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Prof's Research Garners NSF Award
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FEBRUARY 27, 2004 -- Mahesh Gupta's fledgling enterprise has just received a $100,000 vote of confidence in the form of a Small Business Innovative Research Grant.
A number of federal agencies award SBIR grants, but this is the first from the National Science Foundation to be given to an Upper Peninsula business.
Gupta, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, started Plastic+Flow">Plastic Flow, LLC, in 2002 to provide consulting services to plastics manufacturers. The firm, located in the Michigan Tech SmartZone, markets Gupta's PELDOM software, which helps take the guesswork out of making extruded plastic products.
Goods ranging from PVC pipe to garbage bags are extruded. The raw material is forced through a die to form sheets, tubes, etc.
While technical, the process is far from exact. "As new polymers are developed, manufacturers have developed new dies by trial and error, using experience and intuition," Gupta said. "A lot of time can be wasted, and you can lose your edge on the competition."
PELDOM is changing that. With the software, manufacturers can simulate how a given polymer will flow through a die, streamlining the R&D process. That's fine for products made with one type of polymer, but Gupta wants to take PELDOM to another level, with the help of the SBIR grant.
"I'd like to be able to model the simultaneous extrusion of more than one kind of polymer," he says. "By layering many different polymers, you can have many different properties in one product." Typical of the thousands of multi-layered plastic products is Saran Wrap, which can stretch and stick because it is made of one polymer that sticks and another that (you guessed it) stretches.
Gupta has about one year to demonstrate the feasibility of his proposal. If it passes NSF muster, he'll qualify for the second phase of the SBIR competition, which provides awards for product commercialization.
For more information, visit http://www.plasticflow.com/ |
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