Tekcapital investment Guident acquires shock absorber technology

Intellectual property investment company Tekcapital announced on Monday that its portfolio company Guident has acquired a new regenerative shock absorber technology, designed to extend the driving range of electric vehicles.

The AIM-traded firm said Guident had acquired the exclusive license to US patent 8,941,251 from the Research Foundation of the State of New York.

“I'm very glad Guident is commercialising this important and highly efficient new technology, which will enable vehicles to be more sustainable by increasing their driving range and improving their ride comfort,” said Professor Lei Zuo, lead inventor of the patent and director of the National Science Foundation Center for Energy Harvesting of Materials and Systems.

Tekcapital said the patent would enable the manufacture of electromagnetic regenerative shock absorbers with high energy densities, that would be able to recover a vehicle's vibration energy which was otherwise lost due to road irregularities, vehicle accelerations and braking.

In addition, the unique design using rotary mechanical motion rectifiers could be tuned to achieve better damping characteristics than existing shock absorbers.

The technology received the ‘R&D 100 Award’ by R&D Magazine, for one of the 100 most significant technology innovations of the year, the company noted.

“We are very excited to announce the acquisition of the exclusive rights to this remarkable technology and we're immediately moving forward to fabricate regenerative shock absorbers for testing by leading automotive companies,” said Guident chairman and chief executive officer Harald Braun.

At 0829 BST, shares in Tekcapital were up 9.47% at 10.4p.