Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
During the first decade of direct metal laser-sintering (DMLS), the metals employed were generally ones developed specifically for DMLS, rather than those used in traditional metalforming methods. But...
Briefs: Medical
A design has been formulated for a proposed improved version of an apparatus that simulates atmospheric effects of human respiration by introducing controlled amounts of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and...
Briefs: Software
Oxidation Behavior of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Composites
OXIMAP is a numerical (FEA-based) solution tool capable of calculating the carbon fiber and fiber coating oxidation patterns within any arbitrarily shaped carbon silicon carbide composite structure as a function of time, temperature, and the environmental oxygen partial pressure. The...
Briefs: Medical
Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis
The Portable Unit for Metabolic Analysis (PUMA) is an instrument that measures several quantities indicative of human metabolic function. Specifically, this instrument makes time-resolved measurements of temperature, pressure, flow, and the partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide in breath during both...
Briefs: Energy
CO₂-Reduction Primary Cell for Use on Venus
A document proposes a CO2-reduction primary electrochemical cell as a building block of batteries to supply electric power on the surface of Venus. The basic principle of the proposed cell is similar to that of terrestrial Zn-air batteries, the major differences being that (1) the anode...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Electronic circuitry has been developed to serve as an interface between an electronic tongue and digital input/output boards in a laptop computer that is used to control the tongue and...
Briefs: Materials
Coating Carbon Fibers With Platinum
A process for coating carbon fibers with platinum has been developed. The process may also be adaptable to coating carbon fibers with other noble and refractory metals, including rhenium and iridium. The coated carbon fibers would be used as ingredients of matrix/fiber composite materials that would resist...
Briefs: Materials
Nanorod-Based Fast-Response Pressure-Sensitive Paints
A proposed program of research and development would be devoted to exploitation of nanomaterials in pressuresensitive paints (PSPs), which are used on wind-tunnel models for mapping surface pressures associated with flow fields. Heretofore, some success has been achieved in measuring...
Application Briefs: Physical Sciences
Aqua Lung
Vista, CA
760- 597-5000
The High Lakes Project (HLP) is funded by a grant from...
Briefs: Materials
Poly-4 -vinylpyridinebisulfate (P4VPBS) is a polymeric salt that has shown promise as a water-free proton-conducting material (solid electrolyte) suitable for use in membrane/electrode...
Briefs: Materials
A method of removing endotoxins and other biologically active organic compounds from the surfaces of solid objects is based on exposure of the objects to monatomic oxygen generated in...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Fiber-Optic Strain Gauge With High Resolution And Update Rate
An improved fiber-optic strain gauge is capable of measuring strains in the approximate range of 0 to 50 microstrains with a resolution of 0.1 microstrain. (To some extent, the resolution of the strain gauge can be tailored and may be extensible to 0.01 microstrain.) The total cost of...
Briefs: Materials
Thermally sprayed dielectric ceramic coatings are the primary means of attaching strain and temperature gauges to hot-section rotating parts of turbine engines. As hot-section temperatures...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An electrochemical method of disposal of hydrazines dissolved in water has been devised. The method is applicable to hydrazine (N2H4), to monomethyl hydrazine [also...
Briefs: Medical
Wearable Environmental and Physiological Sensing Unit
The wearable environmental and physiological sensing unit (WEPS) is a prototype of systems to be worn by emergency workers (e.g., firefighters and members of hazardous-material response teams) to increase their level of safety. The WEPS includes sensors that measure a few key physiological...
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Bare Conductive Tether for Decelerating a Spacecraft
A document describes a prototype of electrically conductive tethers to be used primarily to decelerate spacecraft and/or generate electric power for the spacecraft. Like prior such tethers, this tether is designed so that when it is deployed from a spacecraft in orbit, its motion across the...
Briefs: Materials
Some wholly aromatic ether-imides consisting of rod-shaped, relatively-low-mass molecules that can form liquid crystals have been investigated for potential utility as electron-donor-type...
Briefs: Materials
Making Activated Carbon by Wet Pressurized Pyrolysis
A wet pressurized pyrolysis (wet carbonization) process has been invented as a means of producing activated carbon from a wide variety of inedible biomass consisting principally of plant wastes. The principal intended use of this activated carbon is room-temperature adsorption of pollutant...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Miniature Oxidizer Ionizer for a Fuel Cell
A proposed miniature device for ionizing the oxygen (or other oxidizing gas) in a fuel cell would consist mostly of a membrane ionizer using the same principles as those of the device described in the earlier article, “Miniature Bipolar Electrostatic Ion Thruster” (NPO-21057). The oxidizing gas...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
Promoted-Combustion Chamber With Induction Heating Coil
An improved promoted-combustion system has been developed for studying the effects of elevated temperatures on the flammability of metals in pure oxygen. In prior promoted-combustion chambers, initial temperatures of metal specimens in experiments have been limited to the temperatures of...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
The figure shows components of a distillation column intended for use as part of a system that produces high-purity liquid oxygen (LOX) from air by distillation. (The column could be...
Briefs: Materials
Membranes made of silanized alumina have been prepared and tested as prototypes of derivatized ceramic membranes that are both highly permeable to oxygen and hydrophobic....
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Briefs: Medical
Figure 1 is a simplified schematic diagram of a system that automatically regulates the concentration of glucose or pH in a liquid culture medium that is circulated through a...
Briefs: Materials
A family of tantalum-based ceramics has been invented as ingredients of high-temperature composite insulating tiles. These materials are suitable for coating and/or permeating the outer...
Briefs: Materials
In recent experiments, highly purified batches of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have shown promise as superior alternatives to the graphitic carbon-black anode materials heretofore...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Repairing Chipped Silicide Coatings on Refractory Metal Substrates
The space shuttle orbiter's reaction control system (RCS) is a series of small thrusters that use hypergolic fuels to orient the orbiter in space. The RCS thrusters are constructed from a special niobium-based alloy — the C-103. This alloy retains excellent mechanical...
Briefs: Materials
Experiments have shown that it is feasible to use oxygen radicals (specifically, monatomic oxygen) from mild oxygen plasmas to remove organic contaminants and chemical fabrication...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Arrays of nanowires having controlled dimensions can now be fabricated on substrates, optionally as integral parts of multilayer structures, by means of a cost-effective, high-yield process...
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