Carbon nanomaterial for aerospace applications
Lightweight, strong, and conductive
The aerospace industry has long faced the challenge of how to build the most lightweight aircraft. Carbon nanotube applications in aerospace, particularly as fibers, yarns, fabrics, or films, offer great benefit. Everything from the structure to the wiring to the seat fabrics, every unit of mass counts. Applications in aerospace can benefit from advanced materials, particularly carbon nanotube (CNTs) based materials.
Galvorn is a lightweight, strong, electrically conductive, and thermally conductive material that offers significant advantages to lightweighting aircraft and spacecraft. Galvorn is less than 1/5th the weight of copper with 100x the flex life. It can reduce weight across a number of applications while also reducing the industry's reliance on increasingly scarce copper.
Wiring and harness
Galvorn’s properties make it suitable for wiring and harness applications where light weight, strength, and durability are critical. Not every application requires the conductivity of copper. For example, cable shielding or conductors in twisted shielded pair cables. Galvorn CNT shielded cables are at least 40 - 60% lighter than commercial cables and have comparable shielding performance.
Data transfer cables
DexMat customers are seeing positive results using Galvorn as the conductive wire in data transfer cables. Galvorn has about 1/6th the conductivity of copper. But there are use cases in which it is suitable, or even superior to copper.
- Galvorn for short data cables: Lightweight Galvorn could replace copper wiring in short data cables. This is because attenuation and signal loss that arise from higher resistance will not be an issue. These types of cables allow for data flow between different components within the aircraft.
- Galvorn for high-frequency data transfer cables: Galvorn's conductivity is actually better than that of copper at high frequencies. It could be a great solution in cables that transfer data using high frequency AC signals over longer distances.
Structural composites with sensing capabilities
Composite materials, particularly carbon fiber composites, have taken the aerospace industry by storm. But carbon fiber is brittle in its natural form. Though super strong, that structural brittleness can result in sudden massive failure.
Customers are exploring ways of using Galvorn CNT fibers as piezoresistive sensors. By integrating the flexible fibers directly into structural composites the entire structure becomes a sensor. It enables more robust, accurate data, for example, rapidly notifying pilots and engineer of structural damage. Notification of any change to structural integrity ensures that someone can address it before reaching complete failure.
Cut-resistant textiles
Cut-resistant seating upholstery mitigates wear and tear that comes with extensive use over many years. Galvorn has demonstrated significantly more cut-resistance than Kevlar, Dyneema, and glass fibers. With a density comparable to Kevlar, it has the added benefit of soft and flexible.
Conductive textiles
Galvorn is an electrically (and thermally) conductive, flexible high-performance fiber. Its textile-like form factor enables everything from flexible thermoelectric generators to space suits that repel space dust. While conductive textiles (or e-textiles) is nascent, industries can benefit in numerous ways.
Watch this demo video showcasing Galvorn's combination of high-performance properties, including capacitive touch sensing!
Is Galvorn right for you?
Galvorn combines the conductivity of metals, flexibility of textile threads, and durability of high-end polymers into one material. Use it in a textile form, or a structural composite form. There are a wide range of ways to take advantage of Galvorn's combination of high-performance properties.