I-Corps: Commercialization Plan for a High Performance Piezoelectric Pneumatic Valve

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力在于气动阀门领域，这种阀门控制工业设备和医疗设备中压缩气体通过管道或通道的流动。包括气动阀门的设备的例子包括质量流量控制器，它用于测量进入制造电子集成电路的房间的气体流量，以及医疗设备，如呼吸机和便携式氧气系统。作为该项目的成果而开发的阀门有可能在很大程度上取代当前的气动阀门技术，因为它们需要更少的电力来操作它们，响应更快，产生的热量更少，而且它们可能具有成本竞争力。通过新阀门实现的质量流量控制器性能的提高，可能会提高计算机处理器和内存的生产率，这些现在普遍存在于消费产品中。新阀门的低功耗扩大了在便携式和无线设备(如人工辅助机器人设备)中利用气动技术的视野。这种新型阀门可能适用于用于发电的不断演变的聚变反应堆，在这种反应堆中，强大的磁场会干扰传统阀门的使用。这个i-Corps项目基于气动阀门的新架构。气动阀门通常通过移动平板靠近孔板来减少流量，或远离孔板来增加流量来计量流量。在常规阀门中，用于移动阀板的致动器通常由电磁线圈和柱塞组成。这种新的结构用一个压电致动器取代了电磁致动器。以前利用压电致动器的尝试受到以下事实的限制：具有良好位移能力的致动器产生的力非常小，这限制了阀门的压力能力，而具有良好作用力的致动器产生的位移非常小，从而限制了阀门的流量能力。这项研究是基于先前NSF项目中的一项发现，即采用低排量执行器的阀门可以通过用一系列微孔取代单个孔板来显著提高流量。在这个项目中，将进行市场研究，以制定这项新技术在质量流量控制器目标市场的价值主张。结果将用于指导新技术的未来发展。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project lies in the field of pneumatic valves, which control the flow of compressed gases through tubes or channels in industrial equipment and medical devices. Examples of equipment which incorporate pneumatic valves include mass flow controllers, which are used to meter the flow of gases into chambers where electronic integrated circuits are fabricated, and medical devices, such as ventilators and portable oxygen systems. Valves developed as an outcome of this project have the potential to largely displace current pneumatic valve technology, as they require less electric power to operate them, they respond faster, they generate less heat, and they may be cost-competitive. Improved performance in mass flow controllers, enabled by the new valves, may make it possible to increase the production rate of computer processors and memory which are now ubiquitous in consumer products. The low power consumption of the new valves expand the horizons for utilizing pneumatics in portable and wireless devices, such as human assist robotic devices. The new valves are potentially suitable for usage in evolving fusion reactors for power generation, where powerful magnetic fields interfere with the utilization of conventional valves. This I-Corps project is based on a new architecture for pneumatic valves. Pneumatic valves typically meter flow by moving a plate closer to an orifice to reduce flow or away from the orifice to increase flow. The actuator used to move the plate in a conventional valve typically consists of an electromagnetic coil and plunger. The new architecture replaces the electromagnetic actuator with a piezoelectric actuator. Previous attempts at utilizing piezoelectric actuators have been limited by the fact that actuators with good displacement capacity produce very low force, which limits the pressure capacity of the valve, and actuators with good force capacity produce very low displacement, which limits the flow capacity of the valve. This research is based on the discovery, in a prior NSF project, that the flow capacity of a valve which incorporates a low displacement actuator can be increased dramatically by replacing a single orifice with an array of micro-orifices. Market research will be performed in this project to develop a value proposition of the new technology in a target market of mass flow controllers. The outcomes will be enlisted to guide future development of the new technology.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.