Case Study 1
NASA
PETI matrix resins and a domestic supply chain
Background
In the early 1990s, NASA proposed a High Speed Research (HSR) program to Congress to develop a high-speed civil transport (HSCT): a commercial aircraft carrying more than 300 passengers at speeds above Mach 2, with a service life exceeding 60,000 flight hours and the range to fly Los Angeles to Tokyo twice a day without refueling—more than double the range and passenger capacity of the Concorde.
The program's objectives were to lower the cost of large-scale composite manufacturing, make supersonic flight operationally profitable, and demonstrate the utility of high-temperature structural composites.
Challenge
In flight, HSCT skin temperatures could reach 200°C. No commercially available engineering resin or metallic structure could meet that requirement within the design's weight limits. NASA Langley's polymer research was funded to develop processable engineering resins for structural composites that would exceed continuous service temperatures of ~200°C (~400°F) in air for over 10 years.
Security restrictions required every material to come from U.S. suppliers as commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products. At the time, no domestic composite resin met the performance criteria, and few of the building-block raw materials were available domestically.
CRITERIA
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Maximum processing temperature: 350°C (limited by autoclave seals and bagging material)
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Maximum pressure: 0.7 MPa / 100 psi (limited by honeycomb structure)
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Glass transition temperature (Tg) of at least 250°C—every available COTS engineering resin failed this
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All monomers and polymers COTS and U.S.-sourced
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Thermosetting chemistry
Technoir's Approach
As a research engineer at NASA Langley, Technoir founder Dr. Robert Bryant helped create the modifications to existing polymer technology that made the material viable for the new aircraft.
He and the research team then used the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to draw U.S. manufacturers into the market. As a subject-matter expert, Dr. Bryant reviewed and evaluated SBIR proposals and gave hands-on support to the small businesses submitting them. He incentivized participation with scheduled purchases for evaluation and testing and with help finding other commercial customers, then monitored each awardee's progress. The result was a domestic supply chain for raw materials, high-performance hot-melt adhesives, and engineering resins.
Results
Dr. Bryant filled several roles on the project:
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Co-invented the PETI matrix resin series, which met every engineering requirement and laid the foundation for commercial injectable thermoset products that delivered:
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Unprecedented processing characteristics combined with long-term (1,000-hour) performance at 300°C
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Easy composite fabrication alongside high-temperature performance and toughness
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Low, stable melt viscosity (<10 Pa·s at 288°C), well suited to RTM processing
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A simple one-hour cure
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A glass transition temperature of 330°C (626°F)
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Solvent-free (no volatiles) and non-toxic chemistry
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Built a domestic supply chain for these materials, giving interested companies ready access to them.
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Continued development after the aircraft was cancelled, pursuing third-party lab testing and modifying the resins to meet commercial criteria and attract a commercial market.
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Drove commercial visibility. Because his mandate included making government technology viable in the private sector, Dr. Bryant published articles on the technology supported by the data he had amassed and presented on the PETI matrix resins. The NASA PETI team won an R&D 100 Award, and a second R&D 100 Award followed for a related spin-off thermoplastic—both raising the technology's profile in the marketplace and reducing the risk of commercial adaptation.
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Connected supply to demand. Working with the technology transfer office, he linked domestic manufacturers and testing labs to potential customers—meeting companies in person, answering their questions, suggesting approaches to their problems, and showing how NASA had developed its data.
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Delivered commercial return. Medtronic licensed one of the thermoplastics as a wire varnish. That single license recovered the government's full R&D investment in these advanced materials and enabled revolutionary advances in pacemaker leads that have benefited more than a million patients.
The Technoir Difference
Dr. Bryant didn't just help solve the problems that produced PETI matrix resins—he created the conditions for the material to succeed commercially. Medtronic then hired him to spend several years adapting the resin varnish for their pacemaker leads, and that work led directly to the founding of Technoir.
Technoir consultants are experts in their fields and experienced big-picture thinkers who can manage every moving part of bringing a product to market. Their relationships with testing labs, manufacturers, universities, and government agencies are a strategic asset. From invention through testing, supply chain setup, manufacturing processes, market visibility, and the connections that drive sales, Technoir builds the entire ecosystem that turns new technology into practical, everyday applications.
