NASA’S Help Is Speeding Marine Jet To Market

At last September’s Fish Expo in Seattle, Wash., the Arkansas firm received down payments to produce commercially its first two marine jet engines which incorporate NASA- and NASA contractor-derived impeller blade technologies. The company also has signed an agreement with a major distributor in the Northwestern U.S. to handle its NASA-enhanced products.

The marine jet-propulsion engine market is dominated by manufacturers in Europe and New Zealand, however NASA technology may help US firms compete successfully.

The Marshall Center’s involvement with North American Marine Jet., Inc., began last year when the firm’s president, Leonard Hill, attended a NASA symposium and learned what the center had to offer in the way of propulsion systems. The Marshall Center developed the Saturn series of rockets which took humans to the moon, oversees the development and management of the Space Shuttle’s propulsion elements, and is managing the development of propulsion systems for the next generation of space vehicles being developed by NASA. Hill feels Marshall’s expertise will benefit his firm in the global marketplace.

Hill and his design staff from North American Marine Jet first met with Robert Garcia of the Computational Fluid Dynamics branch of Marshall’s Structures and Dynamics Laboratory. Garcia used the branch’s analytical systems to reveal that the Arkansas firm’s proposed design for an improved impeller would not meet desired performance requirements. Garcia, Hill and the firm’s design team then discussed possible design modifications, which Garcia then analyzed. His figures correctly predicted the new design would meet or exceed all of the Arkansas firm’s requirements. This result was an improved design and the creation of a new product line for the firm.

Garcia’s three-dimensional computer model of the impeller design enabled Paul Gill of Marshall’s Materials and Processes Laboratory and NASA contractor engineers at Rocketdyne to use rapid prototyping systems to make a solid polycarbonate model of it. This allowed the engineers to optimize the improved impellers’ production process.

Hill has said that ordinarily his firm would have had to produce a wooden “master” of the impeller blade, make an epoxy mold of the wooden blade, make wax impeller blades from the epoxy mold, machine an impeller hub, precisely attach four sets of impeller blades to the hub, dip the wax model to form a ceramic mold, melt out the wax, and, finally, pour metal into the ceramic mold. Gill’s work allowed the mold to be made directly, avoiding many time-consuming and costly steps. Gill also has recommended a number of improvements to the Materials and Processes Lab’s stereolithography apparatus which speeded fabrication of the model.

For more information on NASA technology transfer opportunities for American industry, call 1-800-USA-NASA.