I-Corps: Multi-Variate Shrinkage Sensor

I-Corps：多变量收缩传感器

• 批准号: 1822271
• 负责人: Nancy Saucier
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Lowell
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-04-01 至 2019-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1822271&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Multi; Variate; Shrinkage; Sensor

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the elimination or reduction of metrology and post processing analysis that is currently a standard requirement of polymer part manufacturing. This process improvement that will be facilitated by sensor technology will reduce manufacturing time and cost by 20-40%, improve part quality consistency, and improve molding productivity by 100%. Each percentage point improvement in productivity corresponds to cost savings in excess of more than $1 billion per year in the United States alone while reducing the energy consumption and environmental waste related to molding, discarding, and/or recycling of defective plastic parts.This I-Corps project will enable the team to determine the ideal parameters of a multivariate shrinkage sensor for industrial polymer manufacturing. The insights gained from at least one hundred customer interviews will drive decisions on the commercial potential of a new multi-mode shrinkage monitoring sensor that will obviate the need for manual inspections and enable fully automatic production by directly measuring molded products as they are made, before the mold opens, so that defectives parts can be automatically diagnoses and recycled. Through I-Corps, the team will assess current sensor design, its relative value compared to existing sensors and inspection procedures in the polymer manufacturing industry, and facilitate identification of customer segments with a critical unmet need for in-mold shrinkage sensor capability. Further, key learning from the I-Corps process will drive refinement of sensor development with the goal of developing a more commercially relevant sensor and provide industrial connections for sensor testing in the future. This overall enhanced knowledge of the industry will additionally reduce commercialization risk should a start-up or licensing opportunity be pursued.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是消除或减少目前聚合物部件制造的标准要求的计量和后处理分析。 传感器技术将促进这种工艺改进，将减少20- 40%的制造时间和成本，提高零件质量的一致性，并将成型生产率提高100%。生产率每提高一个百分点，仅在美国每年就能节省超过10亿美元的成本，同时减少与成型、丢弃和/或回收有缺陷塑料部件相关的能源消耗和环境浪费。I-Corps的这个项目将使该团队能够确定工业聚合物制造中多元收缩传感器的理想参数。 从至少100个客户访谈中获得的见解将推动对新型多模式收缩监测传感器的商业潜力的决策，该传感器将消除人工检查的需求，并通过在模具打开之前直接测量成型产品来实现全自动生产，以便自动诊断和回收有缺陷的部件。 通过I-Corps，该团队将评估当前的传感器设计，其相对于聚合物制造行业中现有传感器和检测程序的相对价值，并促进识别对模内收缩传感器能力有关键未满足需求的客户群。此外，从I-Corps过程中获得的关键经验将推动传感器开发的完善，目标是开发更具商业相关性的传感器，并为未来的传感器测试提供工业连接。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。