Volume 4, Number 3 July/August 1996
NASA's Lewis Research Center and the Great Lakes Industrial Technology Transfer Center (GLITeC) have teamed to offer industry a unique technology transfer program in the area of composite and ceramic materials. Lewis, GLITeC and Battelle Memorial Institute-all in Ohio-are developing a multi-industry consortium on the design and analysis of advanced materials. Researchers from Lewis and Battelle will jointly address the composite material design needs of nonaerospace industry.
Through the two-phase consortium, GLITeC and Lewis will transfer a family of existing software tools and the know-how for the design and analysis of polymer, ceramic and metal matrix composites, as well as of monolithic ceramics. In Phase I, Lewis and Battelle experts will work with companies to evaluate the applicability of predictive software to specific design processes for an engineering issue of the company's choice. At the conclusion of Phase I, the company will know the impact the software could have for business and what will be required to acquire and integrate the software.
Phase II is an optional phase to be negotiated with each client or group of clients. In Phase II, the NASA and Battelle experts will work with companies to customize the code for individual application. Companies also may work together to develop a program for an application of mutual interest. The result of Phase II will be a proprietary design tool that the company may use in-house and perhaps license, providing additional business opportunities.
Consortium members will receive an evaluation of new and emerging advanced materials software programs (during a group meeting), proprietary consultation with Lewis and Battelle experts and a limited-use software license. Members will have direct access to Lewis and Battelle technology, staff and services. They also will be able to develop a plan to customize software into powerful proprietary software tools-at a significantly lower cost than if the software was developed in-house. The fee per member is $5,000.
"The potential inherent in this consortium is exciting. The consortium is a proactive effort to give companies access to technology and assistance adapting that technology to their needs," commented Dale Hopkins, acting chief of the Lewis Research Center's Structural Mechanics Branch. "The teamed approach offers companies the best of both worlds-that of sophisticated technology and the expertise to bring that technology to industrial applications."
GLITeC is one of six Regional Technology Transfer Centers that NASA established to help U.S. firms access, assess and acquire NASA and other federally-funded technology for commercial and industrial purposes.
For more information on the consortium, contact Priscilla Diem at the Great Lakes Industrial Technology Transfer Center.
Phone: 216/734-1186, E-mail: diem@battelle.org
Please mention that you read about it in Innovation.
Curator: Joe Goldfus
