NRT continues to develop new products through its research and development programs.  Most of these new developments are improvements and new methods for our industrial inspection and sorting equipment designed to improve our clients' processes and help make recycling more profitable.  Throughout the years NRT has been supported in the development of these new technologies by the U.S. EPA and the U.S. Dept of Energy.  NRT systems are unique in the industrial recycling environment in that we primarily utilize computerized rapid spectroscopic based sensing in the x-ray, visible, and infrared ranges.  These are relatively sophisticated technologies for the typically rugged recycling environment and require very specialized design and packaging.  NRT systems are specifically engineered for 24/7 applications in these environments including handling and sorting of materials from wet caustic cleaning systems.  These systems incorporate high reliability rapid real time sensing and computing platforms for process control in addition to Ethernet/modem capabilities for remote factory diagnostics, adjustments, and upgrades.  In developing, manufacturing, selling, and servicing our line of products NRT has developed information technology core competencies.  All current NRT sorting systems are built around sophisticated database-driven software technologies.  The systems implement industry standard OLE for Process Control (OPC) interfaces to control and configure NRT proprietary sorter hardware.  Microsoft Active Data Objects (ADO) are used to connect the hardware drivers and the user interface with a Microsoft Access database where all system configuration variables are stored.  This system has proven to be flexible and reliable in 24/7 installations throughout the world, and is designed to provide remote access to NRT technical service personnel for maintenance via dial-up or broadband connections.

Additionally, our successes in industrial inspection technologies are bringing new clients to NRT in new areas.  NRT has assisted the U.S. Dept. of Energy in development of a robotic system for the handling and sorting of plutonium waste in preparation for impoundment into the DOE Waste Isolation Pilot Plant located 1/2 mile underground in an ancient salt formation in the deserts of New Mexico.  Recently NRT developed the worlds fastest x-ray fluorescence (xrf) sensing system for identifying and sorting shredded scrap metal nonferrous alloys on fast moving conveying systems in sub-second time frames.  The third generation of this unique system is installed at a metals recycling facility in the U.S. belonging to our joint venture partner for that technology and is undergoing production testing.  Development of this new technology has been assisted with funding from the National Science Foundation SBIR program and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program (ATP).

Another new NRT development is in the area of airport security.  Since the tragic events of 9/11/01, national needs have arisen for increased sophistication of security technologies while reducing costs.  NRT, working with the National Science Foundation under their SBIR program, is developing the SecuriFlow technology to computerize checkpoint security and bring new information and data handling paradigms and techniques to the aviation security industry.