SBIR Phase I: Next Generation Plastic Actuators and Transducers

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种优化的制造工艺，用于基于聚偏二氟乙烯(PVDF) -碳纳米管纳米复合材料的新型坚固、高效、聚合物压电致动器和换能器。这些新的致动器和换能器最近在实验室进行了演示，并显示出比当前技术显著提高300- 500%的性能。似乎它们可以用现有的挤压制造技术以相同或更低的成本制造。在拟议的项目中，将研究低成本制造和商业化的扩大策略，特别是它们如何影响执行器或换能器的性能。将与商业相关标准进行比较，以确定最佳工艺。在商业上，这些材料用于各种应用，如开关、计算机图形、红外探测器、超声波医学成像、乐器拾音器、水听器和军用和民用声纳应用的换能器。换能器复合材料和聚合物薄膜市场在2000年达到2.22亿美元，预计到2005年将增长到3.4亿美元。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop an optimized manufacturing process for new robust, high efficiency, polymer piezo actuators and transducers based on polyvinylidene di-fluoride (PVDF) - carbon nanotube nanocomposites. These new actuators and transducers have recently been demonstrated in the laboratory and have shown a remarkable 300-500 % performance improvement over current technology. It appears they can be made with the same or lower cost using existing extrusion manufacturing techniques. In the proposed project scale-up strategies for low cost manufacture and commercialization will be examined particularly in terms of how they impact the performance of the actuator or transducer. Comparisons will be made to commercially relevant standards to identify the optimal process. Commercially, these materials are used in a variety of applications, such as switches, computer graphics, infrared detectors, ultrasonic medical imaging, musical instrument pickup, hydrophones, and transducers for military and civilian sonar applications. The transducer composite and polymer film market equaled $222 million in 2000, and is expected to grow to $340 million by 2005.