DMTC’s proven Intellectual Property (IP) model provides clear pathways for industrial project partners to pursue Australian and export opportunities through rapid, royalty-free transfer of IP use rights.
Our decade-long development of a composite forming technology for armour manufacture, known as double diaphragm deep drawing (D4), is an excellent example of this model in action.
D4 offers a range of process and performance enhancements over other composite forming technologies for manufacturing including:
- the ability to curve armour without cutting (splicing) fibres
- adoption of next-generation materials reduces weight of a combat helmet to 30 percent of the conventional alternative with comparable or improved protection performance
- significant reductions in manufacturing cycle times – can be made in one-eighth of the time.
DMTC owns the IP rights and holds an Australian Innovation Patent for the D4 technology.
Consistent with its mandate, DMTC aims to maximise beneficial outcomes for both the ADF and Australian defence industry through adoption and commercialisation of this exciting new platform technology – by multiple industrial partners in Australia – along different proprietary pathways and technology extensions.
To date, this has culminated in licence agreements with several industry partners including DefendTex, The Smart Think and Marand Precision Engineering, each of whom are pursuing market opportunities with specific, discrete elements of the technology.
It is expected that further opportunities to advance the D4 technology in new directions for defence, commercial and export markets will arise in the future.
Several partners have collaborated on the project over the past 10 years, including Deakin University, Ballistic and Mechanical Testing, DefendTex, The Smart Think, Australian Defence Apparel, VCAMM, Pacific ESI and DST.