I-Corps: Commercialization Feasibility Research for a Rigid Support System

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project reaches many different silos, including disaster relief, logistics, and personal protective equipment, through innovations in custom manufacturing and rapid prototyping. This I-Corps project is exploring the commercialization feasibility for a method to protect any amorphous shape with a rigid, adaptable fit system. There are many application areas where a method to form a rigid support system would be useful and transformative. For example, this method requires minimal, non-professional training and no water or external additives to catalyze the cure from liquid to solid. If results of this study suggest that this technology has merit as a medical device, it could transform the way patients are treated for broken bones, how victims are cared for in disaster relief areas, and how medical treatment is administered in the third world. Additionally, the current standard for protecting fragile objects during shipping is with polymer-reinforced paper, plastic peanuts, or sheets of air-puffed plastic. Objects of unidentifiable shapes could be more efficiently packed with this adaptable-fit technology. This I-Corps project proposes to conduct commercialization feasibility research on a method for protecting any amorphous shape with a rigid, adaptable fit system. The proposed technology utilizes research in manufacturing techniques to develop a novel method for custom forming a rigid support structure around an amorphous shape. The method consists of a network of tubing that contains one or more liquids, such that an external stimulus may trigger the transformation of one or more of these liquids into solid form. The tubes connect in a lattice structure that allows them to expand and contract in order to fit to an amorphous shape. Exploring this new method of forming a rigid structure can advance the fields of custom manufacturing and rapid prototyping. The technology allows for rapid creation of a custom-fit part in the field, without any external tools.