ARCCA Donates Patent - Announcement from Penn State

December 20, 2000

University Park, PA. - United States military forces may suffer fewer injuries from high-impact collisions and explosions with the development of specially designed vehicle seats that the University hopes to develop, thanks to the monetary gift and the gift of a patent from Penn State alumnus Alan Cantor. The University's Pennsylvania Transportation Institute will work with Cantor and his company on the seats' developments. The donation is valued at over $9 million by an outside independent evaluator.

"The seat has been designed to control forces coming up from the bottom of the vehicle and going into the spine," said Cantor who is chairman and CEO of ARCCA, Inc., a Bucks County-based consulting firm that specializes in preventing and investigating transportation disasters. "The force from a collision multiplies as it travels through the vehicle, and it has a catastrophic effect on the spine. This seat design offsets the forces very simply by the use of specialized foams and the specific geometry of the seat structure and the seat belts."

Engineers at ARCCA will work with Don Streit, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Vehicle Systems and Safety Program in the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, on the research and development of the seats.

"We've worked on projects together with ARCCA, and we're hoping this will develop into a significant cooperative research effort," commented Streit. "It's reflective of Penn State's good working relationship with industry and alumni."

The inital research will examine light trucks going over land mines, which can cause passengers to suffer from fractured spines, according to Streit.

ARCCA has already performed a series of crash test on the vehicle seat with excellent results and the United States Army is currently using a prototype of the seat, according to Cantor. "This is of important military value," said Ron Huss, associate director of Penn State's Intellectual Property Office. "One thing that might be down the pike is that this patent design may have civilian application in relieving stress on the spine that comes from accidents and from sitting in automobiles for lengthy periods of time. Right now, the intent is for all U.S. Army vehicles that are deployed to be protected with this technology."

Cantor stated that he was happy to be giving something back to his alma mater and that Pennsylvania Transportation Institute is well positioned to bring this new design to the marketplace.

Cantor earned a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Penn State in 1972. From 1982 through 1987 he worked for the U.S. Navy as an engineer specializing in occupant crash protection. In 1987 he founded ARCCA, which focuses on promoting high levels of occupant safety in both ground and air vehicles. Some ARCCA's early projects included designing new escape devices for the space shuttle and helping to reduce the injury rate for naval aviators through advancements in aircrew ejection and crash-resistant seating. ARCCA today remains a dominant force in the crash survival industry. It was involved in the TWA Flight 800 investigation and its employees testified before the U.S. Congress regarding children and airbags. ARCCA employs more than 50 people in four offices around the country.