CIMR: Where Research = Results

Partnering for Your Success

Innovation is the key word at the Center for Innovative Materials Research (CIMR) at Lawrence Technological University. CIMR researchers are working on innovative material and structural solutions for defense, homeland security, transportation infrastructure, construction, and automotive applications, to:

• save lives
• reduce injuries
• cut costs

Make it stronger, lighter, and cheaper. Boost fuel efficiency, and build it to last for 30 years – or more. Lawrence Tech can help you deliver product excellence.

Use expert CIMR researchers and facilities to explore:

• New military vehicles that require armor weighing less than 100 pounds per square foot
• Carbon fiber wind turbine blades that can withstand harsh changes in weather or climate
• Advanced materials for commercial vehicles that reduce weight and improve fuel economy
• Components that incorporate high-performance materials

CIMR researchers are collaborating with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center to significantly advance materiel design, testing, evaluation, and durability of military vehicle armor.

   Result : Deployment of new high-strength, lower-weight vehicle armor to protect troops and save lives. 

CIMR researchers are working with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Michigan Department of Transportation to develop highway bridges that can last 100 years – twice the normal life span – by using innovative materials during construction.

   Result : Lower life-cycle repair and maintenance costs, fewer detours and traffic disruptions, and substantially safer travel for motorists.

Bridges to the Future

Sobering statistics ... more than 72,000 highway bridges across the United States are structurally deficient and more than 81,000 are functionally obsolete.

Lawrence Tech is playing a lead role in the research, development, and deployment of innovative, high-strength bridge technology designed to replace those structures … and avoid such tragedies as the 2007 bridge collapse in Minneapolis that claimed 13 lives.

Work at CIMR is advancing the industry’s current best practices for bridges and infrastructure to include the design of new non-corrosive carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP) for building and reinforcing concrete bridges. Lawrence Tech also is conducting durability tests using this technology in I-beam construction.

In 2001, Lawrence Tech built the nation’s first highway bridge using CFRP rather than steel. The pioneering Bridge Street Bridge project led to CIMR being awarded a $900,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation 21st Century Jobs Fund in 2007 to deploy the CFRP technology on three new bridges in 2009 in partnership with the Michigan Department of Transportation.