ERG Aerospace Corporation — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: AFX20D-TCSO1

Description

Duocel® metal foam has been proven as a TRL 9 flight material. Currently, Duocel® is not readily available in high temperature and/or high strength alloys, limiting the areas it can be used in an advanced material applications. This proposal covers the development of Duocel® metal foams in stainless steel (304 and 316) and Inconel (718) to establish initial characterization of material properties. The unique structure of metal foam offers multiple performance enhancements that have been proven in many applications with aluminum and copper. The Duocel® structure is proven to be effective in these applications, but the material strength and temperature limitations of conventionally available metal foams is not sufficient in certain harsher environments. Alternate alloys will carry the same structural advantages based on their parent material and will offer improved performance for higher temperature and strength applications. With ERG’s 50+ years of experience engineering metal foams to meet rigorous design requirements, and Wichita State University’s vast contribution to the aerospace industry, the team is confident in their ability produce high temperature alloy foams and develop baseline material characterizations. Part of the Phase I effort will be to identify the material properties relevant to needs within Air Force. Potential customers generally need baseline material properties before they can select new materials, so the material characterization will be driven by experience with characterizing metal foams.