Minnesota Wire Awarded DoD R&D Grant for Embedded Wire in Airborne Applications
Minnesota Wire announced today that the company's R&D division, Minnovate, was awarded a Department of Defense (DoD) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant by the U.S. Air Force.
The Phase I SBIR is a $100,000, one year "proof of concept" project that will explore the feasibility of "embedded wire for airborne applications." The program's office at the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio is seeking new electrical interconnect options for existing and future manned and unmanned aircraft systems. The intent is to design systems that ensure the best electrical signal integrity, are lightweight, rugged and self-monitoring, and allow for advances in conformity, space savings and ease of maintenance.
Minnesota Wire's Minnovate R&D team will leverage its existing work in stretchy wire, prognostic health management (PHM), fatigue resistant wire, nanotechnology and advanced materials research to develop proposed solutions to the AFRL solicitation. As the grant's prime contractor, the company will also enlist partners like Boeing and LiveWire Test Labs to contribute to the project. At the conclusion of the Phase I efforts, Minnesota Wire will then compete for a two-year, $750,000 Phase II SBIR solicitation to advance the concept to the prototype stage.
Minnesota Wire's established R&D program has dedicated staff, lab facilities and collaborative arrangements with industry and academic partners, all of which are producing novel designs for various markets. Minnovate specializes in designs that require the highest forms of electrical signal integrity, and disruptive advances in weight savings, shielding, prognostic health management (PHM) and other critical properties. The first R&D program the company was involved with had its roots in the U.S. Army's Land Warrior program, and is now becoming commercialized with its line of developmental products called "Elastomeric Interconnect Solutions," or "Stretchy Wire."
For more information about Minnovate and its R&D efforts, go to www.mnwire.com/ and click "R&D."
