Smart Material Solutions continues to thrive as a collaborative Advanced Manufacturing R&D company, with support from the US Army, NASA, and industry partners. While our research covers a wide range of applications, we’re approaching the commercialization stage on a solar enhancement film and a display product under development for an industry customer!
We also continue to conduct advanced research in the interest of national defense. Over the past six months, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting with staffers for our state’s US senators and hearing direct validation of the need for domestic advanced manufacturing technologies from a three-star general in the US Army.
We are committed to commercializing these applications so we can at long last see them in use on the field and in homes and classrooms across the world!
Prototype Solar Panels
Our highly collaborative Army-funded work to create enhancement films for solar panels has been a resounding technical success. For this work, SMS created a seamless drum mold of a novel hierarchical nano and micropattern that captures light. Then MicroContinuum, Inc. (Watertown, MA) replicated that mold into more than two hundred linear feet of polymer encapsulation film, which Powerfilm Solar (Ames, IA) incorporated into their commercially available flexible solar panels.
The films we’ve created are especially effective for applications where the panel is not directly facing the sun, see below:
Now, we’re iterating with additional features to improve durability to both abrasion and long-duration UV exposure. Solar is a tough market to penetrate, but with a 2-10% increase in power over the course of a day, our value add is real.
NASA and Army SBIR Updates
Our NASA project to reduce dust adhesion for lunar applications has entered its third year. There continues to be significant interest, and SMS is under a no-cost extension to continue the work with University of Texas, Austin.
The Army work to create plasmonic metasurfaces roll-to-roll has also progressed as the SBIR Sequential Phase 2 project nears the end of year 1. The team, including MicroContinuum Inc. and University of Delaware, is on track to produce demo surfaces in 2025.
Visit to the US Senate
SMS has joined with thousands of other US companies to lobby congress this year. We believe that companies should be able to deduct R&D expenses from income, as they could from 1954-2022. Nearly all of congress agrees, but politics are extremely complex. Stephen visited the Legislative Aides for both of North Carolina’s US Senators - Thom Tillis and Ted Budd - to make the case of a small advanced manufacturing research company in their state.
Upcoming Conference
SPIE Optics and Photonics Conference, San Diego (August 19-23) - Stephen and Lauren will attend.
ASPE Conference, Houston (November 4-8) - Stephen will attend.
Photonics West, San Francisco (January 25-30)
Recent Conferences
DEFTEC Federal Technology Symposium, outside Fort Liberty (August 6) - Stephen and Nicky attended, and Nicky presented in a “shark tank” style pitch. We heard about the need for a strengthened US manufacturing base directly from a three-star Army general!
Nanoimprint and Nanoprint Technologies (NNT) / NIL Industrial Day, Lund, Sweden (June 24-27) - Stephen attended.
Radtech Conference, Orlando, Florida (May 20-22) - Robin attended, presented, and was awarded a conference scholarship as a winner of the RadLaunch startup competition.
International Soft Matter Conference, Raleigh, NC (July 29 - August 2) - Robin attended and presented a poster.
Blogs
Check out our new blog posts on FIB machining of diamond and Lenticular Lenses for security features, as well as a gallery of cool SEM images from our work!