SBIR-STTR Award

Hook and loop closures in Army uniforms have been identified as the critical sources of leaks in protective clothing/equipment, which limits the overall protective capability of the ensemble. New closure systems capable of providing both the shear and peel strengths demonstrated by hook and loop systems as well as hermetic sealing against any vapor permeation across the closure need to be developed to address this shortfall to reduce the dangers of Warfighter exposure to Chemical or Biological Agents. In this proposal, we explore developing and optimizing new closure systems which achieve the same range of peel and lap shear strength performance as control hook and loop closures while demonstrating several magnitude order better resistance to vapor permeation such systems. This will be accomplished through a new closure system proposed to be based on polymer microfiber adhesives inspired by the foot-hairs found on geckos. The proposal describes a methodology to design, fabricate, and evaluate these closure systems, leveraging previous research team experience in both bio-inspired micropatterned closure development and incorporation of these materials into systems with hermetic sealing requirements.

Keywords:
Gecko adhesion, microfiber, closure, hermetic sealing, chemical biological, protective garment

Hook and loop closures in Army uniforms have been identified as the critical sources of leaks in protective clothing/equipment, which limits the overall protective capability of the ensemble. We demonstrated during Phase I of this project that we can design and fabricate hybrid closure systems which incorporate areas of microfiber adhesive arrays inspired by the foot-hairs found on geckos which have hermetic sealing qualities. In this proposal, we build on the success of our Phase I project and propose approaches to further develop and optimize hybrid closure systems which achieve the same range of peel and lap shear strength performance as control hook and loop closures while demonstrating significantly better resistance to vapor permeation than such systems. We propose new methods to characterize the real world performance of these systems through repeated cyclic testing, contamination testing, and washability testing. Furthermore, we will develop new methods to integrate these hybrid closure systems into textiles and backings suitable for strategic needs identified by DOD stakeholders and demonstrate proof of concept mass production of these optimized materials. Success on the proposed technical objectives will allow for a transition to commercialization upon the completion of this Phase II project.

Keywords:
bio-inspired adhesives, closures, hermetic sealing, gecko inspired, microfiber, chem bio protection