Novel Diagnostic Tools for Production of WTPS

In the pursuit of supplying the highest quality 3D woven material, for Woven Thermal Protection Systems (W-TPS), Bally Ribbon Mills (BRM) is proposing a diagnostic tool to measure and monitor the beat-up force for 3D weaving equipment. Current weaving techniques relay on the loom operator to see or hear variations in the weaving process and detect problems early so defective material is kept to a minimum. Many times, even for the most experienced weavers, when variations are identified a defect is already woven into the product. BRM is proposing to modify and beat-up motion on the 24-inch-wide NASA HEEET loom to incorporate load cells between the beam and the lay heads to measure the beat-up force at real time.

BRM believes the material properties gathered during this SBIR work would be directly applicable to the NASA HEEET program. BRM also believes that the money invested on this SBIR would reduce material cost on future missions by providing the NASA engineers with another design option when developing WTPS materials.

Potential hypersonic applications.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 4) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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