ROCKLEDGE, FL – December 29th, 2015 – Mainstream Engineering Corporation, a 29-year-old Brevard County research and manufacturing company, has been awarded a contract from the Department of Defense to develop a GaN-based bi-directional battery isolator unit.

Military vehicles now use battery-isolating diodes to transfer current between two sets of battery banks, which are heavy, inefficient, and only allow current flow from the higher charged battery to the other. Replacing the diodes with active switching devices allows smart power management and better use of the energy storage. Further, because of the high currents, advanced wide bandgap devices are used to increase the device switching frequency, thus enabling volume reduction of the converter’s passive components.

Mainstream’s converter is built around a modular power architecture so increases in power are easily achievable by simply placing multiple units in parallel. The complete 500 A converter system has a target system efficiency of >94% and power density of 18 W/in3. This configuration allows for easy installation on future military vehicles.

About Mainstream Engineering
Mainstream Engineering Corporation® is a solutions-oriented research, development and manufacturing small business with a history of leading-edge research and development that has resulted in advanced, lean-manufacturing, cost-competitive products, which are all made in the USA. Founded in 1986, Mainstream’s mission is to transition advanced thermal control, energy storage and energy conversion technology into high-quality, cost-effective, environmentally safe green, commercial products. Products include lightweight diesel/JP8-fueled engines (including generators and hybrid vehicle drive trains), advanced thermal control units, advanced biomass conversion technologies, refrigerators/freezers for shipping containers and the QwikProducts™ line of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R) products. Areas of advanced research include thermal control, energy conversion, engine and emissions research, turbomachinery, chemical technology and materials science.

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ROCKLEDGE, FL – October 1st, 2015 – Mainstream Engineering Corporation, a 29-year-old Brevard County research and manufacturing company, has been awarded a contract from the Department of Energy (DoE) to develop a feedstock preprocessing system to improve the energy efficiency and reduce the cost of biomass pre-processing and conveyance.

With growing concern about the sustainability and environmental impact of fossil fuels, interest in and demand for biomass-derived fuels has risen steadily. A wide variety of renewable feedstock materials are required to ensure a steady supply and reduce costs. However, to ensure the produced biofuel is consistently of high quality, the feed must be processed to meet certain thresholds for particle size and moisture content. Conventionally, these processes, i.e., milling and drying, are energy and maintenance intensive.

Mainstream Engineering has been awarded a Phase I SBIR grant to demonstrate a more efficient preprocessing system for in-plant biomass conversion systems such as pyrolysis or gasification. The program objective is a 10% reduction in the operating and maintenance (O&M) cost by combining process equipment responsible for feedstock drying, milling, and conveyance. The ultimate goal is to reduce the capital and O&M costs of preprocessing and solids handling, thereby enabling more cost-competitive production of advanced biofuels.

Engineers at Mainstream are also developing technology to support a distributed approach to biofuel production using a portable fast pyrolysis process. This approach converts the biomass at the biomass source, eliminating the costs needed to transport low-density biomass to a centralized facility. Mainstream’s pilot-scale pyrolysis reactor (100 pound/hour) will serve as the demonstration platform for this DoE-funded effort to improve the feedstock logistics.

About Mainstream Engineering
Mainstream Engineering Corporation is a solutions-oriented research, development and manufacturing small business with a history of leading-edge R&D that has resulted in advanced, American-made, cost-competitive products. Founded in 1986, Mainstream’s mission is to transition thermal control, energy storage and energy conversion technology into high-quality, cost-effective, environmentally-safe green, commercial products. Products include lightweight diesel engines, thermal control units, biomass conversion technologies, refrigerators/freezers for shipping containers and the QwikProducts™ line of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R) products. Areas of research include thermal control, energy conversion, power electronics, turbomachinery, chemical technology and materials science.

ROCKLEDGE, FL – September 4th, 2015 – Mainstream Engineering Corporation, a 29-year-old Brevard County research and manufacturing company, has been awarded a grant from the Department of Energy to develop an in-line detector for monitoring the quality of fuel cell membranes on the manufacturing line.

Modern fuel cells have been in development since the 1960s and stand on the cusp of commercialization;however, market penetration as a power source for cars or consumer products hasbeen limited because of the high costs of manufacturing the devices. The objective of Mainstream’s program is to reduce manufacturing costs through early detection of defects in the fuel cell membrane component, which contributes up to 45% of the total cost of the device. These defects are often not discovered until after a precious metal catalyst has been irreversibly applied to the membrane, leading to costly scrap material and downtime of the membrane extrusion or casting process.

Mainstream Engineering has been awarded a Phase I SBIR grant to develop a low-cost detector for continuous, autonomous analysis of membrane thickness, composition, and defects for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell membranes. The proposed inspection technique samples every location on the roll of material so defects can be removed before assembly into complete cells. This 100% inspection strategy promises to significantly reduce manufacturing costs and improve process efficiency.

About Mainstream Engineering
Mainstream Engineering Corporation is a solutions-oriented research, development and manufacturing small business with a history of leading-edge research and development that has resulted in advanced, lean-manufacturing, cost-competitive products, which are all made in the USA. Founded in 1986, Mainstream’s mission is to transition advanced thermal control, energy storage and energy conversion technologies into high-quality, cost-effective, environmentally-safe green, American made products. Products include lightweight diesel/JP8-fueled engines (including generators and hybrid vehicle drive trains), advanced thermal control units, advanced biomass conversion technologies, refrigerators/freezers for shipping containers, fuel cells, advanced batteries, advanced materials and the QwikProduct™ line of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC/R) products. Areas of advanced research include thermal control, energy conversion, engine and emissions research, turbomachinery, chemical technology, and materials science.

ROCKLEDGE, FL – August 18th, 2015 – Mainstream Engineering Corporation, a 29-year-old Brevard County research and manufacturing company, has been awarded a contract from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to develop an advanced method to analyze and screen for potential failures of capacitors.

Over 95% of the multilayer ceramic capacitors manufactured worldwide use base metal electrode (BME) technologies. These capacitors are one of the key components in a wide array of modern electronic devices from cell phones to automotive electronics. Over the last 20 years, significant improvements have been made in the performance and reliability of BME capacitors, making them more competitive for a wide range of applications.

To increase implementation of BME capacitors in high-reliability platforms, a robust, reliable, and non-destructive screening method is necessary for evaluating BME multi-layer ceramic capacitors. This screening method is needed for both in-process steps and the finished device to increase the yields of high-reliability capacitors and prevent early catastrophic failure. In current methods, the partially complete or final devices have to be destroyed to check for the potential for failure.

To achieve reliability of these devices in the military and aerospace applications, Mainstream is developing a robust, sensitive, and non-destructive method of evaluating and identifying potential for failure modes in the component materials and the assembled BME capacitors. By enabling 100% inspection of all capacitors coming off an assembly line, this provides a reliable analysis of the dielectric layers, highlighting adverse effects to device lifetime.

Implementation of this technology in fabrication assembly lines will have an immediate and lasting effect on the reliability and performance of BME capacitors. In addition, yields will be increased and costs will be lowered by finding early failures in production materials and processes.

About Mainstream Engineering
Mainstream Engineering Corporation is a solutions-oriented research, development and manufacturing small business with a history of leading-edge research and development that has resulted in advanced, lean-manufacturing, cost-competitive products, which are all made in the USA. Founded in 1986, Mainstream’s mission is to transition advanced thermal control, energy storage and energy conversion technologies into high-quality, cost-effective, environmentally-safe green, American made products. Products include lightweight diesel/JP8-fueled engines (including generators and hybrid vehicle drive trains), advanced thermal control units, advanced biomass conversion technologies, refrigerators/freezers for shipping containers, fuel cells, advanced batteries, advanced materials and the QwikProduct™ line of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC/R) products. Areas of advanced research include thermal control, energy conversion, engine and emissions research, turbomachinery, chemical technology, and materials science.

ROCKLEDGE, FL – August 14th, 2015 – Mainstream Engineering Corporation, a 29-year-old Brevard County research and manufacturing company, has been awarded a contract from the Missile Defense Agency to develop an Inspection and Sustainment Recording Device.

The process of tracking electronic systems from the point of manufacture to field usage is complex. Devices can be held in storage for decades before use, and they can be subjected to significant and potentially damaging environmental conditions throughout their lifecycle. Latent and intermittent failures occur, and detecting these malfunctions is difficult without actively monitoring the failure mechanisms from day one.

By incorporating a health monitoring system into the electronics at the time of manufacture, the remaining life can be tracked instantaneously throughout the logistics chain. However, current technologies do not offer simple and reliable products that can be incorporated into electronics to effectively monitor the remaining life.

To solve this problem, Mainstream will combine its experience with modern low-power design methodologies, cumulative damage modeling techniques, and electronic monitoring systems to design an Inspection and Sustainment Recording Device. This will aid maintenance personnel by providing continuously updated information on the estimated health and remaining life of the electronics.

About Mainstream Engineering
Mainstream Engineering Corporation is a solutions-oriented research, development and manufacturing small business with a history of leading-edge R&D that has resulted in advanced, American-made, cost-competitive products. Founded in 1986, Mainstream’s mission is to transition thermal control, energy storage and energy conversion technology into high-quality, cost-effective, environmentally-safe green, commercial products. Products include lightweight diesel engines, thermal control units, biomass conversion technologies, refrigerators/freezers for shipping containers and the QwikProduct™ line of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R) products. Areas of research include thermal control, energy conversion, power electronics, turbomachinery, chemical technology and materials science.