SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will research an innovative concept for joining composite materials and structures. Current composites technology is heavily burdened by the logic and the design methods which have proven so successful for metals. Indeed the structural layout of reduced mass materials and the assembly techniques remain remarkably similar to the established "lightweight design methods" for metallic structures. The method to be examined in this project has two important building blocks. The first one is to increase the bearing strength of laminated composites by placing fibers perpendicular to the plane of lamination. The second building block is to take advantage of the capacity of composites for high strain (as compared to metals). The firm has integrated both building blocks into an innovative "snap joint" concept which not only allows for quick assembly but is also capable of diffusing primary loads into structural elements. A first type of "snap" joint has recently been demonstrated which appears to be a superior method for joining polymer matrix composite materials. The "snap" joining methodology has extreme commercial appeal. It will bring to the field of lightweight structures the same breakthroughs as "snap" joining did for plastics. If successful, the project could lead to a five-fold reduction in assembly times due to the virtual elimination of fasteners.

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop snaplock design concepts for composite materials, which is a novel and patentable joining and assembly technology. Two snaplock connections were built in Phase I for testing, whereby application to a snaplocked and lightweight, tapered transmission pole was found feasible in both technical and economic terms. Phase II will design, build, and test a prototype 75-foot transmission pole, using pultrusion of two building-block profiles. A tapered beam (or tube) of any desired length is obtained by performing secondary cutting, machining, and assembly, which are operations that can be automated. Potential commercial applications are seen chiefly in the $5 billion international market for electric power transmission poles. Additional applications are expected in highway sign bridges, intermodal shipping containers, housing, and tiltrotor aircraft.