PAX Scientific « Randy Topp | Business Improvement

PAX Scientific

PAX Scientific is an innovative research and development firm. Its focus is to create products that perform better by streamlining fluid movement. PAX Scientific is the parent organization of four separate companies that operate independently of each other. These companies have created designs for devices and systems, including fans, mixers, water purification, and boats, that improve efficiency, reduce drag and noise, and use less material.

PAX Scientific,
PAX Water Technologies,
PAX Mixer, and
PAX Streamline

Jay Harman began his quest to understand vortical fluid dynamics. The result: a new principle for generating flow that has applications ranging from pump to impellers, fans to boats. All arenas offer improved energy efficiency, smaller devices, and decreased energy loss to noise and vibration. The PAX Water Mixer uses efficiencies of fluid flow to provide efficient mixing of drinking water in storage tanks. This eliminates stratification, keeps disinfectant residuals actively working to maintain drinking water safety, and prevents conditions favorable to nitrification.

The product that has captured the attention of many is the PAX Water Mixer. This is manufactured in northern California and was developed by PAX Water Technologies. The inspiration for the mixer came from the way ocean seaweed takes a spiral form to manage the forces of flowing water. This mixer uses 300 watts of energy and is able to maintain water quality in water storage tanks of up to ten million gallons.
The PAX Water Mixer is now fully developed and PAX Water has begun to grow this line of mixers with other new products. Furthermore, PAX Water has been able to expand on the mixer’s application. The mixer is useful in eliminating ice formation as well as eliminating thermal stratification in hot seasons. According to PAX Scientific’s Chief Operating Officer, Francesca Bertone, “biomimicry continues to play an expected role of informing the development of new products based on natural flow geometries.”

The Biomimicry Story

The Problem with Flow

Traditional fans, pumps, and propellers—collectively known as rotational equipment—consist of planar surfaces, or surfaces with simple curvature in only one axis. They use these geometries to generate centrifugal forces—forces moving outward from the center of rotation. These forces then generate turbulence that causes the gas or fluid to move or mix. Rotational equipment design has changed only incrementally since the Egyptians and Archimedes developed their solutions, both over 4,000 years ago. Gradual modification and tinkering have produced modern designs that are not much different from their ancient predecessors. Fundamentally, these technologies remain inefficient. Design faults include drag resistance, low output, energy inefficiency, excessive noise, and component wear and tear.

The PAX Solution

Taking inspiration from nature gave Harman the fresh approach he needed to tackle the problem of moving fluids. As a child in Western Australia he had noticed that, “seaweed is fragile, but it survives storms by changing its shape to let the water go by.” Harman noticed a recurrent geometry that has fascinated man throughout the ages. From water flows, to kelp patterns, to shell architectures, nature repeatedly utilizes 3-dimensional centripetal spirals—oriented toward the center of curvature—for liquid flows.

Digging deeper, he realized that the most efficient way to move matter and energy seems not to be a straight line, but a curve known as Phi.

This principle is based on a scalable geometry of compound curves in multiple axes, resulting in an organic shape derived from the Golden Ratio. When an impeller of this design rotates recessively, it produces centripetal forces. In other words, the fluid at the outer edges of the spiral is pulled toward the center. The result is the reduction or elimination of drag and resistance.

Calla Lily

Pax Technologies took the calla lily’s shape as inspiration for a water mixer. The flower’s centripetal spirals assist with the ideal flow of liquid, which allows their design to mix more liquid with a fraction of the horse power usually required. Using nature’s perfected designs helps minimize energy requirements.

Centripetal spirals — aka Fibonacci spirals — can be seen in calla lilies and nested rose petals, in nautilus shells and the faces of sunflowers, in tornadoes and water rushing down a drain. “All movement in the known universe, right down to the atomic level, is moving in this common geometry,” says Pax’s Harman. “It looks simple and elegant, but it’s phenomenally complex.”