Cellular Composites Consortium (C³)

Cellular Composites Consortium (C³) brings together industry, government, and academia to take the micro and nano scale cellular plastics and composites technology from laboratory to manufacturing. As a member of C³, an industrial company will gain a strategic position with respect to these emerging technologies.

Major Goals of C³ are


• Conduct a program of basic research.

• Stumulate industrial innovation.

• Promote the exchange of ideas and information among C³ member companies.

• Provide enhanced educational capability in this field.

Membership and Operational Plan


The benefits of becoming a member and the member rights to the C³ technology are described in the document ‘Cellular Composites Consortium Membership Agreement.’ The organizational structure and policies for the C³ are described in the document entitled 'Cellular Composites Consortium Fees, Structure, and Policies.'

For these documents and more information Please Contact:
Prof. Vipin Kumar

It is recommended that for research related to development of C³ technology for particular application areas the interested company (or companies) enter into a separate research agreement with UW, outside of the C³ research (see Article 12 of the C³ Membership Agreement).

Areas of Research


• Microcellular foams

• Nanofaoms and Nanocomposites

• Multifunctional Cellular Composites

• Manufacturing Technologies

To realize the potential of these materials, we propose to carry out concurrent research programs in the areas of 1) material synthesis; 2) bubble nucleation and growth; 3) structure-property characterization; 4) process modeling and simulation; 5) manufacturing.

We will seek to supplement consortium funds with funding from other sources, particularly the National Science Foundation, to expand on the fundamental science behind these Technologies.

Anticipated Outcomes and Benefits of Joining


The outcome of our research efforts will be a scientific understanding of the underlying physical processes, based on which many novel processes and machines will be synthesized. We expect that a wide variety of industries, such as automotive, telecommunications, construction, food packaging, electronic packaging, aerospace, etc., will use our technology in the long run.

By joining C³, an industrial company will:

• Receive the royalty-free right to practice C³ patents and technology for its internal use.

• Help guide the research and development agenda of C³ by automatically becoming a member of the Consortium Advisory Board.

• Be in touch with emerging research by participating in two working meetings per year.

• Exchange ideas and information with other professionals interested in this emerging technology.

• Have pre-publication access to the research findings.

• Be able to pinpoint areas of research specific to its strategic needs.

• Be able to recruit students directly involved in the development of this technology.