FENIX

University of the Arts, 2000 - $12,325

This E-Team received a grant to design and prototype an outdoor "café" chair made from a new material called Supramics, a composite made principally of flyash and sawdust combined under pressure in the presence of supercritical CO2. The team leader is an advanced graduate student with substantial experience in furniture and materials design. He has put together a strong team and obtained the assistance of the owner of the technology to be used for design and prototyping. The target market is inexpensive outdoor furniture, a very large commodity market. The proposed product is designed to be more durable, heftier, and more attractive than existing products. The work plan involves design of the chair, prototyping in various materials, construction of molds and prototyping the finished product.