NASA SBIR 2007 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Adherent Technologies, Inc.
9621 Camino del Sol NE
Albuquerque, NM 87111 - 1522
(505) 346-1685

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Andrea E Hoyt Haight
adherent@earthlink.net
9621 Camino del Sol NE
Albuquerque, NM 87111 - 1522
(505) 346-1685

Expected Technology Readiness Level (TRL) upon completion of contract: 3 to 4

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
Aging and durability of aircraft in both the military and civilian sectors are becoming major issues as the existing fleet continues to age. Additionally, the increased use of composite structures in the civilian fleet, such as in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A380, make the understanding and/or improvement of composite durability, particularly durability of repairs, even more critical. Several areas have been identified as targets for improvement in composite aircraft repair. These include the development of rapid, low temperature repair methods and associated materials as well as development of the quality of repairs when they are made. Adhesion of bonded repairs is one area that needs to be addressed.
Adherent Technologies, Inc. is proposing a novel moisture-resistant primer system for use in repairs of standard carbon/epoxy composites used in many subsonic aircraft. Our proprietary chemistry comprised of a reactive coupling agent and a carrier resin compatible with standard aerospace epoxy resins bonds directly to the prepared aircraft composite surface while retaining residual functionality that can be cured directly into the matrix of the repair leading to a covalently bound repair, thereby strengthening the repair interface. Proper selection of the coupling agent structure and carrier resin can serve to further enhance the moisture resistance and thereby durability of the composite repair.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
This system is being designed to support the need for improvements in durability of repairs for subsonic aircraft.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The proposed primer technology, which will improve the quality of composite bonded repairs as well as composite bonding in general, will used throughout the aerospace composite materials market as well as having potential applications in civilian infrastructure (e.g. CFRP bridge decks and the like). The civilian aircraft market is projected to be a particularly significant consumer.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Airframe Composites