SBIR Phase II: High-performance Polymer Composites for Mouth Guards

这个小型企业创新研究第二阶段项目预计将带来一种颠覆性的护齿技术，以满足对更好的牙齿保护的迫切需求。 仅在美国，每年就有超过100万例牙齿受伤，导致医疗费用约为5亿美元。 所提出的技术将涉及新颖的制造方法，以将能量吸收固体/液体悬浮液结合到新颖的热聚合物护齿器设计中，以实现增强的冲击能量吸收能力。 具体的技术目的是优化配制的固体/液体悬浮液的能量吸收能力，开发将这种固体/液体悬浮液整体地结合到热聚合物中的必要的制造技术，并最终通过经受应力测试（化学、物理和热）来表征护口器。 这种能量吸收护齿器将提供按需可调的能量吸收能力，可以专门定制，为医疗、体育、工业和军事等多个场所的用户提供上级牙齿保护。 这项研发工作将生产出有史以来第一个由自适应吸收冲击能量的材料制成的护齿器，这与传统（被动）护齿器形成了鲜明的技术对比。 这项新技术也将有助于对纳米流变学这一新兴领域的基本理解。该项目的广泛影响/商业潜力是显着的。 在护齿竞技场，实现这种技术先进的护齿将可能带来一个新的产品进入牙齿保护市场。还有一个尚未开发的市场，为接受医疗程序的病人提供急需的牙齿保护。每年约有15万例牙齿损伤发生在气管插管过程中，需要进行全身麻醉。 此外，新的能量吸收流体热聚合物材料技术的出现可以作为技术基础的能源阻尼产品过剩。 此外，这项研究还将为一个新的知识体系--小规模（毫米级）利用能量吸收液--提供种子。 实现第二阶段研发工作的技术目标将有助于促进当地经济增长，当公司？的新制造工厂开放，用于制造基于这种技术的护齿。 将创造大量需要非常多样化的技术技能的工作岗位，公司致力于用多样化的劳动力来填补这些工作岗位。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project anticipates bringing forth a disruptive mouth guard technology that answers the urgent need for better dental protection. In the US alone, every year more than 1 million dental injuries occur, resulting in medical costs of roughly $500 million. The proposed technology will involve novel manufacturing methods to incorporate energy absorbing solid/liquid suspensions into novel thermo-polymer mouth guard designs to achieve enhanced impact energy absorption capacity. The specific technical objectives are to optimize the energy absorbing capacity of the formulated solid/liquid suspensions, develop the necessary manufacturing technology for incorporating such solid/liquid suspensions monolithically into the thermo- polymer, and finally to characterize the mouth guards by subjection to stress testing (chemical, physical, and thermal). This energy absorbing mouth guard will deliver on-demand, tunable energy absorption capacity that can be specifically tailored to provide superior dental protection to users in several venues including medical, sports, industrial and military. This R&D effort will produce the first ever mouth guard made with material that adaptively absorbs impact energy, a stark technological contrast to the conventional (passive) mouth guard. This new technology will also contribute basic understanding to the emerging field of nanorheology.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is significant. In just the mouth guard arena, realizing this technologically advanced mouth guard will likely bring a novel product into the dental protection market. Then there is the untapped market to provide much needed dental protection for patients undergoing medical procedures. Yearly about 150,000 dental injuries occur just during endotracheal intubations, required when undergoing general anesthesia. Further, the new energy absorbing fluid-thermopolymer material technology to emerge could serve as the technical groundwork for a plethora of energy dampening products. In addition, the research stands to seed a new body of knowledge, small- scale (millimeter) leveraged use of energy absorptive fluids. Realizing the technical objectives of this Phase II R&D effort will help foster local economic growth when the company?s new manufacturing facility opens for the fabrication of mouth guards based on this technology. A large number of jobs will be created requiring very diverse technical skills, and the company is committed to fill these jobs with a diverse work force.