Tag Archives: US DoD

Integran’s 2013 SERDP Award and its hockey sticks

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Integran, a company based in Mississauga (sometimes identified as Toronto), Ontario, has received an award for its nanostructured alloy, a replacement for poisonous copper-beryllium, according to a Feb. 13, 2014 news item on Azonano,

Toronto-based Integran Technologies Inc. (Integran) today announced that it has received the 2013 SERDP (Strategic Environmental Research and Defense Program) Project-of-the-Year Award for Weapons Systems and Platforms for the development of a nanostructured alloy for copper-beryllium replacement.

For decades, essential parts in fixed and rotary wing military platforms have been made with copper-beryllium alloys. Beryllium is particularly useful for this purpose because it is both lightweight and strong, a rare combination not found in most other metals. The problem is beryllium is a toxic material that can be harmful to workers who handle it during assembly and repair. Working with beryllium, which requires donning protective gear and taking extensive precautions, is costly and time-consuming.

The Feb. 12, 2014 Integran news release found on MarketWire but oddly not on the company’s website at this time (Feb. 13, 2014) and which originated the news item, describes the process in general terms,

With support from US DoD’s SERDP program and Industry Canada’s Strategic Aerospace and Defense Initiative (SADI) program, Integran developed and validated an electroforming process that produces a nanostructured alloy that matches the desirable properties of copper-beryllium, particularly for use as high load bushings. This pulsed electroplating process goes beyond merely coating a metal object. Rather, near-net-shape components are created that require little to no machining to achieve final dimensions, resulting in very little material waste. The work also showed this innovative process can be used successfully for large metal sheets and high conductivity wires, both of which are used in multiple military applications.

Integran’s Aerospace and Defense R&D Unit Manager Brandon Bouwhuis states, “The validation testing performed in this project demonstrates that these nanostructured alloys can meet or exceed the performance of copper beryllium in many applications, and could result in substantial cost savings for the US DoD and Canadian Military through the decreased use of toxic substances.”

There is no mention in this news release as to whether Integran’s replacement alloy might itself be poisonous or toxic in some form.

I checked the Integran website and found that it lists one product, Nanovate. I was not able to find any information about environmental testing but there is this on the company’s  Why Nanovate™? webpage (Note: Links have been removed),

Integran is a world leader in development and manufacturing of revolutionary electrodeposited (plated) nanocrystalline “Nanovate™” metals. Our nanotechnology enabled metals take advantage of the fine crystalline grain structure to achieve superior performance at reduced weight vs conventional material solutions. Our technology platform consists primarily of Nickel, Iron, Cobalt and Copper alloys that we use to create high performance parts that are:

  • Lighter, stronger, harder and cheaper than Aluminum
  • Corrosion and wear resistant
  • Shielded against low frequency magnetic interference
  • Efficiently absorb energy and noise

In addition to manufacturing products, we also provide services such as:

  • Plating on plastics, including polymers like polyamides (Nylon), PEEK and ABS

I have previously posted about Integran and its alloy many times including this April 16, 2012 posting referencing a Canadian government investment in the company’s technology.

As I was browsing the Integran website I found this on the company’s homepage,

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[downloaded from http://www.integran.com/default.aspx]

The quintessential Canadian enterpreneur’s dream, creating an ‘unbreakable’ hockey stick that never gets ‘tired’. According to a Nov. 7, 2013 posting on the Integran News Blog, the hockey stick was a Kickstarter project,

Congratulations to our partners, Colt Hockey, for meeting and exceeding their goal on Kickstarter to develop a higher performance and more durable composite hockey stick with PowerMetal Technologies.  The project exceeded expectations with over $100,000 raised from almost 500 supporters.

…

This news item seemed particularly à propos during the 2014 Olympics. Good luck to the Canadian women’s and men’s teams!

Nanotechnology for Defense Conference call for abstracts

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The deadline for abstracts is Feb. 18, 2012 for the Nanotechnology for Defense Conference (NT4D) in Summerlin, Nevada from Aug. 6 – 10, 2012.

J. Steven Rutt in his Feb. 4, 2012 article for Cleantech & Nano notes,

Defense is one of the fundamental and perhaps the most stable pillar for nanotechnology commercialization, along with other pillars such as bio nanotechnology and energy.  The history of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) interest in nanotechnology is noted in the Foreward of Ratner and Ratner’s book, Nanotechnology and Homeland Security 2004 (written by James Murday, Office of Naval Research).  The DoD interest in nanotechnology can be “clearly identified as early as the late 1970′s when its Ultrasubmicron Electronics Research (USER) program.”  [sic]IT

I have a longstanding interest in the military and its nanotechnology research so I find this call for abstracts quite piquant, from the conference call for abstracts page,

We look forward to receiving your abstracts for the 2012 NanoTechnology for Defense Conference. Submitted abstracts must be unclassified and should be no more than 300 words long. In early March 2012, you will be contacted regarding the status of your acceptance. Final presentations will be due 9 July 2012. This event is conducted at the ITAR level and therefore presentations given at the Symposium do not need to be cleared for public release. However, presentations and papers should not contain proprietary information and may not be more restrictive than Distribution X (Distribution authorized to U.S. Government Agencies and private individuals or enterprises eligible to obtain export-controlled technical data in accordance with DoD directive 5230.5 under the provisions of Public Law 98-94). All abstracts should fall into one or more of the described topics on the previous pages.  Please note, presentation of an abstract does not waive any applicable registration fees.

Full and open abstracts are preferred, however we will accept ITAR restricted abstracts. Acceptable distribution levels include A or X ONLY.  To find more information on distribution levels, visit http://www.usasymposium.com/nano/security.htm.  Please note:  ITAR ABSTRACTS MUST BE PASSWORD PROTECTED.

ITAR restricted? Distribution A and X levels? It all seems reminiscent of tv programmes like the X-Files and Fringe.

For anyone who’s interested in making a submission (despite the resemblance to X-Files and/or Fringe), conference organizers are looking for abstracts on these topics and others (from the Rutt article),

The current call for abstracts at the 2012 NT4D Conference focus on (1) Nanotechnology Success Stories, (2) Nanotechnology for Military Coatings Applications, (3) Nanotechnology for Chem-Bio Defense and Battlefield Casualty Care Medical Applications, (4) Nanomaterials Response to Extreme Stimuli, and (5) Nanoelectronics.  However, the scope is broad as topics in the following areas will be considered: …

For anyone like me who isn’t familiar with Nevada, Summerlin is partly in Las Vegas according to the Wikipedia essay,

Summerlin is an affluent 22,500-acre (9,100 ha) master-planned community under development by The Howard Hughes Corporation in the Las Vegas metropolitan area of Nevada near the Spring Mountains and Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It lies partially within the city limits of Las Vegas, Nevada, and in unincorporated Clark County. Summerlin, named for Howard Hughes’ grandmother, Jean Amelia Summerlin, ranked as the country’s best-selling master-planned community for more than a decade by Robert Charles Lesser & Co.and continues to rank among the top ten best-selling communities in the country some 19 years after development first began.

I have removed links and citation notes from the Wikipedia essay excerpt.