Portable Lightweight Rescue Tools

The objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of producing light weight rescue tools using solid propellant cool gas generators as the energy source. While there have been a number of advances in space based applications and the commercialization of solid propellant cool gas generators by the Europeans, work in the US has largely been limited to fire suppression. It is our goal to define practical methods of implementing and controlling the gas generation process to fully realize the unique benefits this technology for "long storage" "single use" applications. To keep a system small and light we match the gas generation capability as tightly to the demand as possible. For our rescue tool application we would provide exactly the right amount of high pressure gas instantly available to move a piston or rotate a turbine. Essentially we propose a gas container with packets of energetic material that can be individually activated with an electronic match to generate just the right amount of gas required at a particular point in time. Our teammates at the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC), a division of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech - NMT) in Socorro, New Mexico have significant experience and resources. Fiore Industries has significant experience and resources to apply to the development and testing of the electronic controller and pulse power electronic matches. Fiore's fire fighting unit located at NASA's White Sands Test Facility NM has extensive experience in using the very bulky existing equipment. Fiore together with NMT have the Mechanical engineering, design and prototyping capability to integrate the power source to a light weight mechanism meeting or exceeding all of the requirements of ST071-002.