PLANO, Texas - Oct. 8, 2001 - Paragon Innovations Inc., a Plano, Texas-based technology design services company, announced today that it has teamed with Midland, Texas-based C.C. Technology Inc. to create ProFlo(tm), the industry's most complete gas compressor lubrication system monitoring device. ProFlo closely scrutinizes a divider block system's operation, cutting an operator's bottom-line costs by providing shutdown protection, trending and remote monitoring capabilities. The device will be featured at the Gas Machinery Conference (GMRC), which occurs at the Renaissance Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas, from October 8-10, 2001.

C.C. Technology President, Curtis Roys, approached Paragon last year to oversee the complete production of ProFlo - from design to delivery. Roys said, "For years, people have tried to create a device that provides both trending and shutdown protection for gas compressors. With ProFlo, operators can now conveniently and continuously monitor their systems, as well as receive notification of problems before they occur."

Using Roys' specifications as a blueprint, Paragon founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Wilkinson, and his electronics design team have successfully designed, developed and tested the device. Now in the initial stages of production, Wilkinson is confident the ProFlo device will help compressor operators boost their profits. "Oil consumption adds from 25 to 35 percent to a compressor operator's bottom-line costs. If you're a large operator with 1,000 compressors, you can throw away $1 million a year by not watching the systems' oil consumption," says Wilkinson. "With ProFlo, there's no guesswork."

Preventive maintenance

Many in the oil and gas industry are recognizing the importance of the cylinder and packing lubrication system - especially the divider block system, which was designed for lubrication that's properly proportioned and distributed by positive displacement series flow valves.

But until now, compressor lubrication, or lube, systems were not equipped with historical tracking devices. Operators had to shut down the compressor mechanically if a lubrication system failed. In addition, there was no product on the market that pinpointed the source or timing of problems such as worn piston rings, cylinders or packing.

ProFlo alleviates these problems; measuring and tracking a system's exact oil consumption - down to 100th of a pint - and shutting it down before it fails.

ProFlo's software also enables up to a year's worth of stored data to be easily and quickly downloaded into any handheld device using the Palm operating system. The downloaded data can be transferred to a computer and converted to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for visual trending and graphing. "The software that Paragon developed for the Palm-operated handheld device is the finest, most user-friendly you could ever imagine," says Roys. "It provides all the information you need to monitor a system."

More information

ProFlo prototypes are currently being tested on gas compressor units in Texas, New Mexico, Michigan, Canada and South America. Companies that are testing ProFlo include Altronic Inc., Compressor Systems Inc. and others. With a retail price of about $600, ProFlo devices are scheduled to reach distributors later this year.

About Paragon Innovations Inc.

Paragon Innovations Inc., based in Plano, Texas, is a national services provider specializing in the design, development and documentation of embedded systems in commercial and consumer technology products. Using a proven, 22-step quality methodology, Paragon's technology experts leverage more than a decade of experience in rapid product development to deliver superior products such as miniaturized insulin pumps, semiconductor reference platforms and Internet appliances for companies in the Internet, medical, semiconductor, telephony, robotics and wireless industries, among others. Customers include 3M, AMD, Hitachi, Motorola and Ubicom/Scenix. Paragon is a privately held company that was founded in 1990 by founder and Chief Executive Officer Michael Wilkinson. The company is located in the heart of the Telecom Corridor(r). For more information, visit www.paragoninnovations.com, or contact Kay Pinkerton at (214) 521-8596, or via e-mail at kpinkerton@mbapr.com.

About C.C. Technology Inc.

Midland, Texas-based C.C. Technology Inc. is a national provider of gas compressor lubrication system products and services. The company's staff members design a complete range of divider block lubrication systems. They also repair existing systems and provide in-house training on the operation and maintenance of divider block systems and accessories. C.C. Technology offers a wide range of lubrication equipment, as well as the most advanced products for flow monitoring and shutdown protection of divider block systems. For more information on C.C. Technology, visit www.cct.nu.