MicroStrain®, headquartered in Williston, Vt., develops and produces innovative, smart, wireless, microminiature displacement, orientation and force sensors for structural health monitoring and reporting systems. The company has a commitment to producing a high quality product using a mix of in-house assembly and testing and ISO 9000 certified manufacturers. It offers quality products while maintaining cost efficiencies. In addition to the ISO 9000 compliance of its products, the calibration systems used by MicroStrain® are traceable to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) providing quality assurance throughout the sensor range.
Founded in 1987 by Steve Arms, the company enjoys 80 percent sales from commercial products, with the remaining 20 percent of sales coming from Federal R&D contracts. MicroStrain, a Tibbet's Award winning firm, has experienced first-hand the difficulties of commercializing advanced technology and therefore is discerning when it comes to potential federal contracts. "We are very selective as to which government R&D projects we propose," said Arms. "The technology development project must have a clear commercialization objective before we bid."
The company's acceptance of a Navy SBIR Phase II contract in 2004 was no exception. The project titled, Power Harvesting for Shipboard Health Monitoring Sensors, fit the company's criteria for commercialization potential. Sensors are being embedded within structures and machines in the billions with the "sensed" information being automatically compressed and forwarded for condition-based maintenance (CBM). Though powering the sensors was a distinct problem, the proposed solution was to harvest and store energy from vibration and use the embedded processors to compress data and compute the fatigue life of the machine. The sensor technology is critical, according to Arms, because, "Energy harvesting is a key enabling capability to ensure that a system is not only functional, but also cost-effective." This is something that is applicable to many markets as MicroStrain is discovering in the commercialization of their technologies.
In the time since its participation in the Navy Transition Assistance Program, the company has received over $4.9M in sales of its wireless products. It has also received a $70,000 contract from the Navy Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) for the development of a heat stress node for application to aircraft carriers and won its second Frost and Sullivan North American Technology Innovation Award in 2007.
Even for this savvy, well-established small business, "The Navy TAP program was extremely useful," Arms concluded. "The program was instrumental to us in materializing substantial follow-on business. It also enabled us to focus our energy on crystallizing the value-add for the helicopter business."
With fatigue being common-place in helicopters, it is vital to be able to sense the "degree of fatigue" to critical components during flight. Addressing the problem, MicroStrain developed a wireless sensor to track damage to helicopters. "In a helicopter, there's a whole lot of shakin' going on," mused Arms. "The sensors measure loads in the structure and correlate the degree of fatigue for various components." This work with the U.S. Navy has spawned approximately $5M in Phase III funding and initiated an ATD with Bell Helicopter worth $1.2M.
Other MicroStrain projects include "regime recog-nition" which uses MEMs wireless sensors to measure 3-D motions and loads on fixed wing aircraft, a Federal Highway Administration project for bridge monitoring and a con-tract with Caterpillar to monitor the structural health of construction and mining equipment — a topic of a new NIST ATP. MicroStrain is also pursuing additional market opportunities as they plan for the company's future. These opportunities include developing MicroStrain sensors for biomechanics, civil engineering uses, wireless sensors for use in automo-biles, and miniature inertial measurement units.
