SBIR Phase II: High-performance Polymer Composites for Mouth Guards

SBIR 第二阶段：用于护齿套的高性能聚合物复合材料

• 批准号: 1353873
• 负责人: Timothy Huang
• 金额: $ 74.99万
• 依托单位: Akervall Technologies Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-04-01 至 2018-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1353873&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; performance; Polymer

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project anticipates bringing forth a disruptive mouth guard technology that answers the urgent need for better dental protection. In the US alone, every year more than 1 million dental injuries occur, resulting in medical costs of roughly $500 million. The proposed technology will involve novel manufacturing methods to incorporate energy absorbing solid/liquid suspensions into novel thermo-polymer mouth guard designs to achieve enhanced impact energy absorption capacity. The specific technical objectives are to optimize the energy absorbing capacity of the formulated solid/liquid suspensions, develop the necessary manufacturing technology for incorporating such solid/liquid suspensions monolithically into the thermo- polymer, and finally to characterize the mouth guards by subjection to stress testing (chemical, physical, and thermal). This energy absorbing mouth guard will deliver on-demand, tunable energy absorption capacity that can be specifically tailored to provide superior dental protection to users in several venues including medical, sports, industrial and military. This R&D effort will produce the first ever mouth guard made with material that adaptively absorbs impact energy, a stark technological contrast to the conventional (passive) mouth guard. This new technology will also contribute basic understanding to the emerging field of nanorheology.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is significant. In just the mouth guard arena, realizing this technologically advanced mouth guard will likely bring a novel product into the dental protection market. Then there is the untapped market to provide much needed dental protection for patients undergoing medical procedures. Yearly about 150,000 dental injuries occur just during endotracheal intubations, required when undergoing general anesthesia. Further, the new energy absorbing fluid-thermopolymer material technology to emerge could serve as the technical groundwork for a plethora of energy dampening products. In addition, the research stands to seed a new body of knowledge, small- scale (millimeter) leveraged use of energy absorptive fluids. Realizing the technical objectives of this Phase II R&D effort will help foster local economic growth when the company?s new manufacturing facility opens for the fabrication of mouth guards based on this technology. A large number of jobs will be created requiring very diverse technical skills, and the company is committed to fill these jobs with a diverse work force.

这个小企业创新研究第二阶段项目预计会推出一种颠覆性的护齿技术，以满足更好的牙齿保护的迫切需求。 仅在美国，每年就有超过 100 万例牙齿受伤，造成的医疗费用约为 5 亿美元。 所提出的技术将涉及新颖的制造方法，将能量吸收固体/液体悬浮液纳入新颖的热聚合物护牙套设计中，以实现增强的冲击能量吸收能力。 具体技术目标是优化配制的固体/液体悬浮液的能量吸收能力，开发将这种固体/液体悬浮液整体合并到热聚合物中所需的制造技术，并最终通过压力测试来表征护齿器的特性（化学、物理和热）。 这种能量吸收护齿器将提供按需、可调的能量吸收能力，可以专门定制，为医疗、体育、工业和军事等多个场所的用户提供卓越的牙齿保护。 这项研发工作将生产出有史以来第一个由自适应吸收冲击能量的材料制成的护齿器，这与传统（被动）护齿器形成鲜明的技术对比。 这项新技术还将有助于对纳米流变学这一新兴领域的基本理解。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是巨大的。 仅在护齿器领域，实现这种技术先进的护齿器可能会给牙齿保护市场带来一种新颖的产品。还有一个尚未开发的市场，为接受医疗手术的患者提供急需的牙齿保护。每年大约有 150,000 起牙齿损伤发生在气管插管期间，这是进行全身麻醉时所需要的。 此外，即将出现的新型能量吸收流体热聚合物材料技术可以作为大量能量阻尼产品的技术基础。 此外，该研究还将播种新的知识体系，即吸能流体的小规模（毫米）杠杆使用。 当该公司的新制造工厂投入使用，用于制造基于该技术的护齿套时，实现第二阶段研发工作的技术目标将有助于促进当地经济增长。 将创造大量需要非常多样化的技术技能的工作岗位，公司致力于用多样化的劳动力来填补这些工作岗位。