Rossi Taking ‘Calculated Risk’ Building E-Cat Production Line Before Certification

Andrea Rossi has mentioned a number of times recently that he is in the process of building a robotized production line to build his low-cost E-Cat heaters. He has also said that he is in the process of applying for safety certification for the domestic E-Cats from Underwriters Labs.

A reader of the Journal of Nuclear Physics blog asked Rossi about the way he was going about commercializing today; he wondered why Rossi was building the production line before the certification has been made, since UL may require that modifications be made to the E-Cat, which would mean changing his production setup. Rossi responded,

Good question: yes, I am taking risks, but a robotized line is also reprogrammable for the particulars: we expect some modification, but, as you correctly wrote, if we wait the end of the certification process to start the preparation of the factory we risk to delay . As you correctly said, I am taking my risks, but are calculated risks: a delay would cost more than a modification.

Rossi seems to have a sense of urgency about getting his technology into the marketplace. Until he can start mass-producing his products and selling them cheap, he is at threat from potential competitors, so it is important for him gets his technology out without undue delay. There are already competitive noises coming from Defkalion in Greece. Sterling Allan of PESN visited Defkalion’s laboratory in Greece today and reported that he saw good things there. He wrote,

They showed me the experimental set-up — running, producing heat. It includes a control chamber and a reaction chamber. After the two are run simultaneously — one with the low energy nuclear reaction (aka cold fusion), and one without — showing that the LENR system produces at least 20 times more heat; they will then switch the reaction chambers, removing the nickel and hydrogen from one (cleaning it out to make sure there is no residual), and adding these ingredients to the other chamber, which previously was the “without” chamber; to show that the same data unfold

Allan also reported that, “Defkalion is planning “very soon” so announce the first 18 licensees who are authorized to manufacture and distribute the technology in their respective countries, with an exclusive contract for those regions. Each license costs 40.5 million Euros.” So the race to commercialize LENR seems to have started in earnest. It will be interesting to see if either Rossi of Defkalion will bring their products to light in the coming year.