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Moraine company hopes polymer work pays off

Ex-Air Force Research Lab workers venture into composites production

University of Dayton intern Peter Borton (left) and Purdue University student Keith Miller apply strain gauges onto molded fibers to test their strength. The students work at Performance Polymer Solutions in Moraine.

Jim Noelker/Staff University of Dayton intern Peter Borton (left) and Purdue University student Keith Miller apply strain gauges onto molded fibers to test their strength. The students work at Performance Polymer Solutions in Moraine.

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By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer 8:20 PM Saturday, July 4, 2009

Ovens, presses, laboratory-scale chemistry sets, analytical instruments — take a walk around the lab at 2711 Lance Drive, and you quickly get the impression something is happening.

That impression would be correct.

The lab’s home — Performance Polymer Solutions Inc. — is trying to make itself indispensable to anyone in industry, aerospace or the Department of Defense who needs advanced polymer materials.

The company researches and produces materials that can withstand high temperatures — up to 1,500 degrees. One of those materials — called Liquimide — can bond components together, including aviation engine parts. It was Liquimide that caught the eye of the Ohio Department of Development and earned the company a $350,000 Ohio Third Frontier Grant for developing the adhesive.

For Jason Lincoln and David Curliss, owners of Performance Polymer Solutions Inc. — sometimes called “P2SI” — the grant is a shot in the arm at just the right time. The material could draw the interest of General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lockheed-Martin, Pratt & Whitney — any company whose aerospace application needs a strong yet lightweight material.

The idea isn’t just to research. The idea is to produce — and both owners say the state grant will help.

“We’d like to be more of a manufacturer,” Lincoln said.

“We’re not doing science-fair projects,” Curliss said. “We want to be a producer at the end of the day.”

Composite materials are more expensive than metals, including titanium. But composites earn their way into aviation projects by being light and by withstanding ferocious temperatures, the P2SI owners say.

Look at an F-22 or an F-35 fighter. Much of what you’re seeing on the outside are composite materials, Lincoln and Curliss say.

Both men are former employees of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and they believe they have a good sense of what the aerospace industry needs. Indeed, the testimony of Vought Aircraft Industries helped persuade the Third Frontier Commission to award the firm money.

“The technology from Wright-Patterson is sort of the inspiration for a lot of companies in the area,” Curliss said.

Founded in Kettering in 2002, the company moved to Centerville before settling just after Christmas 2008 on 23,000 square feet of space of lab, offices and storage space on Lance, west of South Dixie Drive.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Performance Polymer Solutions Inc.

Ownership: Privately held.

Location: 2711 Lance Drive, Moraine.

Products: Reinforced polymer materials that can withstand temperatures of up to 1,500 degrees.

Employees: 23 employees in the summer, with engineering students from the University of Dayton, Wright State University, Notre Dame and elsewhere at work. “There aren’t too many places where they can get hands-on research-and-development experience,” said David Curliss, a P2SI co-owner.

Recent government-funded R&D programs:

U.S. Navy

National Science Foundation

Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Office of the Secretary of Defense

Source: P2SI

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