UK science engineering company ready to take unique Purdue heating technology to the market

Alconbury Weston Limited, a science-engineering company based in the United Kingdom, has licensed carbon fiber technology from Purdue Research Foundation. (Image provided) Download image

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A novel heating technology based on materials commonly used in the aerospace industry soon may be helping doctors, forensic scientists and automobile manufacturers. Alconbury Weston Limited, a science-engineering company based in the United Kingdom, has licensed carbon fiber technology from Purdue Research Foundation to support industries ranging from research institutes to commercial manufacturers.

The C-Core carbon fiber technology was developed at Purdue University through a partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense. The initial technology was developed at Purdue by James Zimmerman and Ryan Hilger, scientists in Purdue’s College of Science.

C-Core is a super semiconductor that has unique properties to create complete uniform heat without cold spots.

“It’s a completely new use of a widely accepted high-tech material as provides an excellent means of providing heat to flowing fluids. It has been re-designed by the AWL team to facilitate mass production and already adopted for many industry sectors,” said Alastair Barton, director at AWL. “It facilitates high-quality sample delivery in analytical science, forensics, chemistry, laboratory and research and develop environments, as well as delivering contamination-free medical gases via greener direct heating.”

C-Core is based off high-tech material commonly used in aerospace applications, but AWL is one of the first companies in the science-engineering sector to adopt carbon fiber for its unique semi-conductor and uniform heating properties.

“C-Core has special properties that make it ideal for certain technology uses,” Barton said. “It also provides flexible, safe, low-voltage and high-output options.”

AWL licensed C-Core through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. For more information on licensing a Purdue innovation, contact the Office of Technology Commercialization at otcip@prf.org.

About Alconbury Weston Limited

AWL is Alconbury Weston Limited, a privately held company based in the midlands in the UK. It’s an innovation led science-engineering company who have gained a successful reputation for taking groundbreaking fledgling science-engineering concepts to market. AWL has developed and patented a number of pioneering process solutions for the chemistry, pharmaceutical and R+D industries, including creating the first commercially available continuous filtration and drying (flow chemistry) processing systems and pioneering green energy-focused projects. Its latest venture is C-Core Carbon Fibre Heating Technologies. 

About Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization

The Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities through commercializing, licensing and protecting Purdue intellectual property. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, which received the 2019 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Place from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Visit the Office of Technology Commercialization for more information.       

Writer: Chris Adam, 765-588-3341, cladam@prf.org 

Source: Lisa Cartman, lcartman@a-w-l.co.uk