Global EARS Limited, winner of the 2008 Small Business Award Sponsored by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research

Australian invention EARS (the Exhausted Air Recycling System) is a major advance in air compressor technology that allows a safer work environment and lower costs.
 
Since the company commenced operations in 2005, EARS has been successfully commercialised and exported all over the world. The system was designed by Chris Bosua, a motor mechanic trained in pneumatics who became frustrated trying to make a machine work with an air compressor that was too small for the task.

EARS doubles the capacity of an ordinary air compressor. Compressors power the air-tools used in many industrial applications. In traditional systems the air passes from the compressor to the air-tool and is then wasted into the workplace, but by using a closed-loop system, the EARS manifold returns the air that has passed through the air-tool back to the compressor.

Not only does this generate more air, energy consumption under continuous use drops by 40 per cent, there is also a dramatic reduction in noise generated in the use of pneumatic tools such as air drills and the volume of dust, debris and other potentially hazardous emissions around the workshop or site is also reduced. EARS has won several awards for innovation, as well as for health and safety advancements. A range of media coverage from a number of overseas industry-focused journals and magazines has helped to promote an awareness of EARS in the major markets of the USA, Europe and Japan.

Protecting the technology with patent applications in key export markets has enabled the company to enter into various joint venture and licensing agreements with major international compressor system manufacturers and distributors.

The company maximises its leverage in export markets by outsourcing the manufacturing, distribution and marketing of EARS products and installations to major companies that already have the resources and systems in place to deliver EARS fitted systems efficiently.