Reliable Production of Nuclear Enterprise Industrial Rubber Gloves for DLA Troop Support

The goal of the proposed Phase II DLA SBIR program is to demonstrate the reliable production of Nuclear Enterprise Rubber Industrial Gloves to become an approved source for unrestricted purchases from DLA Troop Support. NanoSonic's robotic electrostatic self-assembly (ESA) process is amenable to the repeatable production of high quality, pit and void-free rubber gloves due to the inherent control over immersion rate, crosslinking kinetics, and molecular level homogeneity achieved between dips. NanoSonic's expertise in ESA has led to SBIR-derived commercial transition of our Metal Rubber product line, and recently to the development of free-standing robust polymer-balloon nanocomposites using complex-shaped mandrels. During this program, NanoSonic shall demonstrate our ESA-over-mandrels technique for the cost-effective production of natural and black pigmented, high-grade synthetic and natural rubber vulcanized gloves. Specifically, we shall produce prototype Rubber Industrial Gloves, PGC 00559 (NIINs: 002668673–Z9N, 002668675–02N, 002668677–21N, and 002668679–02N) per the specifications delineated in MIL-DTL-32066. We have teamed with the Chemical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech to verify the vulcanization kinetics and morphology throughout our proposed process to ensure a high-quality repeatable methodology suitable for the rated required for DLA Troop Support operational readiness.