NTTC will initially screen pieces of APL's intellectual property the body of legal rights owned by an individual or company, including patents, copyrights and trademarks to determine their commercial potential. Screening of the individual technologies will result in a recommendation to APL that a given technology either be abandoned, that it has commercial potential, or that it has high commercial potential. The technologies being screened, Blailock said, are comprised of both biomedical and physical science technologies. In order to do this, we are working with NTTC to identify intellectual property that is appropriate for such a transfer. Sparks created by clamping jumper cables to motor vehicle battery terminals can be dangerous.
Vehicle batteries produce highly-combustible gases, which, if ignited, can cause explosions.
In addition, batteries can short circuit and explode if the jumper cables are incorrectly connected. According to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, a recent study revealed an alarming number of battery explosions occur during routine battery maintenance and when jump starting equipment. While few of these accidents are fatal, exploding batteries frequently cause serious burns and blindness. The U.S Navy has developed a set of jumper cables that effectively eliminates the threat of battery explosions. The Non-Arcing Clamp for Automotive Battery Jumper Cables features an encapsulated switch in the clamps to prevent sparking at the terminals and a circuit breaker in the cables to prevent short circuits from damaging the batteries.