Under a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Grant, Barber-Nichols designed, built and tested a cryogenic compressor capable of densifying liquid hydrogen. Cryogenic propellant densification improves rocket specific impulse (ISP) by allowing a greater mass of cryogenic propellant to be loaded into a given tank volume and if…

Billions of gallons of water are evaporated each year at electric power plants in the U.S. for cooling purposes. As freshwater resources become strained in the U.S. and the rest of the world it is of great interest to find alternative dry air cooling approaches. Standard dry air cooling requires equipment that is very large,…

Barber-Nichols engineers Robert Fuller and David Wehrlen have been granted United States Patent Number US 9,231,504 B2 for a Brushless DC (BLDC) motor electrical control system that increases motor efficiency by reducing pulse width modulation switching frequency to smooth and reduce harmonics present in the motor current waveform. This invention allows the operation of BLDC…

2016 marks Barber-Nichols’ 50th anniversary and the company pulled out all the stops on May 20th to celebrate! The event included live music, food and refreshments, talks by company founders Bob Barber and Ken Nichols, and the world recording setting steam-powered car built by the company in 1985 made a one-day appearance for the event.…

The Authentic Business Relationship Cultivated Between Barber-Nichols Inc. and Newport News Shipbuilding Pays Dividends with Lower Cost, Improved Schedule, and Superior Quality In 2014 Huntington Ingalls Industries / Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) awarded Barber-Nichols Inc. (BNI) a multi-year contract to produce MK21 Air Turbine Pump Assemblies for the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-Class Submarine Program. The contract…

Jun 2016 Barber-Nichols is honored to have been selected as a 2016 Colorado Companies to Watch winner! This program was created by the Edward Lowe Foundation in partnership with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) to honor Colorado companies that are developing valuable products and services, creating jobs, enriching communities, generating new…

In 2004 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) theorized that replacing a traditional steam Rankine cycle in a power plant with a supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) Brayton cycle would be 7% – 12% more efficient and allow power plants to deliver more electricity from…

Direct Metal Laser Sintering – the process whereby successive layers of metal powder are fused together to form an object – is a subset of Additive Manufacturing techniques gaining favor in the rocket engine development community because of its ability to quickly and cost-effectively produce complex components.  However, due to current part size “printing” limitations…

Barber-Nichols Inc. (BNI) has been awarded a five-year contract potentially valued at $42.9 Million with options for the manufacture of MK 48 Heavyweight Torpedo alternators and regulators. BNI’s employees and management are proud that the U.S. Navy is confident that we can successfully deliver this mission-critical hardware and the award of this multi-year contract allows…

Aug 2015 Barber-Nichols Inc. (BNI) would like to congratulate Makai Ocean Engineering on the dedication of their 100 kW Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) power plant and we are proud to support you in this achievement. On August 21st the plant came online, generates enough power for 100 homes, and is the first closed-cycle OTEC power plant delivering…