Fuchs Consulting Inc — Department of Transportation SBIR Phase II: 091FH2
Fuchs Consulting Inc — SBIR Phase II award from Department of Transportation.
Phase II SBIR prototype / development signal
- Phase II is where Department of Transportation funds deeper R&D after feasibility. Incumbents with Phase II history are serious competitors on adjacent topics.
- Use this award as past-performance context and to map customer organizations for STRATFI/TACFI-style transition planning.
- Obligated amount $750,000 is consistent with substantial Phase II-scale effort; compare to related awards from the same agency.
- Topic code 091FH2 links this award to a solicitation family — search the same topic stem for incumbents and recompete timing.
- Amount
- $750,000
- Agency
- Department of Transportation
- Program / Phase
- SBIR · Phase II
- Topic
- 091FH2
- Solicitation
- DTRT5709RSBIR1
- NAICS
- —
- Place of performance
- VA
- Period
- 2011-02-22 → 2014-08-21
Description
This proposal seeks to produce a unique thermographic coating inspection system that is customized for the inspection of bridge coatings. The system uses active thermography where IR sources are used to provide controlled heating to a coating system. The presence of a defect in a coating system will result in differences in heat flow, which can be imaged with an infrared camera. An off-the-shelf embedded infrared camera module is used to create a customized system. This system can cover a wide area and provide easy-to-interpret images. The system is unique in that it is low-cost, low-weight, small-sized, fully-integrated, and specifically customized for coating inspection. There are no commercial systems that provide a fully-integrated active thermographic inspection system for bridge coatings. The proposed system is small and light-weight such that it can be deployed as a hand-held unit, on a pole-mount, or a vehicle-mast. The system will be used to inspect bridge coating systems and will provide data in a manner that is currently not possible. The coat and ease-of-use of the system make it usable by typical DOT personnel. The project team has considerable experience in the bridge inspection industry and has a history of development of NDE tools for bridge inspection.