SBIR-STTR Award

3D Printed Manufacturing of Respiratory Protection
Award last edited on: 5/29/2023

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
DOD : CBD
Total Award Amount
$691,968
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
CBD181-001
Principal Investigator
David A Walker

Company Information

Azul 3D Inc (AKA: CDJ Technologies Inc)

8111 Street Louis Avenue Suite 2
Skokie, IL 60076
   (321) 277-7807
   contact@azul3d.com
   www.azul3d.com
Location: Single
Congr. District: 09
County: Cook

Phase I

Contract Number: W911SR-18-C-0050
Start Date: 9/27/2018    Completed: 3/27/2019
Phase I year
2018
Phase I Amount
$149,922
CDJ Technologies is an additive manufacturing (AM) company with technology that enables rapid printing over large build volumes. Thisresultant production throughput is differentiating within the AM technology space and enables the adoption of AM technology to addresslimited production-runs. There exist many items where the ability to customize a single component of a system can add substantial value andefficacy to an entire systembut the ability to make these modifications via traditional mass-manufacturing technologies comes at a high cost.CDJ has the capability to produce customized components via AM at substantially lower costs, thus enabling customized systems.One such example would be respiratory protection systems designed for high-threat exposures. The efficacy of these systems is predicatedupon (i) the facepiece being comfortable enough that respirator is engaged when an exposure occurs, and (ii) that the facepiece of therespirator makes an adequate seal to the contours of the end users face. Simply sizing an elastomeric facepiece is often insufficient to ensurethese two requirements, and thus customization of a single component could result in drastically different outcomes. This SBIR examines thematerial development of elastomeric resins for respiratory facepieces applicable within the AM technology space.

Phase II

Contract Number: W911SR-21-C-0024
Start Date: 9/22/2021    Completed: 9/30/2023
Phase II year
2021
Phase II Amount
$542,046
CDJ Technologies is an additive manufacturing (AM) company with technology that enables rapid printing over large build areas. This resultant production throughput is differentiating within the AM technology space and enables the adoption of AM to fulfill small to medium volume production runs. There exist many items in which the ability to customize a single component of a system can add substantial value and efficacy – yet the ability to make these modifications via traditional mass-manufacturing technologies comes at a high production cost. CDJ has the capability to produce customized components via AM at substantially lower costs. One such example would be respiratory protection systems designed for high threat environments. The efficacy of these systems is predicated upon (i) the facepiece being comfortable enough that respirator is engaged when an exposure occurs, and (ii) that the facepiece of the respirator makes an adequate seal to the contours of the end user’s face. The size-binning of users into S/M/L facepieces is insufficient to ensure these two requirements, and thus customization of a single component could result in drastically different outcomes. This SBIR effort builds upon our Phase I and aims to produce semi-customized respirators as a demonstration of the technology.