On Friday March 9th, Butler Technologies, Inc. (BTI) was invited to Carnegie Elementary to talk with the 5th grade about their involvement with the Printed heaters used in the US Olympic Parkas used by Ralph Lauren. The students were prepared with dozens of thought-provoking questions. Inquiries ranged from “Can printed heaters be used in space by NASA?” to “What made you get into an engineering career?”
Two members of the BTI’s Printed Electronics team were present to provide answers and demonstrate some of the new, cool, & innovative technology. Todd Gray & Jamie Orlando showed the students what it’s like to be involved with Research and Development. Developing the heaters with companies like DuPont and Ralph Lauren took months of design and iterations to get just right.
The students got a chance to test some new heaters by measuring the temperatures and viewing the thermal images with Flir cameras. They learned about how conductive inks are applied to TPU substrates and then thermally bonded to wearables such as jackets, gloves and even ski boots. Each student got to remove the printed circuits from the liner and stretch the heaters to see how flexible they really are.
The students were also given a demonstration on how Force Sensing Resistors work. They got a chance to feel the difference between thru mode and shunt mode resistors. They brainstormed new application for the technologies.
The 5th Grade science teacher, Scott Donnelly, originally reached out to Butler Technologies via twitter to see if they could talk to the students about STEM principles. (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) Mr. Donnelly was named Teacher of the Month for March by Pens Foundation & NHL Future Goals supporting STEM in schools. The class was fun informative and a fantastic way to get students excited about Technology. “Hopefully we inspired some future engineers to develop innovative technology and push the boundaries of what’s possible. I think there were a few future NASA engineers in the class.” #DreamBig