401 Tech Bridge, a business unit of business unit of the University of Rhode Island (URI) Research Foundation, has announced funding for three SME composite projects to be developed at the institution’s college of engineering.
Local small businesses Canapitsit Customs LLC, Nautilus Defense and TxV Aerospace Composites can now access a total of US$105,000 and work with the university to improve their internal R&D capabilities, the business said.
‘The 401 Tech Bridge Materials Innovation Challenge was formed to address the fact that while large companies have internal R&D labs, the small organizations that make up the bulk of the region’s advanced materials businesses do not,’ a press release said.
‘This is an excellent opportunity for us here at URI to get involved with applied research projects and help the local industry,’ said Arun Shukla, PhD, department of mechanical, industrial and systems engineering at URI. ‘With collaboration between our Dynamic Photomechanics and Multiscale and Multiphysics Mechanics of Materials Research laboratories, synergistic application of experiments and computational modeling in these projects will accelerate the design and development of transformative high-performance composite materials for multifunctional applications.’
Canapitsit Customs LLC is a woman-owned small business that specializes in composites design and manufacturing for the marine, defense and aerospace industries. Plans are to develop, simulate and validate the company’s design and manufacturing processes for a deep-sea pressure vessel that has potential in the defense, renewable energy and offshore oil and gas sectors, 401 Tech Bridge said.
Nautilus Defense is focused on the development and production of textile-integrated systems for monitoring high-value assets and their environments. It plans to perform electromechanical testing of textile-integrated systems, which will help to strengthen the company’s offerings for the defense and commercial markets.
TxV Aerospace Composites is a manufacturer of composite parts and assemblies for the aerospace industry. The company plans to will work with URI’s Multiscale & Multiphysics Mechanics of Materials Research Laboratory to characterize the strength and behavior of material bond line and correlate that data to the performance of hybrid composite structures.
This story uses material from 401 Tech Bridge, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
