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Technology Overviews
Shape Memory Foams (See Verilyte™)
As a component in syntactic structural
foams, shape memory polymer offers unique properties. CRG’s
version can function as a deployable or conformal composite
foam core in its elastic form, or as a structural foam core
in its rigid state. Like SMP resins and shape memory composites,
shape memory foams can be manipulated thermally.
Current formulations have densities
ranging from 0.4 to 0.1 g/cc, with expansion ranges of up to 400%
demonstrated. These qualities provide the ability to fabricate
adaptive composite structures with foam core, with the ability
to soften the structural foam element, alter its shape, then return
it to a rigid state in its new configuration.
Shape memory foam can be reshaped
multiple times. As with the resin and the composites, the
foam can be tailored with a very specific temperature range
in which it transitions between rigid and pliable states.
Some applications include dynamic structural support, flexible
foam core, and expandable foam fill.
The animation to the left above shows a piece
of shape memory foam in a compacted or compressed configuration,
ready for deployment and then heated and returning to its "memorized"
configuration. The animation to the right demonstrates the use
of shape memory foam as deployable wire support built into a conduit.
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