WARF is seeking commercial partners to help develop a new method for creating lightweight materials for applications in aerospace, defense and marine industries.
The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is touting the method as a top licensing prospect in its engineering and computer science portfolio. It was created by Prof. Pavana Prabhakar, who leads the Manufacturing and Mechanics Lab within the UW-Madison College of Engineering.
The approach is focused on producing a form of composite material called “syntactic” foam, which is made up of hollow particles combined with structures formed from metallic, ceramic or polymer components, according to an overview from WARF. Compared to comparable solid structures, these forms boast greater impact strength and toughness.
Researchers at UW-Madison, led by Prabhakar, created a new technique for making these foams that leverages “selective laser sintering,” or SLS, a powder-based additive manufacturing technique. Sintering is a process that bonds particles together into a single mass without melting them.
WARF notes efforts to use SLS in making foams has been limited by the use of certain common plastics that are moldable under heat, but incorporating other hollow components such as glass “micro-balloons” into the mix leads to “improved properties” in the final product.
“This technique can be used in the production of highly customizable and lightweight materials, including helmets or armor having improved fit, comfort, airflow, and safety,” authors wrote. “Further, the materials and process are low cost and could be readily scaled and integrated into commercial manufacturing processes.”
The process can create customized syntactic foam for specific uses or more broad applications, resulting in “more sustainable, lighter and less expensive” components for a number of products.
WARF says it has promise for lightweight structures used in recreation, marine and aerospace sectors, as the specialized foam can be shaped with specific parameters for unique applications. Researchers have “successfully fabricated” foamed plastics using SLS, the overview shows.
“They characterized the resultant materials and have shown that their process can be used to create highly customized shapes,” authors wrote.
See the WARF overview and an earlier related study. See more on Prabhakar’s work here.
