HOLLAND – Sordal and Grand Valley State University received a $100,000 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to develop insulating foam for use on satellites that track ballistic missiles.
These satellites contain systems that must operate at cryogenic temperatures and Sordals SOLREX will be developed to protect these instruments from direct solar heating and solar energy reflected from earths surface and internal heating.
Much of the work for this project will be done at the West Michigan
Science and Technology Initiatives Product Development
Center. Sordal is the first tenant. The Center is located at GVSUs Cook-DeVos Center for Health Sciences in Grand Rapids.
This announcement is a tremendous accomplishment for Sordal, GVSU, and the Initiative, said WMSTI Executive Director Matt Dugener. We
are seeing the results of a strong innovation focus.
GVSUs efforts will be lead by Robert Smart, PhD, Associate Professor
of Chemistry at GVSU, who has been working with Sordal while on
sabbatical for the past year to further develop and improve the
performance of Sordals high temperature foams and composites.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency project is the eleventh R&D grant for Sordal in less than five years. Sordal is a privately held R&D think tank with operations in Holland, a Lake Michigan shoreline community, and Grand Rapids.
For more information, click on Sordal.Org
