Re-Steel Supply

Composite Rebar Technologies (CRT) is a development stage company that has developed a hollow fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite reinforcing bar (Rebar) product and the process to produce it. The product will be used as a replacement for steel rebar in the concrete construction industry, due to its greater strength, light weight, and non-corroding characteristics.

3F aims to provide research and engineering services for makers and users of technical textiles, advanced composite materials and structures, and their applications. With experience in development of textile and composite materials, their processes and their applications, 3F supports new-product development, aims to reduce costs and shorstens the time to market. Design, analysis, prototyping, and testing are all part of what 3F does. They bring value to their clients at pre-negotiated, fixed-prices that are value-based and stage-gate controlled. The end result is faster commercialization and earlier returns on the R&D investment. 3f is a company that received a STTR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Light-Weight Bio-Based Nano-Enhanced SMC Formulations. Their project shall utilize a multi-organizational team with uniquely experienced and multi-disciplinary personnel to demonstrate the feasibility of a new family of innovative sheet molding compounds (SMCs) that are partially bio-based and have lower density while having similar performance and cost. Kenaf natural fiber will be blended with glass fiber and combined with commercially available soy-oil based resin and select nano-materials to produce new SMC formulations that will be manufactured and validated experimentally. Innovations include 1) chemistry approaches to address the known problems of moisture absorption and strength retention in natural fiber composites and 2) fiber processing methods that will enable the use of standard fiber processing machines and existing SMC manufacturing equipment. The new lighter weight SMCs will find initial application in off-road farm equipment, automotive trunk floors, wheel wells and other non surface-critical components that currently use metal or heavier SMCs. Multiple companies who currently make SMCs and/or SMC components will license the new material technology through the National Composite Centers (NCC) newly forming SMC consortium. The development team, innovative materials combinations and processing approach have been carefully selected to enable rapid commercialization of the new technology once demonstrated. Innovative materials and combinations of materials have potential to provide cost-effective engineered materials systems that provide significant weight savings for automotive structures, thus leading to higher vehicle fuel economy. Additionally, the full or partial use of bio-based renewable materials will reduce the consumption of and dependence on petroleum based products. The exciting ""green"" aspect to this program will assist NCC's educational mission as students have great interest in environmental issues and the use of renewable resources to make a sustainable environment. NCC's cooperative education program may be utilized in support of the proposed work. Positive R&D results may serve as the basis of setting up conferences with high schools through NCC's multi-source video and videoconferencing center. As a lead agency for the effort, NSF's funding of this program will also support President Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative whose goal is to ""increase investments in research and development, strengthen education, and encourage entrepreneurship"" and enable America to ""remain a leader in science and technology."" A focus of this research proposal is to develop technology that will enable cost-effective US manufacture of materials and components; thus supporting other ""Made in America"" type Federal initiatives. 3f is a company that received a STTR PHASE I grant for a project entitled: HIGH-STRENGTH LOW-COST FIBER VIA MULTI-COMPONENT NANOFIBER (MCN) SPINNING. Their project will employ a multi-component nanofiber spinning approach to develop a high-strength and high-modulus polymeric ""composite fiber"", using the latest available ""islands-in-sea"" spinning technology and innovative spinning process parameters and polymer combinations. The goal of this project is to achieve a ""composite fiber"" wherein nano-scale fibers (~100nanometers in diameter) reside in a reinforcing matrix. Due to their small size and molecular orientation, the nano-fibers will exhibit strengths approaching the theoretical strength of the constituent polymer. The resulting new composite fiber will be comparable to other high performance fibers on the market today, but will cost significantly less. Additionally, the matrix of the composite fiber may be a thermoplastic of lower processing temperature, enabling subsequent processing to melt the matrix and form composite materials and structures. The broader impact/commercial potential from this technology will be new composite fiber that can be commercialized in stages: first as an easy-to-sell industrial grade fiber; then as strong structural ballistic/structural fiber; and then as a composite material system with fiber and matrix already intimately interfaced (i.e. island and sea polymers, respectively). Initially composite fiber will be marketed as a replacement for industrial nylon, polyester, etc., in markets that don't require extensive testing and application development; e.g. cordage, ropes, nets, webbing, tire-cord, etc.

altafiber is a provider for internet, TV, home phone, energy, and more. It delivers integrated communications solutions to residential and business customers over its fiber-optic network including high-speed internet, video, voice and data. The company was founded in 1873 and is based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Supercon is a company that received a SBIR Phase II grant for a project entitled: A New Production Method for Ta Fibers for Use in Electrolytic Capacitors with Improved Performance and Packaging Options. Their project is intended to develop a new process for manufacturing tantalum (Ta) metal fibers for use in producing tantalum capacitors, and advance this process to the stage of commercialization. This technology, which has been demonstrated in Phase I, could lead to capacitor products having higher performance and greater volumetric efficiency than any currently available. The use of fibers in place of metal powder allows the production of thin anode bodies leading to improved packing options and component performance. The innovation underlying the technology is bundle drawing of Ta filaments in a copper matrix. A composite consisting of Ta filaments in a copper matrix is drawn is a series of reduction steps until the filaments are less than about 10 microns in diameter. The drawn wire is rolled to produce ribbon-type filaments that are 1 micron or less in thickness. The copper composite matrix is chemically dissolved without attacking the Ta to produce metallic Ta high surface area, ribbon-fibers. The fibers are formed into thin mats, which are sintered to produce porous metal strips from which high surface area capacitor anodes are made. A significant aspect of this approach is that fiber morphology can be varied over a wide of fiber thicknesses unlike powder. This allows the morphology of the fibers to be optimized for the particular voltage rating and use requirements in order to maximize the performance of the capacitor. Commercially, nearly all medical, automotive, military and many consumer electronic devices utilize Ta electrolytic capacitors due to their outstanding performance, reliability and volumetric efficiency. Solid electrolytic capacitors are currently made from Ta metal powder. Several million pounds per year of Ta powder are consumed in manufacturing Ta capacitors for these applications. The trend in electronics is toward high powder components and increased miniaturization. Combined with the need to lower materials and manufacturing costs, these considerations have created an opportunity for new method of producing solid electrolytic capacitors. Fiber metal technology has the potential to both lower manufacturing costs, improve capacitor performance, and improve packaging options, which could enable the development of new product that are either currently very difficult or very expensive to make using current technology base on metal powder. Supercon is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: A New Production Method for Ta Fibers for Use in Electrolytic Capacitors with Improved Performance and Packaging Options. Their project is intended to demonstrate a new process for manufacturing valve metal fibers for use in producing capacitors. The technology is applicable to all valve metals used for making solid electrolytic capacitors. If successful, this technology could lead to capacitor products having higher performance and greater volumetric efficiency than are currently available. The use of fibers in place of the standard powder compacts allows the production of thin anode bodies leading to improved packaging options and component performance. The innovation underlying the technology is bundle drawing of valve metal filaments contained in copper matrix. A composite consisting of valve metal filaments in a copper matrix is drawn in series of reduction steps until the filaments are less than 10 microns. The drawn wire is rolled to produce submicron thick ribbon type filaments. The copper composite matrix is chemically dissolved to produce metallic thin fibers. The fibers are formed into thin mats, which are sintered to produce porous metal strips from which high surface area capacitor anodes can be made. A significant aspect of this approach is that fiber morphology can be varied within a wide range of thickness and widths unlike powders. This allows the morphology of the fibers to be optimized in order to maximize the properties of the capacitor. Commercially, nearly all medical, automotive and consumer electronic devices all utilize solid electrolytic capacitors due to their performance, volumetric efficiency, and high reliability. Several million pounds per year of powder are consumed in the manufacture of capacitors for these applications. The trend towards higher power components, and miniaturization, combined with the need to lower materials and manufacturing costs have created an opportunity for new methods of producing solid electrolytic capacitors. Fiber metal technology has the potential to both lower manufacturing costs, improve capacitor performance, and improve packaging options which could lead to new products that are either very difficult or very expensive to make using current methods.

Amphenol Fiber Systems International (AFSI) is a full service fiber optic company engaged in the fabrication and manufacture of fiber optic connectivity products and systems. The company's commitment to technical excellence aims to make us an industry leader in providing sophisticated products and professional technical assistance in the fiber optic industry. AFSI aims to provide solutions for communications systems based on fiber optic interconnect technology. TFOCA-II, M83522, M29504, and M28876 are the global standards in the military marketplace. With over 100 employees, AFSI is currently located in a 50,000 square foot facility, in the heart of the telecom corridor in Allen, just north of Dallas, Texas. Since its inception in 1993, AFSI has and will continue to base its corporate strategy on technical and application support, quality assurance, product performance, and value.

TechDrive, Inc. is a Chicago, IL based company that has received a grant(s) from the Department of Energy's SBIR/STTR program. The abstract(s) for these grant award(s) are provided as well since they provide insights into TechDrive, Inc.'s business and areas of expertise. This project is aimed at producing new and improved cost-effective materials to be used in the development of rechargeble batteries for electric vehicles and consumer products, such as computers, cell phones, and cameras.