Deadline: Spring of 2021
The Advanced Materials Sprint Series will feature fast-tracked Innovation Challenges seeking innovative material solutions with applications in virtually every industry discipline. Sprints may also target strategic themes in the material innovation sector, such as lightweighting, sustainability, performance, nanotechnology, and much more!
Additive manufacturing/3D printing of composite materials
On behalf of multiple international corporations, TechConnect is seeking innovations and emerging technologies from around the world describing new materials and technologies for composite 3-D printing. Composite 3-D printed materials offer significant advantages over other materials due to enhanced mechanical properties such as strength, stiffness, toughness, wear resistance, and conductivity while preserving other 3-D printing advantages such as customization and low-cost. Traditional composite manufacturing requires significant skill, cost, and post-processing. Additive manufacturing systems that can handle composite materials have recently become of great interest for the wide variety of applications that composite materials serve including the automotive, aerospace, and biomedical industries.
Areas of Interest
Our clients are broadly interested in any technologies that improve the quality and manufacturability of 3-D printing of composite materials. Relevant areas of interest include, but are not limited to, materials and technologies for:
- Optimization through software and design
- Chopped fiber solutions
- Continuous fiber solutions
- Novel thermoset resins
- Manufactured composites with isotropic material properties
- Manufacturing approaches and hardware
Materials and enabling technologies for flexible stretchable electronics
On behalf of our global corporate partners, TechConnect is seeking innovations for materials and technologies that can be used in flexible or stretchable electronics. The emerging field of stretchable electronics enables electronic devices to be built from electronic circuits deposited onto stretchable substrates or being embedded into a stretchable material. Their application is widespread including wearable electronics, health monitoring, sensors for cyber-skin, and bio-compatible implantable devices. The material space for these applications is large and includes organic, inorganic, and hybrid conducting and dielectric materials.
Requirements
Relevant areas of interest include, but are not limited to, materials and technologies for:
- Stretchable sensors and biosensors
- Structure design strategies such as wavy structure configuration, island-interconnect configuration, and others
- Stretchable conductors and electrodes
- Energy conversion and storage devices for stretch-ables
- Conductive printing on non-planar surfaces
- 3D printing methods for flexible electronics
- Artificial skins and e-textiles
Innovative coatings technologies for lightweight material alternatives (non-steel)
In collaboration with a range of international companies, TechConnect is calling for innovations for coating materials that can be applied to non-steel lightweight materials such as high strength plastics, aluminum, magnesium, alloys, and composites. Many industries are facing pressure from sustainability initiatives and environmental regulations to replace traditional steel parts with lighter weight materials, especially in the automotive industry. Coating such surfaces with a similar uniform, high-quality finish such as currently possible for conventional steel faces a variety of challenges including pretreatment, corrosion protection, adhesive compatibility, surface roughness, and the need to accommodate multiple substrates.
Requirements
Solvers submitting an Entry should make efforts to address the following key focus areas in their Submission (if applicable):
- General applicability across multiple substrates
- Low temperature cure systems
- Cross-linking technologies
- Durability and re-coatability
- Corrosion resistance across mixed materials
- Online or inline coating methods
- Adhesives and adhesion process on modified surfaces
High strength polymer materials for lightweighting in transportation
In response to client needs across a range of industries, TechConnect is calling for innovations in materials and manufactures of high strength polymers for lightweighting applications, especially those that are relevant to the automotive industry. Globally, increasingly stringent environmental regulations call for steadily increasing gas mileage and emissions requirements. Meeting these new efficiency requirements can be achieved in various ways, chief among them is to reduce the overall vehicle weight by employing lighter weight materials than traditional steel parts. Polymers offer significant functional and performance advantages such as easy processing, high strength, corrosion resistance, and lightweight. This call focuses on the great need to utilize these polymers in the automotive sector beyond non load bearing decorative components to the more demanding high strength structural and functional components.
Requirements
Solvers submitting an Entry should make efforts to address the following key focus areas in their Submission (if applicable):
- Carbon fiber-based composites
- Non-carbon-based composites
- Bio based composite resins
- Materials for high strength functional and structural components
- Materials with excellent impact and heat resistance properties
- Potential for manufacturing with high dimensional accuracy
Business Opportunity
All complete and eligible Entries will be included in an exclusive Innovation Opportunity Report that will be presented to our consortium of innovation-seeking clients and partners. Solvers with well-matched capabilities may be contacted directly by consortium members to discuss potential partnership opportunities. Top-rated Entries may also be invited to register or participate in an upcoming TechConnect event or pitch program.