Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Creating With Carbon

By combining the first variety of X-ray tubes ever available with a carbon-based nanotube innovation born just over a decade ago, Applied Nanotech, Inc., is helping to put the nanotechnology field on the map with...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Cloning Metal Parts for Space and Earth

Physics-based computer modeling software makes it possible to build, examine, and test virtual 3D-printed metal parts that meet the exacting standards of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory....

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Space Robotics Take a Deep Dive

The founder and many of the engineers at Houston-based Nauticus Robotics built robots at Johnson Space Center that had to operate autonomously in harsh, remote environments. Now they’ve applied that...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Earth’s Twin Helps with Extreme Electronics

An all-in-one, single-board computer module can withstand 900ºF conditions without a cooling system thanks to Glenn Research Center expertise in extreme-temperature technology. SBIR...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Cryofuels Come Under Pressure

NASA needs reliable cryofuel tanks for use in space, and the airline industry wants them to replace fossil fuels. SBIR funding from Marshall Space Flight Center for Tullahoma, Tennessee-based...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Some Engineering Is Only Skin Deep

Ability to finish surfaces of 3D-printed superalloys improves performance for engines, industry

Recent advances in 3D printing with metals are making it an increasingly...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Metallic Glass Gears Up for ‘Cobots,’ Coatings, and More

Where are the robot assistants we were promised?

For all the space that robots have occupied in the popular imagination for the last hundred years – and...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Neurological Devices, Racecars, Antennas Benefit from NASA Heat Shield Material

A smartphone can have up to 13 internal antennas to send and receive signals for everything from the basic cellular connection to Bluetooth, WiFi,...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

High-Performance Lasers Make Waves in Self-Driving Cars, Quantum Devices

Navigating the solar system’s vast distances has, paradoxically, required NASA to master the physics of the universe’s tiniest particles.

“If...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

NASA’s Robotic Glove Finds Commercial Handhold

It’s no coincidence that our most complex, versatile, and useful body part, the human hand, is also among the most prone to injury. With its fine motor and sensory coordination,...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Plasma Improves 3D Electronics Printing

A new approach to printing electronic components simplifies on-site manufacturing of electronics in space and on Earth.

With help from NASA funding and licensed technologies, San...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Ultrasonic Welding Makes Parts for NASA Missions, Commercial Industry

Combine metals and embed sensors with this novel additive manufacturing technique

A burst water main is always expensive and messy, but a pipe...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Now Anyone Can Make Electronics on Demand—Thanks to NASA Research

Chance Glenn traces the inspiration for his 3D electronics printer back to Star Trek, which he began watching in reruns in the late 1970s as a middle schooler.

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Industry Opens a New Door to Space

Anyone who has gotten a sofa stuck in a doorway on moving day knows how frustrating it is when there’s no other way in or out. The doorways on the International Space Station, or airlocks, have...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

New Industrial Robotic Gripper Copies Geckos’ Toes

No sooner had the gecko’s secret been cracked than humans got to work trying to copy it.

“It was one of those mysteries that had been around for a long time,” says...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Hybrid Tank Technology

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Researchers have accomplished great advances in pressure vessel technology by applying high-performance composite materials as an over-wrap to metal-lined pressure...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Helping Aircraft Engines Lighten Up

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

High-temperature polyimide/carbon fiber matrix composites are developed by the Polymers Branch at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. These materials can...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

New Glass Serves As Window To Cutting-edge Lasers

Originating Technology/NASA Contribution

Since 1997, Marshall Space Flight Center’s Electrostatic Levitator  (ESL) facility has been used to study the characteristics of...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Phase-Change Coating Absorbs Heat from Rockets, Pipes, Beer

NASA Technology

Most people enjoy an icy drink on a hot summer day without thinking about the physics happening inside the glass. But the phase-change...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Tiny Pulsed Lasers Have Medical, Industrial, Military, Environmental Applications

NASA Technology

On the outside, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will look nearly identical to the 2011-launched Curiosity rover. But inside, engineers...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Metallic Glass Coatings Improve Power Plant, Oil Rig Productivity

NASA Technology

A rover can be equipped with the most state-of-the-art scientific instruments NASA engineers can devise, but if the wheel breaks, that’s going...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Electrostatic Discharge Training Improves Manufacturing Practices

NASA Technology

Everybody has felt it from time to time: that sharp jolt of electric shock you get when you walk across a rug and touch a doorknob.

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Pulsed Laser Innovations Power Nobel-Winners’ Research

NASA Technology

When Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the Moon, the video and his first words—transmitted across nearly 240,000 miles and broadcasted around the...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

New Imaging Technique Measures Unseen Flows

NASA Technology

Gravity draws water from a faucet into a cup. Air bubbles rise because they’re lighter than the water around them—gas and liquid effortlessly self-separating. In...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Aerogel Insulations Save Millions in Industrial Applications

NASA Technology

It’s no surprise that some of NASA’s biggest breakthroughs and most popular spinoffs have been in the field of temperature management. The Space...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Revolutionary Battery Replacement Leads to a New Humidity Sensor

NASA Technology

A lot can and does go wrong with technology, as Dr. Terry Rolin, an electronic systems failure analyst at Marshall Space Flight Center, knows well....

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Separation Device Launches New Science Payloads

NASA Technology

Rockets typically come in stages, each optimized for different parts of the launch. When each stage has finished its part, it drops away, allowing the smaller...

Spinoff: Industrial Productivity & Manufacturing Technology

Printed Polymer Makes Integrated Airplane Parts

NASA Technology

Spacecraft fuel tanks have always been round, because they need to hold as much fuel as possible under as much pressure as possible with a minimum of material, and...