Summary
- Profile Type
- Technology offer
- POD Reference
- TOGB20250605019
- Term of Validity
- 5 June 2025 - 5 June 2026
- Company's Country
- United Kingdom
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement with technical assistance
- Targeted Countries
- All countries
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General information
- Short Summary
- A UK company innovates in lightweight structures engineering. Their low cost lightweight structural tube is novel with the potential to be exploited across a wide range of end use industries including spacecraft vehicle applications within the Access to Space market, civil and military aerospace, robotic arm and manipulator fields, high speed machinery, progressive civil engineering structures and plant process piping systems. A commercial agreement with technical agreement is sought.
- Full Description
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The UK company innovates in lightweight structures with a commitment to sustainable and renewable engineering and the appropriate synthesis of conventional and advanced materials.
The company has been successful in obtaining several Innovate UK (the UK Innovation Agency) and ATI (Aerospace Technology Institute) funding grants to support the development of its in-house innovations.
They have developed a new type of low-cost slender strut employing advanced materials, which has been developed for engineering structures. The product, designed to offer equal capacities in tension and compression, enables the benefits of advanced materials to be exploited in a simple, reliable, and cost-effective way.
The product offers significant performance gains over struts composed of traditional materials (with respect to specific strength and stiffness), and over struts composed entirely of advanced materials (with respect to cost, simplicity, reliability, and integrity of connections).
The main feature of the high performance strut product is the way end joint difficulties are overcome by utilising the most useful properties of the materials comprising the concentric strut assembly: the high strength and stiffness to weight ratio of the advanced material tube, with the ductility of metallic tube.
The advanced material is incorporated into, and worked by the strut assembly, without having to rely on either mechanical joining or adhesive bonding, thus eliminating the major problem usually associated with the implementation of materials of this kind.
Traditional adjustable metallic rod ends transfer external loading into and out of the strut. For optimum strength, the strut utilises carbon/graphite fibres - for high temperature applications, the strut employs ceramics. Significant weight savings over traditional all-metallic struts can be achieved.
In order to improve on current lightweight strut technology, the Smart-Tube product offers increased buckling/flexure resistance by utilising the benefits of both metals and advanced composite materials but without connection and thermal mismatch problems. As such, the Smart-Tube can be employed in either high temperature or cryogenic applications.
The Smart Tube technology could be exploited across a wide range of applications, including:
Low cost spacecraft vehicle applications – struts for solar arrays, space vehicle structures, satellite structures.
Civil and military aerospace – mid box structs, underfloor seating, actuator rods.
Robotic arms and manipulators.
High speed machinery – any kind of strut or linkage where weight and cost are a consideration.
Progressive civil engineering structures –, canopies, high rise roof structures where weight is an issue.
Plant process piping systems – cryogenic concentric tubes where weight is an issue.
Military structures – bridges, buildings, where light weight during deployment is a requirement.
The UK company seeks a commercial agreement with technical assistance. They are specifically looking for a designer / manufacturer of engineering structures who can facilitate a design integration package utilising the Smart Tube in their product technology. - Advantages and Innovations
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The need to reduce the mass of structures has in recent years, led to considerable interest in the use of advanced composite materials (i.e. FRP’s, MMC’s and Ceramics) possessing a greater specific strength and stiffness than metals, offering performance gains over traditional tubes in compression and flexure. However, members made from such special materials can present problems in the method of their attachment to the rest of the overall structure.
The Smart Tube, designed to offer equal capacities in tension and compression, enables the benefits of advanced materials to be exploited in a simple, reliable, and cost-effective way. The product offers significant performance gains over struts composed of traditional materials (with respect to specific strength and stiffness ie weight), and over struts composed entirely of advanced materials (with respect to cost, simplicity, replaceability, and structural integrity).
The main feature of the Smart Tube product is the way joint difficulties are overcome by utilising the most useful properties of the materials comprising the strut assembly: the high strength and stiffness to weight ratio of the advanced material, together with the ductility of metals. The advanced material is incorporated into, and worked by the strut assembly, without having to rely on either mechanical fastening or adhesive bonding, thus eliminating the major problem usually associated with the implementation of materials of this kind.
The primary challenge facing the Smart Tube designers was to make provision for a reliable and simple means of connection between an advanced composite strut body and adjustable metallic rod-ends. As such, tube end-float adjustability is furnished by traditional metallic rod ends which interface with the surrounding structure and transfer external loading into and out of the strut.
For optimum strength, the Smart Tube utilises carbon/graphite fibres - for high temperature applications, the tube employs ceramics. - Stage of Development
- Under development
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
- IPR status
- IPR granted
- IPR notes
- UK patent
Partner Sought
- Expected Role of a Partner
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The UK company is offering the Smart Tube technology to designers / manufacturers who will pilot / test / integrate on their own platforms with a view to commercialisation.
The UK company is looking to collaborate with a designer / manufacturer within the aerospace, civil, marine or allied mechanical engineering markets.
The UK company will provide technical expertise to the collaboration partner to help them incorporate the Smart Tube technology offered into their product design.
The partner needs to have the capacity to work on the necessary design research and development. A successful design collaboration would ideally result in the licensing of the patented Smart Tube technology. - Type and Size of Partner
- R&D Institution
- SME <=10
- Other
- Big company
- SME 50 - 249
- Type of partnership
- Commercial agreement with technical assistance
Dissemination
- Technology keywords
- 02007005 - Composite materials
- Market keywords
- 08001009 - Speciality/performance materials: producers and fabricators
- Sector Groups Involved
- Maritime Industries and Services
- Aerospace and Defence
- Construction
- Targeted countries
- All countries