CIRAS Applied Research Services

Description
A novel bio-based concrete, designed as a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to traditional concrete, is under development. Agricultural waste and byproduct materials have been incorporated into this concrete mixture. Cement content has been reduced to lower the cost and carbon footprint of concrete production.

Seeking
Collaboration opportunities with relevant industries

Industries of interest

Agriculture:  Companies that process and supply agricultural waste and byproduct materials.

• Researcher’s current needs:
  • Material supplies for scale-up tests.
  • Industry insight and technical consultation/assistance.

Concrete: Companies that make and distribute pre-cast concrete elements for commercial and residential buildings.

• Researcher’s current needs:
  • Assistance with developing prototypes and testing them following industry standards.
  • Industry insight and technical consultation/assistance.

Description
Push-button computer numerically controlled machining through Autodesk Fusion 360. Upload – plan – cut in minutes.

Seeking

• Funding for undergraduate student support.  Application due 4/1/2025.
• Test geometries for application development. Geometries due 1/1/2025.

Industries of interest

Prototyping: Automated toolpath planning reduces lengthy programming time by automating the computer aided manufacturing (CAM) process. Spend less time with repetitive part programming and more type fabricating prototypes. Our low-cost tool library and built-in plugin to Autodesk’s Fusion 360 CAD/CAM/CAE environment automates the roughing and finish machining toolpath planning process for simple milling and turning geometries.

• Researcher’s current needs:
  • Funding for undergraduate research assistantship.
  • Input on industry-relevant geometries for testing and application development.

Description
On-demand advanced additive manufacturing of soft bioelectronic and bionic devices for civilian and military applications.  For instance, to identify and mitigate chemical and biological threats.

Seeking
Collaborators within relevant industries – seed funding or testing opportunities

Industries of interest

Industries focused on advanced manufacturing, place-of-case biomedical devices, personalized biomedical devices, and bio-chemical sensors.  Personal/affordable/accessible biomedical devices, threat reduction.

Description
Hydrodynamic force spinning is a solution spinning method that allows for the creation of highly aligned solid and hollow fibers without necessitating the use of drawing.  This allows for more highly aligned fibers, which tend to have more favorable mechanical properties, such as high strength and modulus.

Seeking

• Collaboration with industry starting January 2025 or August 2025.

Industries of interest

Textiles: Hollow fibers are useful in textiles for their higher strength to weight ratio, higher thermal resistance, and better moisture-wicking properties when compared to the commonly used solid fibers.  Creating hollow fibers (and particularly highly aligned hollow fibers) is difficult to accomplish through most fiber spinning methodologies and is relatively easy to accomplish through hydrodynamic force spinning.

• Researcher’s current needs:
  • Industry insight and technical consultation and assistance including manufacturing process scale-up.

Carbon Fiber Composites: Hollow fibers are useful in high-performance carbon fiber composites due to their high thermal resistance and better mechanical properties when compared to solid fibers.  Improving these qualities in fibers used in carbon fiber composites will help the composites themselves have improved mechanical and thermal properties.  In applications in which improvements to the thermal and mechanical properties are very important and worth thousands of dollars or more, such as in high performance aircraft and racecars, this technology can be worth the cost.

• Researcher’s current needs:
  • Industry insight and technical consultation and assistance.

In-Vitro Modeling: Hollow calcium alginate (hydrogel) fibers are useful in modeling various mechanisms in the body.  Using hydrodynamic force spinning, complex fiber structures can be created including human cells to accurately model the behavior of the systems within the body.

• Researcher’s current needs:
  • Industry insight and technical consultation and assistance including help incorporating the alginate fibers into the modeling of various systems within the human body.