Self-Cleaning Germicidal Door Handle

To overcome the limitations of using cleaning agents, sprays, or bulky high-cost sterilizing systems, NASA developed the Ultraviolet Germicidal Door Handle.

Anticorrosion Compound Protects Steel from the Elements

The flexible, self-healing coating protects buildings, bridges, and anything above or below the water made of steel.

Eddy Current Displacement Sensors for Industry

Eddy current displacement sensors can make measurements in harsh Industrial environments, even where pressure, dirt, or temperature fluctuations occur.

High-Performance, Lightweight, Easy-to-Fabricate Heat Exchanger

This can be used in energy-recovery systems in industrial, space, automotive, and military applications.

Custom Gimbal for JHU-APL Shows Promise for Others

See how Blue Joule developed and delivered the Mini Mount (MM) Gimbal to Johns Hopkins University.

Powder Particles for Corrosion Prevention in Rebar

The coating protects parking decks, bridges, concrete piers, offshore platforms, buildings, and cooling towers.

Fiber Lasers for Powertrain Welding Applications

Altering the traditional intensity distribution of fiber lasers improves weld quality.

Process Synthesizes Carbon Nanotubes Using Carbon Dioxide

This process turns carbon dioxide into carbon nanotubes with small diameters.

Hardening Lightweight Metal Foams with Nanocoating

Load-bearing structures in cars and airplanes could be manufactured from the metal foam.

Pearl-Like Coating Enhances Lightweight Armor

By mimicking the outer coating of pearls (nacre or mother of pearl), researchers created a lightweight plastic that is 14 times stronger and eight times lighter (less dense) than steel. It could...

Simultaneous Imaging and Friction Measurement with an In-Situ Tribometer

Different instruments are needed to study the interaction of contact surfaces at different length scales. Tribometers measure the coefficient of friction but they...

Nickel Titanium Alloy Ball Bearings

Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research Center have developed a new method for making small-diameter, high-grade ball bearings that are less than 0.25” in diameter thanks to the development of a new alloy...

Advances in Laser Welding Technology

There have been many changes in laser technology over the past 30 years. With each advancement comes new challenges and opportunities. The CO₂ laser with 10-micron wavelength was king for many...

Nickel with Nanoscale Pores Has the Strength of Titanium and Density of Water

Titanium is as strong as steel but about twice as light. These properties depend on the way a metal’s atoms are stacked but random defects that arise in the...

“Metallic Wood” Has the Strength of Titanium and the Density of Water

Titanium is as strong as steel but about twice as light. These properties depend on the way a metal's atoms are stacked, but random defects that arise in the...

Microscopy Technique Works at Extreme Heat

A stainless steel alloy — alloy 709 — has potential for elevated-temperature applications such as nuclear reactor structures. It is exceptionally strong and resistant to damage when exposed to...

Contaminant-Free Steel

For many highly stressed engineering applications like bearings and gears, contaminated steel parts can lead to devastating outcomes such as an emergency shutdown or the end of a mission. Ensuring that these critical...

Method 3D-Prints Marine-Grade Stainless Steel

Marine-grade stainless steel is valued for its performance under corrosive environments, and for its high ductility — the ability to bend without breaking under stress. But conventional...

Graphene Oxide Nanosheets for Lithium-Metal Batteries

Lithium-metal batteries — which can hold up to ten times more charge than lithium-ion batteries — haven't been commercialized because of a fatal flaw: as the batteries charge and...

Low-Alloy, High-Impact-Toughness Steel

USAF-96 Steel is a low-alloy steel that, when thermally processed with the method described here, has the following typical values: an ultimate tensile strength of 245 ksi, yield strength at 0.2% offset...

Method Creates Wood Substance Stronger Than Titanium

A new way to treat wood makes it 12 times stronger than natural wood and ten times tougher. The wood substance could be comparable to steel or titanium alloys; it is also comparable to...

Aluminum Electroplating Using Bromide Salts

Corrosion of structural materials is a serious problem for industrial and civil infrastructure worldwide, costing billions of dollars, and hampering gross domestic product. Corrosion also presents...

Zinc-Silicate Coating Blocks Corrosion

Spinoff is NASA’s annual publication featuring successfully commercialized NASA technology. This commercialization has contributed to the development of products and services in the fields of health...

Component Leak Test Apparatus

A component leak test apparatus investigates the performance of fittings at low temperature and/or high pressure. Its performance was quantified by measuring the ability to hold cold pressurized gaseous helium...

Rubber Material Enables Scratch-Proof Surfaces

The slippery state caused by water or oil is called superlubricity — where there is basically no friction on a surface. In graphene, this superlubricity state comes from atomic orbitals that...

Pick-and-Place System Delivers Improved Productivity and Safety

Deciding between a gantry and a robot for your application isn’t always as clear-cut as it may seem. To automate a simple, yet time-consuming and potentially dangerous task in...

Piezoelectric Actuator with Dual Horns Separately Controllable to Drive Miniature Vehicles Along a Single Axis

Actuators are a critical driver of all the mechanisms used in space, and improvements of their operation mechanism enhance mission...

R&D Effort Produces Magnetic Devices to Enable More Powerful X-ray Lasers

A team of researchers have designed, built, and tested two devices, called superconducting undulators, which could make X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) more...