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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1988

Composite Materials

Langley Research Center researchers invented an advanced polymer, a chemical compound formed by uniting many small molecules to create a complex molecule with different chemical properties. The material is a thermoplastic polyimide that resists solvents. Other polymers of this generic type are soluble in solvents, thus cannot be used where solvents are present. High Technology Services (HTS), Inc. licensed technology and is engaged in development and manufacture of high performance plastics, resins and composite materials. Techimer Materials Division is using technology for composite matrix resins that offer heat resistance and protection from radiation, electrical and chemical degradation. Applications of new polymer include molding resins, adhesives and matrix resins for fiber reinforced composites.

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NASA NTRS1988

A Universal Antidote

Last fall two of the Big Three U.S. automakers concluded arrangements with Alcide Corporation for distribution of Alcide's patented Ren New Air Conditioning Disinfectant. Special properties of Alcide formulation enable it to destroy mold and fungus as well as bacteria and viruses with minimal harm to humans, animals and/or plants. This allows use of the product to disinfect and deodorize auto air conditioners without removing them and without any lingering toxicity. Disinfectant/deodorizer is one of a wide range of Alcide formulations engineered for a variety of purposes, spanning automotive, medical, agricultural, pharmaceutical and consumer markets. Alcide is not strictly speaking a spinoff from aerospace technology, but the products and company that makes them are beneficiaries of assistance provided by NERAC, Inc.

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NASA NTRS1988

Foam Cushioning

One innovation developed by a contractor at Ames Research Center was an open cell polymeric foam material with unusual properties. Intended as padding for aircraft seats the material offered better impact protection against accidents, and also enhanced passenger comfort because it distributed body weight evenly over the entire contact area. Called a slow springback foam, it flows to match the contour of the body pressing against it, and returns to its original shape once the pressure is removed. It has many applications including aircraft cushions and padding, dental stools, and athletic equipment. Now it's used by Dynamic Systems, Inc. for medical applications such as wheel chairs for severely disabled people which allow them to sit for 3-8 hours where they used to be uncomfortable in 15-30 minutes.

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NASA NTRS1988

Business Jets

Learjet Inc.'s Learjet 31 and Learjet 55C both feature NASA developed winglets, nearly vertical extensions of the wing designed to reduce fuel consumption and generally improve airplane's performance. Winglets are lifting surfaces designed to operate in the vortex or air whirlpool that occurs at an airplanes wingtip. This complex flow of air creates air drag; the winglets job is to reduce the strength of the vortex and thereby substantially reduce drag, additionally the winglet generates its own lift producing forward thrust in the manner of a sailboat's sail. Combination of reduced drag and additional thrust adds up to improvement in fuel efficiency.

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NASA NTRS1988

Light Reflector

Ultra Sales, Inc.'s fluorescent lighting fixture gets a boost in reflectivity through installation of Lightdriver, a thin tough thermoplastic film plated with aluminum, capable of reflecting 95 percent of visible light striking it. Lightdriver increases brightness without adding bulbs, and allows energy savings by removing some bulbs because the mirrorlike surface cuts light loss generally occasioned by conventional low reflectivity white painted surface above the bulbs in many fluorescent fixtures. Forty-five percent reduction in lighting electricity is attainable.

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NASA NTRS1988

Research Help

The Electrosynthesis Co. Inc.'s Electrocinerator System integrates a highly effective air scrubber with an electrochemical cell to provide an apparatus capable of destroying virtually all toxic chemicals and airborne bacteria. Project (funded by DOD) is prospective means of decontaminating airborne chemicals and biological warfare agents. Also has broad civil use applicable to hospitals for destruction of airborne viruses and bacteria, and industrial use for elimination of toxic solvent vapors and malodorous emissions.

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NASA NTRS1988

Flow Measurement

Macrodyne, Inc.'s laser velocimeter (LV) is a system used in wind tunnel testing of aircraft, missiles and spacecraft employing electro optical techniques to probe the flow field as the tunnel blows air over a model of flight vehicle and to determine velocity of air and its direction at many points around the model. However, current state-of-the-art minicomputers cannot handle the massive flow of real time data from several sources simultaneously. Langley developed instrument Laser Velocimeter Autocovariance Buffer Interface (LVABI). LVABI is interconnecting instrument between LV and computer. It acquires data from as many as six LV channels at high real time data rates, stores it in memory and sends it to computer on command. LVABI has application in variety of research, industrial and defense functions requiring precise flow measurement.

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NASA NTRS1990

Flame Detector

Scientific Instruments, Inc. has now developed a second generation, commercially available instrument to detect flames in hazardous environments, typically refineries, chemical plants and offshore drilling platforms. The Model 74000 detector incorporates a sensing circuit that detects UV radiation in a 100 degree conical field of view extending as far as 250 feet from the instrument. It operates in a bandwidth that makes it virtually 'blind' to solar radiation while affording extremely high sensitivity to ultraviolet flame detection. A 'windowing' technique accurately discriminates between background UV radiation and ultraviolet emitted from an actual flame, hence the user is assured of no false alarms. Model 7410CP is a combination controller and annunciator panel designed to monitor and control as many as 24 flame detectors. *Model 74000 is no longer being manufactured.

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NASA NTRS1990

Signal Processor

Macrodyne, Inc.'s Model 3100 Frequency Domain Processor is an innovative instrument that significantly increases the amount and accuracy of information available from laser velocimeter flow measurement systems. The innovation permits use of laser velocimetry in industrial applications where extremely precise measurements are required; it has applicability in industrial controls and in improvement of transmission standards in the automotive industry.

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NASA NTRS1990

NASA/University Technology Cooperation

NASA is extensively engaged in cooperative technology development efforts with the nation's research universities. An example of NASA/university cooperation is the work of the Space Technology Center at the University of Kansas (KU) and the KU Center for Research, Inc. (CRINC). Directed by Professor Bill G. Barr, the Space Technology Center is one of 27 interdisciplinary centers established as part of a NASA plan to set up a network of advanced facilities across the nation. Since 1981 CRINC has been involved in a technology transfer program supported by the NASA Technology Utilization Division and by industry. The objective of the technology transfer program is to encourage industrial innovation through utilization of NASA technology through improved industry/university cooperation. At KU, research is conducted by the Industrial Innovation Laboratory and the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory which utilize graduate students in engineering and computer science as research assistants. A new project of the Space Technology Center is one designed to advance NASA objectives in "augmented telerobotics." A telerobot is programmed to respond to commands from a human operator, or to mimic the movements of its human operator. The project is being conducted under the guidance of Langley Research Center.

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NASA NTRS1990

Longer Life for Steel Structures

IC 531 is a coating manufactured and marketed by Inorganic Coatings, Inc. The coating was developed by Goddard to protect structures at Kennedy Space Center. It is a high ratio potassium silicate formula. The coating is water based, nontoxic, and nonflammable. It generates no volatile organic compounds nor hazardous chemical waste, and bonds to steel in 30 minutes. At the present time, no one can say for sure how long IC 531's effective lifetime is. Some of the original Goddard test applications of 1976 are still going strong after lengthy exposure to the Sun, salt and moisture. Says IC in company literature: 'IC 531 offers virtually permanent protection for steel. We predict it will protect structures for well beyond 25 years. If necessary, it is infinitely maintainable; if damaged, it can easily be touched up with more IC 531.'

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NASA NTRS1990

Versatile Coating

A radome at Logan Airport and a large parabolic antenna at the Wang Building in Massachusetts are protected from weather, corrosion and ultraviolet radiation by a coating, specially designed for antennas and radomes, known as CRC Weathertite 6000. The CRC 6000 line that emerged from Boyd Coatings Research Co., Inc. is a solid dispersion of fluorocarbon polymer and polyurethane that yields a tough, durable film with superior ultraviolet resistance and the ability to repel water and ice over a long term. Additionally, it provides resistance to corrosion, abrasion, chemical attacks and impacts. Material can be used on a variety of substrates, such as fiberglass, wood, plastic and concrete in addition to steel and aluminum. In addition Boyd Coatings sees CRC 6000 applicability as an anti-icing system coated on the leading edge of aircraft wings.

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NASA NTRS1990

Advanced Pacemaker

Synchrony, developed by St. Jude Medical's Cardiac Rhythm Management Division (formerly known as Pacesetter Systems, Inc.) is an advanced state-of-the-art implantable pacemaker that closely matches the natural rhythm of the heart. The companion element of the Synchrony Pacemaker System is the Programmer Analyzer APS-II which allows a doctor to reprogram and fine tune the pacemaker to each user's special requirements without surgery. The two-way communications capability that allows the physician to instruct and query the pacemaker is accomplished by bidirectional telemetry. APS-II features 28 pacing functions and thousands of programming combinations to accommodate diverse lifestyles. Microprocessor unit also records and stores pertinent patient data up to a year.

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NASA NTRS1990

Database Management System

In 1981 Wayne Erickson founded Microrim, Inc, a company originally focused on marketing a microcomputer version of RIM (Relational Information Manager). Dennis Comfort joined the firm and is now vice president, development. The team developed an advanced spinoff from the NASA system they had originally created, a microcomputer database management system known as R:BASE 4000. Microrim added many enhancements and developed a series of R:BASE products for various environments. R:BASE is now the second largest selling line of microcomputer database management software in the world.

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NASA NTRS1990

Space Software

Xontech, Inc.'s software package, XonVu, simulates the missions of Voyager 1 at Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and Giotto in close encounter with Comet Halley. With the program, the user can generate scenes of the planets, moons, stars or Halley's nucleus and tail as seen by Giotto, all graphically reproduced with high accuracy in wireframe representation. Program can be used on a wide range of computers, including PCs. User friendly and interactive, with many options, XonVu can be used by a space novice or a professional astronomer. With a companion user's manual, it sells for $79.

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NASA NTRS1990

Microspheres

Vital information on a person's physical condition can be obtained by identifying and counting the population of T-cells and B-cells, lymphocytes of the same shape and size that help the immune system protect the body from the invasion of disease. The late Dr. Alan Rembaum developed a method for identifying the cells. The method involved tagging the T-cells and B-cells with microspheres of different fluorescent color. Microspheres, which have fluorescent dye embedded in them, are chemically treated so that they can link with antibodies. With the help of a complex antibody/antigen reaction, the microspheres bind themselves to specific 'targets,' in this case the T-cells or B-cells. Each group of cells can then be analyzed by a photoelectronic instrument at different wavelengths emitted by the fluorescent dyes. Same concept was applied to the separation of cancer cells from normal cells. Microspheres were also used to conduct many other research projects. Under a patent license Magsphere, Inc. is producing a wide spectrum of microspheres on a large scale and selling them worldwide for various applications.

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NASA NTRS1990

Space Data for Crop Management

CROPIX, Inc., formed in 1984 by Frank Lamb, president of the Eastern Oregon Farming Company, monitors primarily potato crops in a 20,000 square mile area of northern Oregon and central Washington. Potatoes are a high value specialty crop that can be more profitable to the farmer if he has advance knowledge of market conditions, knows when to harvest, and when to take it to market. By processing and collecting data collected by the NASA-developed Landsat Earth Resources survey satellites, Lamb is able to provide accurate information on crop acreage and conditions on a more timely basis than the routine estimates by the USDA. CROPIX uses Landsat data to make acreage estimates of crops, and to calculate a field-by-field vegetative index number. CROPIX then distributes to its customers a booklet containing color-coded maps, an inventory of crops, plus data and graphs on crop conditions and other valuable information.

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NASA NTRS1990

Fallout from the Shuttle Arm

Vadeko International, Inc., Mississauga, Ontario developed for the Canadian National Railways (CN) the Robotic Paint Application System. The robotic paint shop has two parallel paint booths, allowing simultaneous painting of two hopper cars. Each booth has three robots, two that move along wall-mounted rails to spray-paint the exterior, a third that is lowered through a hatch in the railcar's top to paint the interior. A fully computerized system controls the movement of the robots and the painting process. The robots can do in four hours a job that formerly took 32 hours. The robotic system applies a more thorough coating and CN expects that will double the useful life of its hoppers and improve cost efficiency. Human painters no longer have to handle the difficult and hazardous job. CN paint shop employees have been retrained to operate the computer system that controls the robots. In addition to large scale robotic systems, Vadeko International is engaged in such other areas of technology as flexible automation, nuclear maintenance, underwater vehicles, thin film deposition and wide band monitoring.

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