About Proteus / Engineering & project support
Engineering expertise.
A connected approach.
Proteus Systems Inc. brings mechanical and process engineering, thermal-fluid analysis and detailed 3D design to industrial systems and technology development.
A practical engineering perspective, from the behaviour of the system to the detail of its components.
Established in 1998, Proteus Systems Inc. applies mechanical design, thermal-fluid simulation and detailed 3D modelling to industrial equipment, test facilities and energy-system development.
Our approach integrates process requirements, equipment layout, component design and technical documentation. The aim is to support informed engineering decisions and provide clear information for fabrication, construction, testing and operation.
Project experience includes aerospace flow-sensor testing, Rankine-cycle heat recovery and process-control equipment. Research and development extend to thermal expansion, energy storage and heat-transfer technologies.
Our project approach
One connected
engineering process.
Analysis, design and project information developed around the requirements of the system.
01 / Analyse
Understand
the requirements.
Define operating conditions and system objectives. Use thermal-fluid analysis and simulation to examine the behaviour that drives the design.
02 / Develop
Resolve
the engineering.
Translate requirements into process arrangements, equipment layouts and detailed mechanical assemblies, supported by 3D modelling.
03 / Document
Connect the design
to its application.
Link drawings, parts information and technical documents to the relevant assemblies, supporting fabrication, operation and maintenance.
Founder & technical background
Miro
Milinkovic
P.Eng.
Founder, Proteus Systems Inc.
Proteus builds on a career spanning six decades of engineering, industrial development and invention.
Miro Milinkovic, P.Eng., is the founder of Proteus Systems Inc., a mechanical engineer with an entrepreneur’s drive. He earned his mechanical engineering degree at the University of Zagreb in 1963 and registered as a Professional Engineer in Ontario in 1969.
He began his Canadian career at Unifin, a division of Keeprite, in London, Ontario, testing, designing and programming heat exchangers, a core specialty. Roles at H.G. Acres and Lummus Canada followed, covering process equipment engineering and plant design for major oil and gas, heavy water and petrochemical clients, including fired heaters for TransCanada Pipelines and the first air-cooled steam condenser in Alberta.
In 1986 he founded Mirotech Inc., which pioneered the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) of nickel for net-shape manufacturing. In this process nickel carbonyl gas decomposes on a heated form, building up a solid nickel shell used for moulds and tooling. Miro took Mirotech from a prototype CVD facility in Toronto to commercial production, then engineered and built large-scale plants in Sudbury, in a joint venture with INCO, and in Lahr, Germany, where the technology was sold.
Mirotech’s research earned a $750,000 grant from Canada’s Department of National Defence to develop a CVD alloying process, and US$1.4 million from the University of Washington and Los Alamos National Laboratory to produce ultra-pure nickel tubes for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory. The company formed partnerships with Teledyne, Hasbro, Ford (Alpha Group) and Aero Detroit, and worked with NASA on adaptive optics for the second-generation Hubble telescope project.
Building those plants meant resolving process chemistry, heat transfer, equipment design and regulatory approvals in Canada, the United States and Germany, and Mirotech developed its own 3D modelling platform to engineer them. In 1998 Miro founded Proteus Systems Inc. to bring that same approach to other industries through detailed 3D plant design, modelling and thermal-fluid simulation.
His inventions include three granted US patents in nickel vapour deposition, a granted Canadian nickel carbonyl analyzer patent, and published applications in linear power generation and controllable gas-spring damping.
Selected inventions
Original ideas.
A documented record.
Selected patents and published applications naming Miro as inventor or co-inventor.
1992
Filed
Granted US patent · US 5,470,651
Mandrel for use in nickel vapour deposition processes and nickel moulds made therefrom
A composite mandrel with thermal expansion matched to nickel, for producing nickel shell moulds by vapour deposition. Granted in 1995.
Miroslav Milinkovic · Tony P. Mathews · Kenneth C. Davy
1998
Filed
Granted US patents · US 6,048,578 and US 6,132,518
Closed-loop nickel carbonyl deposition process and apparatus
A self-contained nickel vapour deposition system that recovers unused nickel carbonyl and recycles the carbon monoxide, reducing waste incineration. Granted in 2000; the apparatus is covered by divisional patent US 6,132,518.
Miroslav Milinkovic · Rodney P. Reynolds · Dmitri S. Terekhov
2005
Filed
Granted Canadian patent · CA2525869C
Nickel carbonyl analyzer
Co-invention concerning industrial gas-concentration measurement. Granted in 2014.
Miro Milinkovic · Kamran M. Khozan · Mark Andreas Konzelman
2010
Filed
Published US application · US20110221206A1
Linear power generator
A reciprocating piston configuration for linear power generation.
Miro Milinkovic · Gian L. Vascotto
2011
Filed
Published US application · US20130026687A1
Gas spring with dynamically controllable damping
A controllable gas-spring arrangement for linear machines and generators.
Miro Milinkovic
Selected historical records of invention. Publication links provide the full documents and legal history.
Founder / Career milestones
1963
Engineering foundations
Mechanical engineering degree, University of Zagreb. Registered P.Eng. in Ontario, 1969.
1986
Mirotech Inc.
Commercialized nickel vapour deposition, with production plants in Toronto, Sudbury and Lahr, Germany.
1998
Proteus Systems Inc.
Detailed 3D plant design, modelling and thermal-fluid simulation.
Ongoing
Original thinking
Exploration of energy systems, flow control and connected engineering knowledge.
Contact Proteus
Discuss your
project.
For engineering enquiries, project requirements and technical collaboration.
Proteus Global
Based in
Leamington, Ontario
Canada
Include a brief description of the project, its operating requirements and the engineering support you are seeking.