APPLICATIONS
Current and potential applications for ACI’s PZT-fiber-based composites
include high-frequency (10–20 MHz) transducers with 1–3 connectivity for
nondestructive evaluation (NDE) applications; smart and vibration-free baseball
bats; balance-correcting golf equipment; self-powered in-vivo medical
devices (using breathing or pulse as the power source); smart hockey sticks;
ultrasound devices, high-output acoustic pickups (e.g., the current design
produces 20 more dB and produces incredibly clean sound) and condition
monitoring sensors.
Commercial products in development include vibration reduction devices for
wind turbines, self-powered automotive tire sensors, impact sensors and active
structural control devices for automotive, aerospace and appliance structures.
Self-powered systems under development that work by harvesting otherwise
waste mechanical energy from vibrations or flexure, include smart munitions
with self-powered electronics;13 self-powered condition monitoring devices
for aging aircraft; self-powered pacemakers (using breathing or pulse as the
power source); self-powered deicing of helicopter rotors; self-heated boots
(for walking or skiing); smart, self-powered fishing lures; and self-powered
pressure sensors.
In addition to commercial development, ACI has a substantive governmental
research program underway. The company’s core energy-harvesting technology
emerged from primary research conducted for the U.S. Navy and the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
More recently, ACI has developed a breakthrough variant where useful amounts
of electric power have been generated and stored to run independent electronic
systems. This breakthrough emerged from U.S. Army-funded research and
innovative piezoelectric-fiber composite design and improved circuitry and
enabled ACI to produce sufficient surplus power scavenged from waste energy
to run conventional electronic devices using a free source of power.
This breakthrough could fundamentally change the way power is generated
and used by eliminating the need for wiring or batteries.