SBIR Phase II: Development of an industrial flow meter for low-volume dispensing

SBIR 第二阶段：开发用于小容量点胶的工业流量计

• 批准号: 2322302
• 负责人: Yuyang Fan
• 金额: $ 99.96万
• 依托单位: TENDO TECHNOLOGIES INC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-11-15 至 2025-10-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2322302&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Development; industrial

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project addresses an unmet need in the small dose dispensing market ($35.63 billion annually). The pharmaceutical, medical device, agriculture, and consumer product sectors all have carefully curated sensory-stimulating mixtures of concentrated liquids and need to deliver extremely small volumes in an efficient, accurate, and precise manner to minimize lost materials and ensure the satisfaction of their customers, while minimizing environmental impacts. Additionally, end-use applications such as in-home mixing of flavors and fragrances or real-time on-the-fly nutrient mixing in agriculture have demonstrated a particularly high need. Current dispensing technologies do not meet the unique needs of beachhead customers as competing technologies are too large, expensive, or unable to measure a wide array of fluids that may be highly viscous or opaque. The new approach promises to bring functionality to end users, that is only currently possible in highly controlled industrial settings. In addition to the economic impacts associated with the commercialization of this elastic filament velocimetry (EFV) technology, these new products will also help to mitigate the environmental impacts of precision agriculture, increasing the concentration of dispensed materials, and thereby reducing transportation and dilution costs. This project validates an accurate and precise flow meter for measuring small flow rates of highly concentrated materials, enabling on-the-fly dispensing of low-volume fluids to create customized mixtures to meet end user needs. The technology utilizes EFV, a novel approach that uses a strain-based sensor that responds to fluid flow by deformation of a sensing element which changes its resistance in relation to fluid velocity. The proof-of-concept probe is sterilizable, highly accurate, and resource-efficient, enabling customers to accurately dispense small volumes of fluids across a broad range of viscosities with up to twenty-fold increase in throughput, 75% footprint reduction, and 95% reduction in cost, with increased accuracy and precision. These properties directly meet the needs of customers in several industrial segments including pharmaceutical dispensing, scientific research and development, and manufacturing, with an initial focus on end-use applications in food and beverage, flavors and fragrances, and precision agriculture. The research will significantly de-risk commercialization of the technology by demonstrating and expanding the technical capabilities of the probe to achieve product-market fit.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这个小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第二阶段项目解决了小剂量配药市场未满足的需求（每年 356.3 亿美元）。制药、医疗器械、农业和消费品行业都精心策划了感官刺激的浓缩液体混合物，需要以高效、准确和精确的方式输送极少量的液体，以最大限度地减少材料损失并确保客户满意度，同时最大限度地减少对环境的影响。此外，最终用途应用，例如家庭香料和香料的混合或农业中实时动态营养物混合，已经证明了特别高的需求。当前的点胶技术不能满足滩头客户的独特需求，因为竞争技术太大、昂贵，或者无法测量各种高粘度或不透明的流体。新方法有望为最终用户带来目前只有在高度控制的工业环境中才能实现的功能。除了与弹性丝测速 (EFV) 技术商业化相关的经济影响外，这些新产品还将有助于减轻精准农业对环境的影响，提高分配材料的浓度，从而降低运输和稀释成本。该项目验证了一种精确的流量计，用于测量高浓度材料的小流量，从而能够动态分配低容量流体，以创建定制混合物，以满足最终用户的需求。该技术采用了 EFV，这是一种采用基于应变的传感器的新颖方法，该传感器通过传感元件的变形来响应流体流动，从而改变其相对于流体速度的阻力。该概念验证探针可消毒、高度准确且资源高效，使客户能够在各种粘度范围内准确分配少量流体，吞吐量提高了 20 倍，占地面积减少了 75%，并且节省了 95% 的空间。成本降低 %，准确性和精确度提高。这些特性直接满足多个工业领域的客户需求，包括药品配药、科学研究和开发以及制造，最初侧重于食品和饮料、香精香料以及精准农业的最终用途应用。该研究将通过展示和扩展探测器的技术能力来实现产品与市场的契合，从而显着降低技术商业化的风险。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的评估进行评估，被认为值得支持。影响审查标准。