License ERDC’s Patented Novel Materials for your Business

ERDC has created and engineered state of the art materials that enable advancements in instruments, construction, environmental remediation, and much more. Explore these technologies for more information on how they can benefit your business.

Digital Panning for Rare Earth Elements

• Uses ICP-MS proxy signals and digital processing to rapidly screen large sample sets for likely rare-earth-element presence
• Prioritizes promising samples for full quantitative analysis, reducing the time and analytical effort spent on low-value samples
• Applicable to mineral exploration, resource evaluation, mine-waste reprocessing, environmental sampling, and strategic mineral mapping

Portable Suction-Boosted Sand Delivery System

• Fills beach roadway mats with local sand, no need for heavy dredging gear
• Assembled by hand and operated by a small crew, no specialty tools
• Builds stable beach roadways for military, coastal, and emergency uses

Lightweight Airfield Matting System

• Panels are 33% thinner and 40% lighter than legacy AM2–easy to transport and assemble
• Fits standard 463L and ISO containers for rapid air or sea delivery
• Build connector taxiways, hangar floors, pads, and parking for military, disaster-relief, and remote sites

Underwater Blast Shield

• Contains explosions and captures debris
• Reduces shock waves and secures explosive remnants for safer cleanup
• Supports unexploded ordinance remediation, mine clearance, and blasting for dredging projects

Low-Power Robotic Actuation for Soft Systems

• Operates on just 3 watts, similar to a cellphone signal
• Maintains consistent performance with no loss after repeated activation cycles
• Enables wireless motion for soft robotics, prosthetics, aerospace structures, and deployable defense and exploration systems

Automated Bead Width Control for 3D Concrete Construction

• Achieves ±¼ inch accuracy in bead width, enabling high-fidelity printing of complex geometries and structural features
• Dynamically adjusts gantry speed and pump settings to accommodate different material properties and design requirements
• Designed for expeditionary and remote use, ensures reliable performance in variable environments

Carbon Nanotubes Engineered for Stability and Scalability

• Uses DNA-wrapped carbon nanotubes and an enzyme-mediated process to link individual nanotubes into visible macroscopic structures without damage
• Solves manipulation challenge through controlled biological process, preserving nanotubes' superior strength, electrical conductivity, and thermal properties for practical use
• Enables high-performance structural materials for aerospace/automotive, advanced electronics requiring superior conductivity, and applications needing exceptional strength-to-weight ratios and thermal properties

Measuring Deflection to Determine a Characteristic of a Cantilever

• Eliminates errors introduced by contact during material characteristic measurements by using collimated light
• Can be extended with additional environmental sensors, such as a clock, thermometer, hygrometer, or environmental control systems
• Measurements can be taken from the top or bottom of the strip and the material is not limited to two layers.

Predictive Environmental Modeling System (PEMS)

• Provides simple tools for conducting cost-effective computational testing of a range of chemicals and materials, avoiding unnecessary lab-based testing
• Normalizes emission concentration values, enabling appropriate comparisons
• Includes a cumulative repository of scientific data, making automatic real-time adjustments to impact models as the database is updated

Submersible Matting System (SUBMAT)

• Ensures access across lighter convey waves, bridging systems, and austere sites
• Achieves full-scale trafficability testing, rapid prototyping, and performance objectives
• Provides an affordable option for rapid deployment of a trafficable roadway by a small crew in austere coastal environments

Modular Bathymetry

• Distinct CNC programming digitally creates expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) blocks that can be easily employed to create more detailed and accurate bathymetric models than traditional concrete
• EPS foam blocks can be easily and rapidly placed and removed in situ, allowing prototype refinement, use in limited space areas, and storage
• Using EPS reduces construction costs by 30-60% and allows up to 60% faster construction time compared with concrete modeling

induction Hot Mix Asphalt (iHMA)

• Demonstrated higher performance (100 passes of an F15-E) in all temperatures than cold-mix asphalt
• Pre-packaged in 5-gallon buckets
• Effectively unlimited shelf life
• Lower installed cost than factory-provided hot mix or cold mix

Photocatalytic Water Treatment

• Breaks target contaminants down into benign products
• Relies on non-toxic, earth-abundant photocatalysts with filterable particle diameters (> 0.1 μm)
• Uses energy-efficient solar radiation
• Degrades nitrobenzene & carbamazepine at rates equal to that of existing commercial systems

Digital Panning for Rare Earth Elements

Portable Suction-Boosted Sand Delivery System

Lightweight Airfield Matting System

Underwater Blast Shield

Low-Power Robotic Actuation for Soft Systems

Automated Bead Width Control for 3D Concrete Construction

Carbon Nanotubes Engineered for Stability and Scalability

Measuring Deflection to Determine a Characteristic of a Cantilever

Predictive Environmental Modeling System (PEMS)

Submersible Matting System (SUBMAT)

Modular Bathymetry

induction Hot Mix Asphalt (iHMA)

Photocatalytic Water Treatment

DNA-Based Testing for Environmental Contamination

Alkaline Hydrolysis of Contaminants in Soil and Groundwater

Modular Assembly Shelter (MASh) Kit

Electro-Active Enamel-Coated Dowel Bar

High-Concentration Bleach Generator

Water Diagnostics Operations Gear (WaterDOG)

Automated Construction of Expeditionary Structures (ACES)