I-Corps Teams: Pathways to Market of Piezoelectric Elastomer Composites for Additive Manufacturing of Flexible 3D Conformal Acoustic Emission and Ultrasonic Transducer Arrays

与每一项新技术一样，压电技术为声发射（AE）和超声波传感器技术做出了重要的科学成就，但仍然存在需要解决的技术限制。提出的技术概念源于无损检测行业中从事结构完整性监测的专业人士的反馈，以及与致力于相关研究领域的前博士生的几次讨论。所提出的基于压电-纳米复合材料的声/超声换能器阵列技术在解决几个性能限制问题方面具有很大的潜力。此外，由于传统传感器的高成本和传感器体积方面的要求，相关技术公司的设计团队迫切需要一种替代的、更实惠的传感器技术。现代声学和超声传感技术能够提供大量老化民用基础设施的健康状况信息，以避免灾难性故障，从而对公共安全和经济投资产生重要影响。提出的技术将加速声发射或超声波换能器在独特几何形状或特殊工作条件下的广泛应用，同时由于压电复合材料工艺的卓越适应性，可以大幅降低成本并缩短设计周期。因此，随着新的压电纳米复合技术的引入，可以合理地预计在不同类别的业务中进行营销扩展，例如无损检测提供商和可穿戴医疗电子公司。该项目的主要目标是开发压电弹性体或热塑性纳米复合材料，这些材料适用于用于检测声发射或超声波信号的柔性或3D共形换能器阵列原型的增材制造。依靠声发射的利用最流行的应用之一是确定裂缝是否在结构内部生长或监测其恶化程度。然而，通常情况下，由于某些特殊的技术要求，例如独特的几何形状或频率选择，要在被测对象上获得准确甚至可访问的测量读数是非常困难和昂贵的。所提出的技术促进了声发射或超声波换能器阵列的低成本批量生产，这些传感器阵列非常适合于混凝土、钢、复合结构和旋转机械的结构健康监测。在这个I-Corps项目中，将对一种新的压电纳米复合材料技术进行商业评估，该技术可以实现定制设计、成型或增材制造（3D打印），并易于部署新型柔性和/或3D保形声学和超声波换能器阵列。

Like every novel technology, piezoelectricity has contributed to important scientific achievements to Acoustic Emission (AE) and ultrasonic sensor technology, but there still are technical limitations that need to be resolved. The concept of the technology proposed originated from the feedbacks from professionals expertizing on structural integrity monitoring in Non-destructive Testing (NDT) industry as well as several discussion with former doctoral students dedicated to relevant research areas. The proposed piezoelectric-nanocompostie based acoustic/ultrasonic transducer array technology has great potential to resolve several of the performance limiting issues. In addition, due to the high cost of traditional sensors and the requirements in terms of sensor volumes, an alternative and more affordable transducer technology is urgently needed for design teams in relevant technology companies. Modern acoustic and ultrasonic sensing technologies are able to supply an enormous amount of information of health conditions of aging civil infrastructure to avoid a catastrophic failure, thereby making an important impact on the public safety and economical investments. The technology proposed will expedite a wider employment of acoustic emission or ultrasonic transducers on objects of unique geometries or in special working conditions, while allowing substantial cost reduction and shortening the design-cycle due to superb adaptability of the piezo-composites processes. Therefore, with the new piezo-nanocomposite technology introduced, it is reasonable to anticipate a marketing expansion in different categories of business, such as NDT provider and wearable medical electronics companies. The key objective of this program is to develop piezoelectric elastomer or thermoplastic nanocomposites that are amenable to additive manufacturing of flexible or 3D conformal transducer array prototypes for detection of acoustic emission or ultrasonic signals. One of the most popular applications relying on the utilization of acoustic emission is to determine if cracks are growing at the interior of a structure or to monitor its degree of deterioration. However, oftentimes, it is very difficult and costly to achieve an accurate or even accessible measurement readings on tested objects because of some certain special technical requirement, e.g. unique geometry or frequency selection. The proposed technology facilitates low-cost volume production of acoustic emission or ultrasonic transducer arrays that are well tailored for structural health monitoring of concrete, steel, and composite structures and rotating machinery. In this I-Corps program a commercial assessment of will be conducted on a new piezo-nanocomposite material technology that enables customized design, molding or additive manufacturing (3D printing) and ease of deployment of a new class of flexible and/or 3D conformal acoustic and ultrasonic transducer arrays.