WED AM News: WARF touting method to create lightweight materials with aerospace, defense applications; OneEnergy announces solar project plans

November 13, 2024

— WARF is seeking commercial partners to help develop a new method for creating lightweight materials for applications in aerospace, defense and marine industries.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation is touting the method as a top licensing prospect in its engineering and computer science portfolio. It was created by Prof. Pavana Prabhakar, who leads the Manufacturing and Mechanics Lab within the UW-Madison College of Engineering.

The approach is focused on producing a form of composite material called “syntactic” foam, which is made up of hollow particles combined with structures formed from metallic, ceramic or polymer components, according to an overview from WARF. Compared to comparable solid structures, these forms boast greater impact strength and toughness.

Researchers at UW-Madison, led by Prabhakar, created a new technique for making these foams that leverages “selective laser sintering,” or SLS, a powder-based additive manufacturing technique. Sintering is a process that bonds particles together into a single mass without melting them.

WARF notes efforts to use SLS in making foams has been limited by the use of certain common plastics that are moldable under heat, but incorporating other hollow components such as glass “micro-balloons” into the mix leads to “improved properties” in the final product.

“This technique can be used in the production of highly customizable and lightweight materials, including helmets or armor having improved fit, comfort, airflow, and safety,” authors wrote. “Further, the materials and process are low cost and could be readily scaled and integrated into commercial manufacturing processes.”

The process can create customized syntactic foam for specific uses or more broad applications, resulting in “more sustainable, lighter and less expensive” components for a number of products.

WARF says it has promise for lightweight structures used in recreation, marine and aerospace sectors, as the specialized foam can be shaped with specific parameters for unique applications. Researchers have “successfully fabricated” foamed plastics using SLS, the overview shows.

“They characterized the resultant materials and have shown that their process can be used to create highly customized shapes,” authors wrote.

See the WARF overview and an earlier related study. See more on Prabhakar’s work here.

— A company called OneEnergy Renewables has announced plans to build two utility-scale solar projects in the state.

The business, which has operations in Seattle and Madison, yesterday announced an agreement with We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation and Madison Gas and Electric to build the projects in Columbia County. The Good Oak and Gristmill solar installations total 165 megawatts, just over half the size of the state’s largest solar project, the 300 MW Badger Hollow Solar Farm.

The projects are expected to be built in 2026 and 2027, according to the release.

“Working with We Energies, WPS and MGE on these two utility-scale projects will build on a solid foundation of prior collaboration across the numerous distributed solar projects we have developed and constructed with them across Wisconsin,” said Eric Udelhofen, vice president of development at OneEnergy.

The company’s portfolio includes more than 20 solar projects in Wisconsin, including Tyto Solar in Fitchburg, which provides energy to about 1,400 households that are customers of MGE.

See more in the release.

— Johnson Controls has rolled out new generative AI tools for its OpenBlue software platform, which can “proactively recommend” energy savings projects to users.

Vijay Sankaran, chief technology officer for the business, says expanding its customer-facing AI features “marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of building management technology” within the OpenBlue Enterprise Manager.

He says the new features “not only enhance operational efficiency and sustainability, but also empower building owners and operators with unprecedented levels of insight and control.”

Along with recommendations for building operations projects, the expanded platform can provide more data insights on building visitors, improved air quality monitoring, automatic setting adjustments to save energy, and more personalization for the user experience, according to the release.The system can now analyze energy consumption based on live weather data as well.

Users can also choose actions to automate or query the system for help, getting information on specific equipment performance and broader trends. The company says the new features are “driving forward the future of autonomous buildings,” requiring less manual intervention than before. Further AI upgrades are planned for 2025, the release shows.

Julius Marchwicki, vice president of digital product management for Johnson Controls, says customers report being unsure what questions to ask an AI chatbot about their buildings.

“Our generative AI feature automatically constructs the right prompts that are built from our decades of experience in the commercial buildings space,” Marchwicki said in a statement.

See more in the release.

— Cellectar Biosciences has announced a manufacturing agreement with Indiana-based SpectronRx, which will produce the Madison company’s cancer therapy called iopofosine 131.

The FDA has previously granted orphan drug and fast track designations for I-131, which will be produced at SpectronRx’s facilities in Indiana and Belgium under the commercial supply agreement, according to a recent release.

Cellectar President and CEO James Caruso says the partnership is “part of our multi-sourced global supply strategy,” underpinning commercialization plans for the cancer therapy.

“SpectronRx’s expertise and strategically located facilities offer significant logistical benefits for global market distribution while expanding our manufacturing capabilities,” Caruso said in a statement.

See more at Madison Startups.

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