HAMPTON, ONT. — Garry Burns has a toothy grin, an easy manner and a raft of stories he could tell a listener about Wayne Conrad, his childhood friend and present employer at Omachron Group, a research and development outfit based in a tiny village 75 minutes northeast of Toronto.
Their creator can’t speak about the works in progress, at least not publicly since they haven’t been patented yet, but in a moment of excitable candour he lets slip that, “The future of vacuum cleaners is being made here right now.” If so, it will only help Conrad achieve his life’s ambition: to top Thomas Edison’s career patent total before he is done.
In addition to all the vacuum-related ideas, Conrad’s patent portfolio features a space-age water treatment system that NASA adopted for the International Space Station, ozone generators, automobile air conditioners, pulse power systems, cyclonic particle separators, vortex mixers, tabletop-sized plastic mould extruders, a portable personal watercraft and even an indoor barbecue.
Conrad already had a few home runs under his belt prior to meeting SharkNinja founder, Mark Rosenzweig, a native Montrealer, and the third generation of his family to get into the appliance game. The lab is Conrad’s creative space, but it is upstairs, on the main floor of his home, where he hammers out the nuts and bolts of his business deals, holding meetings in a room that is a replica of an English pub.
Practicality is among Conrad’s many traits. Indeed, he doesn’t create stuff he can’t sell, or at least try to sell, which is perhaps something he can thank his parents for. The car caught the eye of Arthur Moore, professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, and a world-renowned expert in electrostatics. Moore invited Conrad to Ann Arbor, Mich., where he would stay for days at a time.
Conrad still exudes a sense of childlike wonder, a palpable enthusiasm, as he describes his various inventions, including the latest: a plastic extruder, no bigger than a desk, that requires minimal power and is capable of transforming post-consumer plastic waste into plastic wood and siding.
I will challenge him any day. My money is on me.
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