Category: Technology

High-Temperature Composites Center Formed

A reentry vehicle requiring high-temperature materials that resist extreme heat and burn-off

In July of 2019, CRG established its new High-Temperature Composites Center (HTC). This new center lets CRG focus on applications for its signature high-temp resin, MG resin.

The HTC’s vision is to support carbon/carbon (C/C) manufacturing with materials and process innovation, expand the national industrial base for C/C production, and reduce cost and lead time for C/C parts production.

The HTC team includes materials scientists, chemists, aerospace engineers, mechanical engineers and chemical engineers led by HTC Vice President, Michael Rauscher. Read more about the HTC here.

CRG issued four new patents in 2018

CRG’s intellectual property portfolio grew as it was issued four new patents in 2018. These included:

  • Patent No. 9,622,924, Fluid Absorption and Distribution Enhancement System. This is a a fluid absorption pad product for use in medical, pet, or food industry.
  • Patent No. 9,820,164, Subterranean System Comprising Wireless Communication Network and Syntactic Foam Panels. This patent covers any subterranean system, such as tunnels and subway systems, constructed with CRG’s syntactic foam panel material to facilitate wireless communication within the underground system.
  • Patent No. 9,908,993, Hybrid Fiber Layup and Fiber-Reinforced Polymeric Composites Produced Therefrom. This patent covers a method for a making a fiber-reinforced polymer composite using different types of fiber reinforcement and cured with a no oven, no autoclave process, using the exothermic heat generated by the reactive resin for curing.
  • Patent No. 10,119,238, Reinforced Syntactic Structure. This is a utility patent that describes the design and construction of a shell structure using CRG’s syntactic foam material and its uses in structural reinforcement or remediation of aging, corroded, or damaged underlying structures such as beams, columns, pillars in mining sites or industrial buildings.

DBJ: Beavercreek firm’s fix for nuclear waste problem a success

The 30-meter crane boom constructed of lightweight materials by CRG and NONA Composites

On February 23rd, 2015, the Dayton Business Journal published an article about the success of CRG’s REACH project. Last fall, Cornerstone Research Group Inc. and its subsidiaries made a 95-foot long crane-like structure for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. A drum burst inside a storage room at the plant, causing major issues, and the room needed to be “video mapped” before it could be sealed off permanently.

Said the article, “Cornerstone’s crane was a success as the DOE recently finished the video project, which is now being reviewed by its Accident Investigation Board while plant workers dismantle the crane. That success will bolster the company’s national reputation, which should attract more high-profile work and lead to additional jobs.” Typically a project like this crane would have taken about six months to make, but Cornerstone Research did it in seven weeks. Read the full story here. Below is a video of the REACH camera boom in use.

CRG’s camera boom enables safe spill inspection

On February 1st, 2015, Composites World published an article about CRG’s REACH project. Commissioned for the US Department of Energy’s (DoE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, NM, this very long 32-meter camera boom for the DoE’s appropriately named REACH project was designed for and built with carbon fiber composites, and then tested in only seven weeks, enabled by No Oven, No Autoclave (NONA) technology developed by a subsidiary of CRG, NONA Composites. The beam was light enough to be cantilevered from a steel support mounted to the pictured mobile frame.

The completed REACH system was deployed and tested six times by week seven, including tests of the camera transport rover. It was then transported to WIPP, assembled and used for training before deployment in following months. Read the Composites World article here.