New tech available for commercialization pitched in Dayton
October 2, 2018
Monday afternoon, 26 new technologies and five defense companies were pitched to audience of defense industry and commercialization specialists at the Engineers Club of Dayton.
The Purdue-AFRL Innovation Showcase was the first annual event of its kind, a partnership developed between the Air Force Research Lab, the Purdue Foundry and the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization.
“We go from science fiction to reality,” Purdue Ventures Director of Collaborations Riley Gibb told the audience ahead of the startup pitches, which featured Dayton’s own Nick Ripplinger and Battle Sight Technologies.
New technologies pitched as available for commercialization included:
• spatial audio enhancement, which provides situational awareness to warfighters on the ground and boosts realism for simulation and training ops;
• next-generation solar cells featuring perovskite, a large-grain component that lowers surface defects and boosts efficiency. Additionally, the material can be aerosol jet-printed so the solar cells can be applied to flat and 3D surfaces;
• a process to harden electronics against radiation that often damage parts in space or during high-altitude flights. The inventor offers a whole suit of designs for power structures that are compatible with a range of semiconductor materials;
• a process for 3D printing control surfaces, in which multilateral printing enables scientists and engineers to contour ribs and spars for aerospace applications to reduce paradynamic losses. Other potential areas of application include automotive and wind turbines;
• fluorescent silk materials for a smart bandage, a market expected to reach $11 billion by 2025. The silk does not irritate the wound and the fluorescent protein is light-activated to create radicals similar to hydrogen peroxide that disinfect the wound so it does not get infected as it heals;
• a new separator material for lithium-ion batteries that enables operation of the batteries at temperatures up to 120 degrees Celsius, compared to the 60-degree Celsius range of traditional ion batteries;
• a pulsed laser material texturing process that leads to better adhesion between metal surfaces and adhesives without causes micro cracking to the surface as traditional lasers do. A Navy ship could be textured do paint will adhere better, reducing rust issues and maintenance needs;
• a new process to get rare earth metals, which are found in virtually all sensitive technologies like computer hard drives or screens. Currently, 95 percent of these metals are produced in China, and the mining process is environmentally damaging and capital equipment-intensive;
• an algorithm that trains 3D printers to correct deformations in printed parts;
• a mesh morphing software that can update 3D meshes used in computer aided design, simplifying and speeding up the design process;
• a pyrophoric substrate that can be coated in various chemical layers to expand obscurement gas material options. The obscurement materials are released when the substrate heats up and evaporates;
• a suite of processes to test and secure microelectronics, often produced overseas, to ensure the parts that incorporate them are reliable and tamper-proof in the field;
• reusable sponges that separate oil from water;
• a component that extends the typical 10- to 20-decibel range of receivers, located in everything from cellphones to defense radar system, by 50 decibels;
• biometric flapping wings, that could be applied in the toy industry to create flying toys ranging from Tinkerbell to Harry Potter’s Golden Snitch.
The Purdue Foundry was created five years ago to make startup companies from the university’s research, Dr. Tim Peoples, Managing Director of the Purdue Foundry said. Since it launched, 203 startup companies have been created, 122 of which have licensed tech from Purdue University and 81 of which have their own intellectual property.
