Award Data

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Cardiac failure is the, largest single cause of mortality in the United States today. With an increase in the use of long-term cardiac assist devices, there is also a need for the short-term "bridge to recovery" application. This application is intended to provide a low-cost temporary support for patients whose heart is capable of recovering. This "patient scr ...

Reduced-mass polymer composite materials are crucial to the success of aerospace systems for reducing vehicle weight. But, composite material adoption is inhibited because the autoclave consolidation required is prohibitively expensive for the large tanks and skins contemplated in the Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) Program. To remedy this, NASA-LaRC has been developing cost-effective, ...

Reduced mass composite materials are crucial to the success of aerospace systems, but their adoption is inhibited because they require autoclave consolidation, a process that is prohibitively expensive for large aerospace structure. To remedy this, NASA-LaRC has been developing cost-effective high-performance thermoplastic composite processing equipment that enables out-of-autoclave tape placemen ...

This SBIR Phase II research project strives to develop an Advanced Ultrasonic Beamformer that is unparalleled in its scalability and signal processing features. The ultrasonic beamformer architecture will be unique in its breadth of features. The architecture was developed as the superset of features across several fields including medical imaging, medical therapy, bone density measurement, vascul ...

High-temperature polymer matrix composites (PMCs) are desired for the aggressive environments encountered in many aerospace and military applications. These have required new blends of materials properties in the composite fiber and matrix. As polyimide resins have been improved, the thermo-oxidative stability (TOS) of the carbon fibers typically used as reinforcements have become a limiting fac ...

Manufacture of polymer matrix composite (PMC) jet engine parts is expensive due to the high cost of needed high temperature materials and fabrication processes currently in use. To reduce costs and improve quality, automated composite fabrication methods such as filament winding, automated tape placement, and fiber or tow placement coupled with non-autoclave processing offer great promise for use ...

The expanding use of composites in shipboard applications is driving the development of fire-resistant composite structures. However, despite significant efforts in improving the resins and cores of composite sandwich structures, passive fire protection (e.g., insulation) is still required. Currently, the Navy uses glass fiber or mineral wool insulation panels that are mechanically fastened to t ...

Nano forms of graphite and carbon, such as flakes, worms, and tubes, can significantly modify the properties of polymers when used as reinforcements. Challenges remain in processing composites with these nano-reinforcements in the form of attaining uniform dispersions. Many of these difficulties are due to a lack of wetting of the nano-reinforcements by the polymer. Poor wetting is caused by th ...

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project focuses on the development of high temperature resins and tapes and their use in automated tape placement (ATP) fabrication with in-situ electron beam cure. Thermoplastic polymer matrix ATP and layer-by-layer electron beam curing ATP (EB-ATP) have been identified as among the most promising techniques for achieving autoclave properties in AT ...

The Navy has qualified a visible light-initiated resin system for spot repair and corrosion control on ballast tanks. This system, developed by Spectra Group Limited, cures in a very short period of time under visible light illumination to yield the patch and corrosion control coating. The major difficulty with this system is the unwieldy size and weight of the lamp housing and power supply. Ad ...