Management at the Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems group have stated that the developments made under this SBIR will directly support NASA programs including JDEM, IXO, LISA, ICESAT, ATLAST, CLARREO and ACE.
The developments made under the proposed SBIR will support any application where brittle materials are machined, especially applications where challenging ceramics such as SiC must be machined in bulk. Another large market area is the ceramic armor industry. Manufacturers are searching for reduced cost methods of shaping armor plates; an excellent application for the present development where subsurface flaws and residual stresses must be avoided.
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