A Rochester start-up company has developed a product that can curb the dangers of inspecting high voltage electrical equipment.

In business for only a couple of months, Exiscan is ready to become a force in the area of infrared windows.

Tim Rohrer and his two business partners say there is a worldwide demand for their product that should allow the company to grow at a rapid rate.

"It's definitely a high growth industry. It's predominately because insurance companies are requiring that these inspections are done at the same time that OSHA and the electrical safety standards, really around the world, are requiring employees not to open the electrical equipment which keeps them safer," said Rohrer.

Infrared windows produced by Exiscan allow inspectors or thermographers to inspect high voltage electrical equipment without opening up that equipment.

Rohrer said doing inspections the old fashioned way has proven dangerous, killing one to two inspectors a day in the United States.

"It can cause a phenomenon called an arc flash, which is basically an electrical explosion. The core of that explosion is many times hotter than the surface of the sun and it causes a blast that is actually more powerful than several sticks of dynamite. And that would be blowing up within an arms reach of the worker," Rohrer explained.

Rohrer said arc flashes happen between five to 10 times each day across North America.

"Our product is really a safety product that allows people with an infrared camera to gather the images and data that they need without having to expose themselves to that type of a risk," he added.

For now, Rohrer and his two partners are Exiscan's only employees. The labor is outsourced to companies owned by his partners and are located in the same Lyell Avenue facility.

He said Rochester is the perfect place for his company to expand.

"We have one of the highest densities of precision machine shops in the world. They're under utilized right now because of the downturn in business from Kodak, Xerox and Bausch + Lomb. Another fantastic thing for our business is that Rochester happens to be the optics capital of the world," Rohrer said.

Rohrer said Exiscan is actively working on designs and patents for other products in electrical safety, which could result in the addition of 30 to 40 new employees within the next three years.

Exiscan