SBIR Phase II: High-performance Polymer Composites for Mouth Guards

SBIR 第二阶段：用于护齿套的高性能聚合物复合材料

• 批准号: 1353873
• 负责人: Timothy Huang
• 金额: $ 74.99万
• 依托单位: Akervall Technologies Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-04-01 至 2018-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1353873&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; performance; Polymer

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project anticipates bringing forth a disruptive mouth guard technology that answers the urgent need for better dental protection. In the US alone, every year more than 1 million dental injuries occur, resulting in medical costs of roughly $500 million. The proposed technology will involve novel manufacturing methods to incorporate energy absorbing solid/liquid suspensions into novel thermo-polymer mouth guard designs to achieve enhanced impact energy absorption capacity. The specific technical objectives are to optimize the energy absorbing capacity of the formulated solid/liquid suspensions, develop the necessary manufacturing technology for incorporating such solid/liquid suspensions monolithically into the thermo- polymer, and finally to characterize the mouth guards by subjection to stress testing (chemical, physical, and thermal). This energy absorbing mouth guard will deliver on-demand, tunable energy absorption capacity that can be specifically tailored to provide superior dental protection to users in several venues including medical, sports, industrial and military. This R&D effort will produce the first ever mouth guard made with material that adaptively absorbs impact energy, a stark technological contrast to the conventional (passive) mouth guard. This new technology will also contribute basic understanding to the emerging field of nanorheology.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is significant. In just the mouth guard arena, realizing this technologically advanced mouth guard will likely bring a novel product into the dental protection market. Then there is the untapped market to provide much needed dental protection for patients undergoing medical procedures. Yearly about 150,000 dental injuries occur just during endotracheal intubations, required when undergoing general anesthesia. Further, the new energy absorbing fluid-thermopolymer material technology to emerge could serve as the technical groundwork for a plethora of energy dampening products. In addition, the research stands to seed a new body of knowledge, small- scale (millimeter) leveraged use of energy absorptive fluids. Realizing the technical objectives of this Phase II R&D effort will help foster local economic growth when the company?s new manufacturing facility opens for the fabrication of mouth guards based on this technology. A large number of jobs will be created requiring very diverse technical skills, and the company is committed to fill these jobs with a diverse work force.

这个小型企业创新研究第二阶段项目预计将带来一种颠覆性的护口器技术，以满足对更好的牙齿保护的迫切需求。仅在美国，每年就有100多万人因牙齿受伤，造成约5亿美元的医疗费用。拟议的技术将涉及新的制造方法，将吸收能量的固体/液体悬浮液结合到新型热聚合物护口器设计中，以实现增强的冲击能量吸收能力。具体的技术目标是优化配制的固体/液体悬浮液的能量吸收能力，开发必要的制造技术，将这种固体/液体悬浮液整体加入到热聚合物中，最后通过压力测试(化学、物理和热)来表征护口器的特征。这种能量吸收护口器将提供按需、可调的能量吸收能力，可以专门定制，为包括医疗、体育、工业和军事在内的多个场所的用户提供卓越的牙齿保护。这项研发工作将生产出有史以来第一个由自适应吸收冲击能量的材料制成的护口罩，这与传统(被动)护口器在技术上形成了鲜明对比。这项新技术还将有助于对新兴的纳米流变学领域的基本了解。这个项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是巨大的。仅仅在护口器领域，实现这种技术先进的护口器很可能会将一种新产品带入牙齿保护市场。然后是尚未开发的市场，为正在接受医疗程序的患者提供亟需的牙齿保护。每年大约有15万人在气管插管期间发生牙齿损伤，这是接受全身麻醉时所需的。此外，即将出现的新的吸能流体-热聚合物材料技术可能为大量的能量减振产品提供技术基础。此外，这项研究还将播撒一种新的知识体系，即利用小规模(毫米)吸收能量的液体。实现这一二期研发工作的技术目标将有助于促进当地经济增长，因为该公司？S的新制造工厂将投入生产基于这一技术的口腔护口器。将创造大量需要非常多样化的技术技能的工作岗位，该公司致力于用多样化的劳动力来填补这些工作岗位。