retain its equipment, facilitate the payment of debt and reorganize management of the business.\u00a0 \u201cThe decline in sales was caused by a series of events, mainly the discontinuation of government programs in the space and defense industries,\u201d says M\u00e1rio Stefani, Opto\u2019s director of research and development and one of the five founding partners still with the company.\u00a0 Since it supplied cameras for the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite program (CBERS-3 and -4), which is now in space, no other government project has come the company\u2019s way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had developed a lot of projects and products for the space and defense industries, but unfortunately they did not go forward, and this, along with the lack of financial planning for the various investments made, caused the company to lose the working capital it needed for its daily operations,\u201d says Gustavo Henrique Rodrigues, Opto CEO.\u00a0 He had been hired by the partners in 2012 to attract investors and seek additional capital for the company.\u00a0 \u201cOpto\u2019s banking and labor-related liabilities stand at R$35 million,\u201d Rodrigues says.\u00a0 He also notes that the partners invested R$75 million between 2005 and 2012 to build an equipment and machinery infrastructure at Opto.\u00a0 \u201cThis infrastructure along with our employees constitutes our greatest asset,\u201d Rodrigues says.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve always invested an average of 10% to 16% of what we\u2019ve billed in R&D,\u201d Rodrigues says.\u00a0 Company infrastructure is divided between the factory in S\u00e3o Carlos, which focuses on projects and products for the medical, defense and space industries, and three other factories: in S\u00e3o Paulo, Porto Alegre and Fortaleza that produce thin-film anti-reflective lenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Company<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Opto Eletr\u00f4nica<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R&D Center<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
S\u00e3o Carlos, SP<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
No. of employees<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
150<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Specialty areas<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Medical, industrial, optical components and aerospace and defense systems<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Initial clash
\n<\/strong>\u201cThe company was originally established to produce helium-neon lasers, which at the time were manufactured by only a few companies in the world,\u201d Stefani says.\u00a0 \u201cProduction of the lasers led to the first clash between the academic and corporate perspectives.\u201d\u00a0 The highly anticipated line of product purchasers never materialized and today, it can be seen among the collection in the Opto Memorial, a room that tells the story of the company through a display of its products that were \u2013 or were not \u2013 commercial successes.\u00a0 A change in perspective was needed, so the team went back to creating products that used that original technology.\u00a0 \u201cFrom the outset, the helium-neon laser was modified to make it a product that could serve as a guideline for cutting sheets of metal, wood or marble.\u201d\u00a0 A device derived from this original laser intended for aligning tracks for ore-carrying trains from Vale in Caraj\u00e1s, Par\u00e1 State is also on display in the memorial.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took part in an international call for proposals to provide the alignment system for the Caraj\u00e1s Railroad and found ourselves competing against huge companies like the German Siemens,\u201d says 53 year-old Stefani, a mechanical and electronic engineering graduate from S\u00e3o Carlos Engineering School of USP who earned his master\u2019s and PhD in physics from the IFSC in the field of optics.\u00a0 The weight of the ore carried by the trains would cause the track to become distorted, resulting in delays in product deliveries to ships in the port of Itaqui, in S\u00e3o Lu\u00eds,\u00a0 Maranh\u00e3o State.\u00a0 \u201cWe won the contract on the basis of our technological advantages, not our price.\u201d Due to weather conditions that involved high temperatures and bright sunshine, the Siemens system was unable to detect the laser\u2019s signal.\u00a0 \u201cWe figured out how to process a signal that was able to distinguish the light of the laser from sunshine, a technique that was then patented.\u201d From 1988 to 1989, the company sold 16 such systems to Vale, for the sum of $650,000, which guaranteed the future of the company from inland S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n

\"Assembly

L\u00e9o Ramos<\/span>Assembly of telescope for target identificationL\u00e9o Ramos<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In another project done in partnership with Itautec from 1986 to 1989, the company developed Brazil\u2019s first barcode reader for supermarkets.\u00a0 It was a success that did not result in financial gains, however, as sales over the years did not materialize as anticipated.\u00a0 As soon as the reader was ready, it was installed in the Real Supermarket in Porto Alegre (state of Rio Grande do Sul). However, a safety stamp with the words \u201cwarning, laser radiation\u201d translated from the North American regulations led to a great deal of confusion and losses for the company.\u00a0 A pregnant worker filed a complaint with the Ministry of Labor because she thought the light that was emitted would harm her fetus \u2013 and the supermarket was ordered to close.\u00a0 \u201cWe were innovators, but businesses in Brazil were not yet ready to use the product.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other avenues began to open up for Opto. One of the founding partners, a professor at the Physics Institute of USP, Jarbas Caiado de Castro Neto, company president at the time, came up with the idea to represent some North American companies that made lasers for use in ophthalmic surgeries, which proved to be an excellent business opportunity. Opportunities in manufacturing began to appear with regard to the development of distance meters as a result of the Vale project.\u00a0 One of these opportunities, which was for a non-contact system for measuring distance and thickness, developed for the rubber industry and the subject of Stefani\u2019s PhD dissertation, was patented by Opto and caught the attention of the team led by Air Force Brigadier General Hugo de Oliveira Piva who invited the company to take part in developing an air-to-air missile (a weapon to be used by aircraft against other aircraft) for Iraq.\u00a0 The project did not go forward because of the Gulf War and the US invasion of Iraq in early 1991. In 1993, at Piva\u2019s initiative, a team of engineers that had been in Iraq established the company Mectron \u2013 and again Opto was invited to work on another missile project, this time for the Brazilian Air Force (FAB). \u201cThis is how we got into the aerospace defense market working on thermal cameras, optical devices that allow the laser to see the target because of the heat, and on target proximity sensors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alignment

L\u00e9o Ramos<\/span>Alignment of lenses used in satellite camerasL\u00e9o Ramos<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In the midst of all of this, the medical company representation initiative achieved a performance benchmark.\u00a0 \u201cWe became the largest market outside the United States in sales of ophthalmic lasers,\u201d says Stefani. In 1997, however, the company had to rework its strategies.\u00a0 One Friday night, it received a fax from a US company, canceling its Brazilian representation activities.\u00a0 That was when the partners decided to develop their own laser for medical use .\u00a0 For this they used part of the circuit from the missile laser fuse that measures the distance to the target, in a method patented by Opto, to make medical devices for ophthalmic surgery.\u00a0 \u201cWithin six months, we were able to manufacture a laser device for use in surgery.\u201d\u00a0 It was the first device developed and certified in Brazil for this purpose and the model is still manufactured by Opto today.\u00a0 From there, the company began to develop equipment for the medical industry, such as microscopes, digital retinography systems and other types of lasers.\u00a0 \u201cFAPESP has made significant contributions to these developments through its PIPE program [Innovative Research in Small Businesses Program],\u201d says Stefani.\u00a0 Today the company has a portfolio of 25 medical products which, when accessories are included , actually brings the figure to more than 100.<\/p>\n

Alessandro Damiani Mota, 34, medical products project manager, began working at Opto as an intern in 2005 and has already taken part in developing four PIPE-funded projects.\u00a0 The first of them sought to develop a green laser for retinal surgery.\u00a0 Work on it began in 2006 and the product was launched in 2007.\u00a0 \u201cIt is still a very successful project and a sales leader in Opto\u2019s laser division,\u201d he says.\u00a0 The device treats bleeding caused by diabetes.\u00a0 \u201cThe project resulted in a master\u2019s thesis and know-how<\/em> for the team to use on other equipment,\u201d says Mota, an electronics engineer who received both his undergraduate and master\u2019s degrees from USP S\u00e3o Carlos in ophthalmic instrumentation.\u00a0 His thesis led to the production of a yellow laser, also used to treat the retina, with support from the Brazilian Innovation Agency (FINEP).\u00a0 \u201cBecause it has a more suitable wave length, the device uses less power and therefore the thermal effect in the treated region is more localized, allowing more healthy cells to be preserved,\u201d he explains.\u00a0 Another device he has worked on is the retinal laser scanner. In this case, the green laser is used as a scanner capable of selecting up to 50 potential treatment points.\u00a0 The project ended in 2011 and after validation the product was placed on the market.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>European certification
\n<\/strong>Mota is currently working in a partnership with S\u00e3o Paulo State University (Unesp) in Araraquara, which has also received PIPE funding, to produce LED equipment that emits ultraviolet light for the treatment of keratoconus, a disorder that deforms the cornea. It was with a system to treat keratoconus based on the interaction of UV light and vitamin B (riboflavin), known as crosslinking, that Opto obtained its first global certification in Europe.\u00a0 \u201cWe were able to obtain certification before our competition did,\u201d says 46 year-old Paulo Aneas Lichti, certifications manager.<\/p>\n

With an undergraduate degree in materials engineering from the Federal University of S\u00e3o Carlos (UFSCar), where he earned his master\u2019s in science and technology, Lichti started working for the company in 1994.\u00a0 His first project was developing a sensor for missiles.\u00a0 Over time, he also began to work on protecting the knowledge generated throughout the product development process, and he earned two MBAs at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in S\u00e3o Paulo: one in project management and the other in general management.\u00a0 He highlights another victory in his field, obtaining the first certification ever from Brazil\u2019s National Institute of Metrology, Quality, and Technology (Inmetro) for calibrating an infrared laser device used to treat diseases that affect the retina.\u00a0 \u201cUp to that time, there was no defined standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opto took part in developing and manufacturing two of the four cameras that make up the payload of CBERS-3 and -4, developed through a partnership between Brazil and China.\u00a0 The multi-spectral camera known as MUX and the WFI (Wide Field Imager) have sensors that use different color images to highlight areas of deforestation and water resources.\u00a0 Alexandre Soares, 37, who earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from USP S\u00e3o Carlos in 1999, started working at Opto in 2000 on the missile fuse project and then on development of the digital retinography system.\u00a0 In 2004 he took part in the CBERS projects.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI started working as an engineer on the project then began to lead the team in charge of the electronics, and in 2010 took over project management of the MUX camera.\u201d\u00a0 In 2009, Soares also helped develop the proposal to design the A-Darter missile fuse in a partnership involving Brazil and South Africa.\u00a0 \u201cWe made the thermal camera, the \u2018eye\u2019, which provides the parameters for guiding the missile.\u201d\u00a0 The project is in its final phase of development.\u00a0 While the company\u2019s R&D division continues its incomparable cutting-edge work in this industry in Brazil, Opto directors are exploring various avenues for resolving the company\u2019s financial difficulties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opto develops and manufactures lasers for medical use","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1567,169],"tags":[243],"coauthors":[115,97],"class_list":["post-178567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corporate-research-en","category-technology","tag-innovation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178567"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=178567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}