ASU’s alliance with the Boeing Company has assisted the possible use of composite material research for commercial products, an Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering professor said.

“It basically shows that ASU has interesting commercializing technologies and has developed relationships with large aerospace companies,” said Henry Sodano, an assistant mechanical engineering professor.

Sodano has been working with composite fibers, which are materials made of two or more substances, for the past two and a half years, but recently took this nanotechnology and expanded it to a much larger scale, he said.

Boeing expressed a need for a new composite material in order to create a stronger and lighter airplane. This request was made to Arizona Technology Enterprises, a subsidy of the ASU Foundation that pairs companies with University-conducted research, said Bill Loux, director of Arizona Technology Enterprises Business Development.

Loux said the Boeing Technology Alliance, a strategic partnership between the University and Boeing, has allowed the composite material research to go from the lab to a possible business endeavor.

“Any time you have a company that is willing to step in and be that major of a partner with you, it’s great because it gives you a much better chance of getting something from the lab to an actual product,” he said.

The developed composite material was a combination of carbon fibers, which are stiff, and a polymer that was fairly soft. This composite was then adhered with nanowires to create a stronger bond between the two dissimilar materials, Sodano said.

The nanowires put in place between the carbon fibers and polymer increased the surface area by more than 1,000 percent and created a greater strength per unit weight, he said.

Graduate student Greg Ehlert has been conducting composite material research for nearly two years and said it was a challenge to transition from working with a one-square-inch sample to a four-square-foot sample in order to make material viable for an airplane.

“That’s a big jump,” Ehlert said.

The project’s goal was to give Boeing the possibility of creating a stronger, lighter, safer and more fuel-efficient aircraft, Ehlert said.

“It’s good to see stuff go out of the lab and potentially go on to new things,” he said. “A lot of stuff from the lab just gets stuck there; it’s impractical, but it seems like this one might actually go somewhere.”

Sodano said because Boeing doesn’t manufacture carbon materials — it only purchases them — there are other commercial manufacturer partnerships being considered, but it is important to establish relationships with the final consumer.

“The alliance with them facilitates the communications with other companies,” he said.

If Boeing agrees to the negotiations, then the rights to the patent will be licensed to it and certain payments and royalties would go back to the University through the involved researchers, programs and inventors, Loux said.

“If [Boeing] ends up liking it enough and can get the suppliers to buy it, then that would be a slam dunk,” Loux said.

Reach the reporter at slsnyder@asu.edu