TRIUMF Taps Local Companies for Advanced Detector Development

Research at the forefront of particle and nuclear physics often presents unique and challenging material and assembly requirements. For this reason, TRIUMF has machining and material engineering professionals on staff. Occasionally, however, project requirements are beyond TRIUMF’s infrastructure and/or the availability of its personnel. Accordingly, TRIUMF has forged strong ties with local industry, frequently working together for mutual benefit. In one recent instance, TRIUMF was able to find exceptional local expertise to jointly develop sophisticated material with custom specifications. While local competency presents a significant convenience and cost savings to TRIUMF, it also creates opportunity for local industry to learn from TRIUMF’s needs and expertise, towards new product development and potential new markets.

Celco Plastics Ltd. (Celco) is a Surrey based company specializing in plastic extrusion technology. Extrusion is a manufacturing process where a certain material, often plastic, is melted and pushed and/or drawn through a die in a continuous length to create objects of a required shape and cross-section. Plastic weather stripping represents a common application of extrusion technology.

When TRIUMF needed large scintillator sheets, with holes in the center plane, to build particle detectors for its role in the collaborative KOPIO research project, several purchase options were considered. The first option was to buy cast scintillator sheets with grooves on their surface. This option would have been expensive, and did not provide the desired feature of central holes. Alternatively, by joining efforts with Celco, and employing a patented formula from another research laboratory, material with similar optical properties and the much-desired central holes plane could be developed and produced locally for significantly less cost. Planks of scintillator material, 75mm wide and with six holes, were produced. The edges of these planks were machined and then joined to form sheets. This joint effort led to successful development of the extruded plastic scintillators needed for TRIUMF’s participation in the KOPIO project.

The KOPIO project also required large composite fiberglass sheets of precise and consistent thickness, between six and eight feet in width. These composite sheets were necessary for mechanical and dielectric reasons and were only commercially available with a maximum width of four feet. Investigation into two Vancouver Island based companies identified potential alternatives. One such company is Profile Composite Inc. (Profile), which specializes in advanced composite materials. By

employing a modified production process, it established itself as a suitable, lower cost alternative source for this unique sized material.

KOPIO is a joint research project based at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Brookhaven, New York. The KOPIO acronym is derived from the equation describing the decay of neutral K muons (K0) to neutral Pi (p0) muons, that characterize the phenomenon known as CP symmetry violation, and may help explain the observed asymmetry of matter and anti-matter in the known universe. Due to the termination of funding for the project by the U.S. government, TRIUMF’s role in KOPIO will be winding down from now until this time next year. However, both the plastic scintillators and the large fiberglass sheets have been successfully produced and are being tested on-site at TRIUMF. Furthermore, the ongoing collaboration on the Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) experiment in Japan has presented opportunities for the application of these specialized materials and their considerable associated cost savings. Development is underway at Celco to produce 1 cm

March 2006Vol. 9 Issue 2

Technology Transfer Bulletin

TRIUMF Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle & Nuclear Physics

Above: TRIUMF staff, Chapman Lim (left) and Naimat Khan (right) inspect extruded scintillator planks after they have been machined and glued into a sheet. These scintillator sheets were required for the KOPIO project.

Above: A photo of a scintillator plank with six holes coming out of the production line at Celco Plastics.

Questions and comments regarding Technology Transfer or this newsletter can be addressed to TRIUMF receives a contribution from the Federal techtrans@triumf.ca or to any of the following: Government through the National Research Council. Philip L Gardner, Division Head, Technology Transfer 604.222.7436 TRIUMF is operated as a joint venture of: Ann Fong, Technology Transfer Officer 604.222.7471 University of Alberta Simon Fraser University Brendan Payne, Technology Transfer Intern 604.222.7582 University of British Columbia University of Toronto Carleton University University of Victoria To receive a PDF version of the Bulletin by email each month, please contact us. All Bulletin issues are also online: http://www.triumf.info/public/tech_transfer/tech_transfer_5.php Associate Members: Université de Montréal University of Guelph Queen’s University For information on how to become part of TRIUMF’s supplier base, contact David Kelsey, University of Manitoba University of Regina 604.222.7435 | dkelsey@triumf.ca McMaster University Saint Mary’s University Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6T 2A3

x 1 cm bars with Titanium Dioxide coating on the outside of the bars using co-extrusion techniques, and having a central hole.

Meanwhile, both Celco and Profile have gained additional technical capabilities and insight into potential new products and market opportunities. Naimat Khan, P. Eng., the key TRIUMF engineer involved with the joint material development, forecasted the economic impact when he stated: “Once the science is underway and results from specific experiments have been obtained and published, other researchers around the world will appreciate and recognize these alternative material sources, which will likely result in new opportunities and business for these companies. Both Celco and Profile were eager to work with us towards our goals and have demonstrated that there are clearly some exceptional technical and manufacturing capabilities right here in our home province.”

Geoff Wood, President of Profile Composites, describes the work done with TRIUMF: “Working closely with the TRIUMF engineering team, led by Naimat Khan, Profile was able to identify and address unique materials and processes for making these large flat fiberglass panels. As this was larger than common press sizes, we had to develop a process for vacuum moulding that kept close tolerances and allowed the copper foil and fiberglass to be fabricated simultaneously. Profile and TRIUMF developed these large, extremely thin panels, and added significantly to the capability for this industry as the process is scaleable to very large sizes.”

TRIUMF Reflects on Progress & Achievements During the Last Fiscal Year

March brings with it the end of another fiscal year and an opportunity to reflect on Technology Transfer activities and performance, whilst also to plan for the future. FY2005/2006 was a successful year for TRIUMF’s Technology Transfer Office, which saw increased activity, promising new projects and returns reaped from prior investments.

In the last fiscal year, TRIUMF’s Technology Transfer activities brought in a record 2 million dollars in commercial revenue. The most significant contributors to this revenue were licensing royalties from MDS Nordion, payment for the supply of Fluorine-18 by the B.C. Cancer Agency Functional Imaging program and contract income from various ongoing programs, such as the proton and neutron irradiation facilities. Comparing this level of revenue with the $5.6 million dollars received last year in the form of sponsored research funding, TRIUMF has achieved an enviable 36% yield on sponsored funds.

Looking toward the future, TRIUMF has improved upon its commercialization prospects by recording five new invention disclosures over the last twelve months. Three of those disclosures have moved through review and preliminary funding, and fifteen new patent applications have been filed in the same period. Further down the development path, two patents were awarded in the fields of gamma ray detection and 18F production for PET applications. These latest patents bring TRIUMF’s total international patent portfolio to 49. Discussions with many potential technology recipients took place during the last fiscal year and will be carried over into the months ahead. Pursuing expressions of interests in licensing and collaborating, and furthering the commercialization of patented technologies remain a high priority for the Technology Transfer Office. Looking forward, additional focus will be targeted towards monitoring and enhancing knowledge transfer activities, particularly those that may not be well represented in the traditional quantitative metrics. TRIUMF has a long and successful track record of transferring knowledge through many outreach programs and activities, and will continue to engage in such activities for the improvement of the Canadian economy and society.

Comparative Yield on Research Funds

$6,578,992

$5,601,573

$1,539,840(23%)

$2,036,604(36%)

$0

$1,000,000

$2,000,000

$3,000,000

$4,000,000

$5,000,000

$6,000,000

$7,000,000

FY04/05 FY05/06 YTD

Fiscal Year

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Research Funding

Revenue