Clemson Gets $2 Million to Cut Cost of High-Tech Goods

Amod Ogale of Clemson University has received $2 million and will work with a group of researchers across the country to lower the cost of high-tech materials that have helped make airplanes and luxury cars more fuel efficient but remain too expensive for price-sensitive products.

Ogale, the director of the Center for Advanced Engineering Fibers and Films and Dow Chemical Professor of Chemical Engineering,  has been working for more than 30 years to create composite materials that are stronger and lighter than steel. Now he will turn his attention to making the materials less expensive.

Falling prices for composite materials would mean they could be used in more automobile and airplane parts to help make them lighter. When it comes to fuel efficiency, every ounce counts.

Ogale’s latest round of funding comes as part of a collaboration with the Center for Composite Materials at University of Delaware. The center, which is leading the research, has received $14.9 million from the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency for the Tailorable Feedstock and Forming Program.

Jack Gillespie, the director of the center, is leading the team. Researchers from Drexel University and Virginia Tech are also collaborating.