Briefs: Materials
Heterogeneous Superconducting Low-Noise Sensing Coils
A heterogeneous material construction has been devised for sensing coils of super-conducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometers that are subject to a combination of...
Briefs: Materials
Predicting Properties of Unidirectional-Nanofiber Composites
A theory for predicting mechanical, thermal, electrical, and other properties of unidirectional-nanofiber/matrix composite materials is based on the prior theory of micromechanics of composite materials. In the development of the present theory, the prior theory of micromechanics was...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Templates for Deposition of Microscopic Pointed Structures
Templates for fabricating sharply pointed microscopic peaks arranged in nearly regular planar arrays can be fabricated by a relatively inexpensive technique that has recently been...
Briefs: Materials
Quench Crucibles Reinforced With Metal
Improved crucibles consisting mainly of metal-reinforced ceramic ampules have been developed for use in experiments in which material specimens are heated in the crucibles to various high temperatures,...
Briefs: Materials
Adjustable Membrane Mirrors Incorporating G-Elastomers
Lightweight, flexible, large-aperture mirrors of a type being developed for use in outer space have unimorph structures that enable precise adjustment of their surface figures. A mirror of this type includes a reflective membrane layer bonded with an electrostrictive grafted elastomer...
Briefs: Materials
High-Temperature Crystal-Growth Cartridge Tubes Made by VPS
Cartridge tubes for use in a crystal-growth furnace at temperatures as high as 1,600°C have been fabricated by vacuum plasma spraying (VPS). These cartridges consist mainly of an alloy of 60 weight percent molybdenum with 40 weight percent rhenium, made from molybdenum powder coated...
Briefs: Materials
Hall-Effect Thruster Utilizing Bismuth as Propellant
A laboratory-model Hall-effect spacecraft thruster was developed that utilizes bismuth as the propellant. Xenon was used in most prior Hall-effect thrusters. Bismuth is an attractive alternative because it has a larger atomic mass, a larger electron- impact- ionization cross-section, and is...
Briefs: Materials
Coated Glass for Transparent Heating Elements
Applying an electric current to specially coated glass results in radiant heat energy. This process creates a transparent heating element with near- uniform surface temperatures. Manufacturing...
Briefs: Materials
Method of Cross-Linking Aerogels Using a One-Pot Reaction Scheme
A document discusses a new, simplified method for cross-linking silica and other oxide aerogels, with a polymeric material to increase strength of such materials without adversely affecting porosity or low density. The usual process is long and arduous, requiring multiple washing...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Making Superconducting Welds Between Superconducting Wires
A technique for making superconducting joints between wires made of dissimilar superconducting metals has been devised. The technique is especially suitable for fabrication of...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Method for Thermal Spraying of Coatings Using Resonant-Pulsed Combustion
A method has been devised for high-volume, high-velocity surface deposition of protective metallic coatings on otherwise vulnerable surfaces. Thermal spraying is used...
Eye on Innovation: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The Brighter Side of Globalization for Manufacturers: New, Innovative Product Development Models
Director of Product
Management
Dassault Systèmes
SolidWorks Corp.
Concord, MA
Global...
Briefs: Materials
CO₂ Sensors Based on Nanocrystalline SnO₂ Doped With CuO
Nanocrystalline tin oxide (SnO2) doped with copper oxide (CuO) has been found to be useful as an electrical-resistance sensory material for measuring the concentration...
Briefs: Materials
Coating Reduces Ice Adhesion
The Shuttle Ice Liberation Coating (SILC) has been developed to reduce the adhesion of ice to surfaces on the space shuttle. SILC, when coated on a surface (foam, metal, epoxy primer, polymer surfaces), will reduce the adhesion of ice by as much as 90 percent as compared to the corresponding uncoated surface. This...
Briefs: Materials
Hybrid Multifoil Aerogel Thermal Insulation
This innovation blends the merits of multifoil insulation (MFI) with aerogel-based insulation to develop a highly versatile, ultra-low thermally conductive material called hybrid multifoil aerogel...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Directed Growth of Carbon Nanotubes Across Gaps
An experiment has shown that when single- walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are grown by chemical vapor deposition in the presence of an electric field of suitable strength, the nanotubes become...
Briefs: Materials
Nanotip Carpets as Antireflection Surfaces
Carpetlike random arrays of metal-coated silicon nanotips have been shown to be effective as antireflection surfaces. Now undergoing development for incorporation into Sun sensors that would provide...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Improved Gas Filling and Sealing of an HC-PCF
An improved packaging approach has been devised for filling a hollow-core photonic-crystal fiber (HC-PCF) with a gas, sealing the HC-PCF to retain the gas, and providing for optical connections...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Thermal Spray Formation of Polymer Coatings
This innovation forms a sprayable polymer film using powdered precursor materials and an in-process heating method. This device directly applies a powdered polymer onto a substrate to form an adherent, mechanically-sound, and thickness-regulated film. The process can be used to lay down both fully...
Briefs: Software
Displaying CFD Solution Parameters on Arbitrary Cut Planes
USMC6 is a Fortran 90 computer program for post-processing in support of visualization of flows simulated by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The name "USMC6" is partly an abbreviation of "TetrUSS — USM3D Solution Cutter," reflecting its origin as a post-processor for use with USM3D...
Briefs: Materials
Nano-Engineered Catalysts for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells
Nano-engineered catalysts, and a method of fabricating them, have been developed in a continuing effort to improve the performances of direct methanol fuel cells as candidate power...
Briefs: Materials
Capillography of Mats of Nanofibers
Capillography (from the Latin capillus, “hair”, and the Greek graphein, “to write”) is a recently conceived technique for forming mats of nanofibers into useful patterns. The concept was inspired...
A method of making more-complex molecules from simpler ones has emerged as a by-product of an experimental study in outer-space atom/ surface collision physics. The...
Briefs: Materials
Improved Silica Aerogel Composite Materials
A family of aerogel-matrix composite materials having thermal-stability and mechanical-integrity properties better than those of neat aerogels has been developed. Aerogels are known to be excellent...
Briefs: Materials
Nematic Cells for Digital Light Deflection
Smectic A (SmA) materials can be used in non-mechanical, digital beam deflectors (DBDs) as fillers for passive birefringent prisms based on decoupled pairs of electrically controlled, liquid crystalline polarization rotators, like twisted nematic (TN) cells and passive deflectors. DBDs are used in...
Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Flexible Structural-Health-Monitoring Sheets
A generic design for a type of flexible structural- health- monitoring sheet with multiple sensor/actuator types and a method of manufacturing such sheets has been developed. A sheet of this type contains an array of sensing and/or actuation elements, associated wires, and any other associated circuit...
Books & Reports: Aerospace
Lightweight Carbon-Carbon High-Temperature Space Radiator
A document summarizes the development of a carbon-carbon composite radiator for dissipating waste heat from a spacecraft nuclear reactor. The radiator is to be bonded to metal heat pipes and to operate in conjunction with them at a temperature approximately between 500 and 1,000 K. A goal...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Group-III Nitride Field Emitters
Field-emission devices (cold cathodes) having low electron affinities can be fabricated through lattice- mismatched epitaxial growth of nitrides of elements from group III of the periodic table. Field emission of electrons from solid surfaces is typically utilized in vacuum microelectronic devices, including some...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Fabricating Large-Area Sheets of Single-Layer Graphene by CVD
This innovation consists of a set of methodologies for preparing large area (>1 cm2) domains of single-atomic-layer graphite, also called graphene, in single...
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