Award Winner

Robest Yong, the 1994 National Inventor's Award winner, has not only

won medals but has created a highly successful business from inventions.

His best-known invention and biggest money-maker is the instant

rubber-stamp machine.

The instant rubber-stamp machine won a gold medal at the Geneva

competition in 1994. It's an ingenious machine that simplifies the making

of rubber stamps using polyclone.

"It takes three days to a week to make a rubber stamp. That's a

troublesome, time-consuming method and it's a dying trade," says Yong,

38, of Taman Seputeh, Kuala Lumpur.

His invention can churn out a rubber stamp in 10 minutes! The material for

the stamp is not natural rubber but polyclone, a polymer which looks like

transparent rubber. The machine is marketed locally and

internationally in countries such as Russia, Japan, the United States and in

Africa.

Yong's machine went international almost immediately after it won the gold

medal; he was approached by product scouts looking for distribution

rights almost immediately after the competition in Switzerland.

Yong, now a director of Prodigious Innovations Sdn Bhd, has kept that

momentum going by promoting his invention at trade shows in Taiwan,

Japan and Britain in order to explore new markets and appoint dealers.

But, like the others, Yong started relatively small. He spent little on

manufacturing his prototypes and sold the first five units, one at a time,

locally. He could manage such a small volume because production costs

were down.

"Some inventors have good products but can't produce their inventions

owing to high costs," he points out.

Flush 'N' Wash is a new invention Yong hopes to mass produce. It's a

water-saving device that combines the functions of a tap and water

closet. He hopes to have a joint-venture with a plastics

manufacturer because it is too costly to make the mold for the

water closet.

Yong has also sold an invention: a floating water heater which can be

used to heat containers of water, removing the hassle of installing a

water heater: together with its patent, because he has no time to

market it.

To those who haven't much luck in marketing their inventions,

Yong advises: "If a product is good, people don't mind investing in it."

Inventors, he says, should try to weather the storm of sceptical comments,

forge ahead and keep on inventing.

E-Mail: invent@tm.net.my

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