PFI-TT: Novel Mechanical Testing Technology with Intermediate Speed Actuation to Improve Manufacturing and Safety

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The broader impact/commercial potential of the Partnerships for Innovation – Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project will increase the economic competitiveness of US manufacturing in the field of next generation engineering components and systems in diverse industries such as automotive, aerospace, marine, health, sporting equipment, and electronics. Accurate mechanical behavior data is important to the design and manufacturing of these products. The current data is obtained in deformation speed conditions which are largely irrelevant to the service operations of these products. This gap between measurement and use has led to cost-prohibitive overdesign and sluggishness in materials and system discovery. This project is expected to lead to a mechanical testing system that will enable generation of accurate mechanical data and as such, superior manufacturing of next generation intelligent materials and components that will save energy, reduce cost, and increase safety. For instance, automotive designers may improve crashworthiness and increase passenger safety by at least 10%. Aerospace engineers may be able to achieve up to 25% weight savings. The technology is expected to penetrate the $700 million market of mechanical testing machines. The proposed project is the optimization and demonstration of a novel mechanical testing system able to produce reliable mechanical behavior data under controlled strain rates, especially in the intermediate strain rate regime of 5 s-1 and 500 s-1. This novel mechanical testing system features the integration of two improved technologies based on high tech materials and systems – a coaxially embedded serpentine bar (CESB) and a piezoelectric braking transducer (PBT). The project will improve the current state of these two patented technologies by reducing the dimension of the CESB and increasing the load rating of the PBT, such that the final system may be strongly marketable and used in conventional labs. The industrial partner has a deep understanding of customer needs and provides the means to inform the academic partner with regard to the essential features for integrating the two technologies and manufacturing the final demonstrating prototype.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.