The Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials KyronMAX® Challenge invited designers and engineers to share designs that utilized KyronMAX®'s range of high-strength carbon fiber-based composites to solve an engineering or manufacturing challenge. 

Dozens of high-quality submissions were submitted to the challenge, making the Jury's task very difficult. Ultimately 14 finalists were selected, these designs were then further assessed on their prototype potential, fit with the KyronMAX materials, and sustainability profile. 

"The jury was impressed by the number of contestants and the quality of the submissions," Tim Vorage, Global Growth Manager at Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials explained. "It was a challenge to narrow down the selection of finalists and chose a winner. Sustainability seems to be an intrinsic part of the solutions offered by the contestants and is entangled with the technical and commercial offering, resulting in some groundbreaking value propositions and potential business models. The enthusiasm of the teams behind the submissions was absolutely conveyed to the jury members and sparks an excitement that lays a strong foundation for future collaboration with the contestants and the Wevolver team."

The winner of the KyronMAX®  Challenge is The Ultra-Quiet Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Blades designed by Michael Deloyer, Eitan Rotbart, and Ammar Jessa from Delson Aeronautics.

Delson's novel blade design method can entirely eliminate the incessant buzzing sound of drones. The patent-pending blade design method results in an average 10 dB sound reduction (50% quieter) relative to equivalently sized conventional UAV propeller blades. The intention of these blades is to provide a simplistic and effective solution to eliminating the incessant noise of UAVs.  Light-weight, high-strength materials are critical for UAV propeller manufacturing. Conventional injection molding results in significantly increased weight relative to carbon-fiber manufacturing methods, however, foam-core carbon-fiber manufacturing requires very high labor cost and is extremely difficult to recycle, if at all, often being disposed to landfills once beyond operational capacity.

The Delson Ultra-Quiet UAV blades are a great match for the KyronMAX® platform due to the various stresses UAV blades experience.

• High centrifugal loading beyond 3000 N, requiring high tensile strength.
• Temperature ranges from -30C (-22F) to +50C (+120F) in operating environments, requiring a low Coefficient of Linear Thermal Expansion.
• Operation in both high and low humidity environments requiring low humidity absorption. 
• Individual blade loading in excess of 24.5 g/cm^2 (50 lb/ft^2) requiring high flexural strength and stiffness.
• Low material density to result in the lightest weight possible to increase flight efficiency and reduce blade inertial weight to increase responsiveness and stability.
• Operational hours in excess of 1000hrs, requiring high fatigue strength.
• Operating in harsh and unpredictable environments requiring high impact strength. 

"UAV noise is being noted as a leading barrier to public adoption of drone delivery services in urban environments. We are seeking a light-weight, high-strength, low-cost, scalable, and sustainable manufacturing method to propel the UAV industry forward," the designers explain.

The jury was by the attention to detail of the Dyson team and the potential for the blades to be recycled as part of a product take-back program. The Delson Aeronautics team will receive $25,000 in expert support and manufacturing services from Mitsubishi  Chemical Advanced Materials to create a fully developed prototype of their idea. 

Wevolver Community Vote

We asked the Wevolver community to select their favorite KyoronMAX® Challenge finalist. The final voting was really competitive with community members casting votes from across the world. The winner of the KyronMAX®  Wevolver Community Vote is the High-Performance Lacrosse Head designed by Daniel Scott Mitchell and Farbod Moghaddam. The designers say their goal is to make one of the lightest, strongest, and most durable lacrosse heads on the market. 

“Our lacrosse friends have been begging us to engineer the perfect lacrosse head – and we think KyronMAX is the best way to get them off our backs!” the designers told us. "Our team is incredibly thankful to the Wevolver community for choosing our project as the community choice winner! We look forward to refining our design with the help of the Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials (MCAM) team to truly create the best lacrosse head offering on the market. Daniel and I have also decided to build this product in public so that everyone can follow us along on the journey to commercialization." 

Daniel Scott Mitchell and  Farbod Moghaddam will receive $10,000 of manufacturing support from Mitsubishi Chemical Advance Materials to begin the development of a prototype. 

About the sponsor:

Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials is a leading global manufacturer of high-performance materials in the form of semi-finished products and finished parts. The company has locations in 20 countries and more than 2,800 employees. Its specialty engineering thermoplastics and composites are superior in performance to metals and other materials and are used in a wide range of applications, primarily in the capital goods industry. The company is continuously developing new areas of applications in close cooperation with industry leaders in a broad variety of customer markets. The Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials Group is well prepared to further expand its market leadership position.

Supporting the vision of our holding company, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (MCHC), Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials is committed to the realization of KAITEKI, “a sustainable condition which is comfortable for people, society and the Earth”. To realize this vision, the MCHC Group engages in corporate activities that provide products, technologies and services based on the comprehensive capabilities of the Group in the Performance Products Domain, Industrial Materials Domain and Health Care Domain, with chemistry as the basis of our activities. We jointly express and promote our commitment under the corporate brand THE KAITEKI COMPANY.