Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: Z2.01

Description

Liquidmetal Technologies (LMT) and the University of Southern California (USC)'s M.C. Gill Composites Center team up to develop manufacturing processes for large-scale bulk metallic glass (BMG) and fiber laminate systems for aerospace applications. The proposed innovation consists of the development of a process to manufacture thin BMG sheets (150mm x 300mm x 0.1-1mm) by tube casting and hot rolling along with a process to fabricate fiber metal laminates (FMLs) utilizing the BMG sheets thereof and carbon fiber prepregs. While Phase I would focus on development of a small-scale prototype, the completed Phase I work would also give insight into the feasibility of large-scale manufacturing processes, such as vertical continuous casting, flash processing, autoclave moulding, out-of-autoclave moulding, and press moulding, many of which would be explored in a potential Phase II effort. Thus, in Phase I the technology readiness level (TRL) of the proposed innovation would increase from 2 to 3, and in Phase II the TRL would increase from 3 to 5.