Supersonic Technology Named Nasa Commercial Invention of 2008

The 2008 NASA Commercial Invention of the Year is a high temperature resin designed to create composites through low-cost manufacturing processes -- ideal for advanced aerospace vehicles.
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Researchers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., were able to create the unique material, which is ideal for the high temperatures of supersonic flight.
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The material, known as PETI-330, is used in the development of advanced composite fabrication technology for the agency's aeronautics supersonics program.
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PETI-330 is patented as "Composition of and Method for Making High Performance Resins for Infusion and Transfer Molding Processes."
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In the late 1980s, NASA's High-Speed Research Program began to develop high performance, high temperature resins that could be used to fabricate carbon fiber reinforced composites.
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The resins potentially would be useful on advanced aerospace vehicle structures and aircraft engine components such as inlets and compressor vanes.
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A resin called PETI-5 was developed that met a number of the program's goals.
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Continued research for a resin that would be useful for the fabrication of composites by low-cost manufacturing methods led to PETI-330.
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It is the first commercially available, off-the-shelf, high temperature resin that has processing characteristics useful for resin infusion, resin transfer molding and the vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding manufacturing processes.
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The finished product of PETI-330 has the strength and high temperature properties ideal for large structures exposed to hot temperatures, offering a combination of processability, high temperature performance and toughness ideal for high performance aerospace vehicles.
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PETI-330 and the vacuum process are of interest to the aerospace industry because of a combination of weight reduction and manufacturing cost savings.
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The inventors, John Connell, Joseph Smith, Jr., and Paul Hergenrother, all from Langley, will be honored at the 2010 NASA Project Management Challenge in Galveston, Texas.
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Ube America, a division of Ube Industries, Inc., licensed the technology from NASA.
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NASA's general counsel selects the Invention of the Year Award with technical assistance from NASA's Inventions and Contributions Board.
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For more information about NASA's Inventions and Contributions Board, visit:

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http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/icb

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HAMPTON, Va.
NASA