Blueshift designs, develops, and delivers energy efficient thermal solutions that help customers reimagine their design solutions. The company is thermal material and structured air specialists working on some of the most challenging OEM designs and thermal use cases in the world. They have proven applications ranging from -200 °C to 2,000 °C, and other applications that can theoretically exceed that range.
Interview with Becky Velie , Marketing Manager at Blueshift.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Becky Velie: Blueshift provides unique, ultra-thin and lightweight thermal protection systems for a lightweight composite structure, battery assemblies, medical and electronic devices as well as a variety of other applications:
Lightweight structures: AeroZero Thermal Protection Systems (AZ-TPS) are used to protect lightweight composite structures, such as launch vehicles upon ascent and re-entry, aircrafts, and cryogenic components. AZ-TPS can be used for cork and ultem replacements and are ideal for weight & thickness constrained applications.
Battery assembly: See below
Medical and Electronic Devices: Our products can also be used to protect sensitive components in medical devices and electronics. AeroZero® can be incorporated into the inner substrate of a rigid printed circuit board to lower the overall dielectric constant of the stack. Our products have also seen application within battery management systems to protect from thermal runaway and subsequent system failure.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
B.V: We recently released a new product, our AeroZero® Flame and Thermal Barrier (AZ-FTB) for use in battery assemblies in eVTOL and other electric vehicle applications. Our FTB is unique because Our AZ-TPS flame and thermal barriers (FTB) include at least one layer of our AeroZero® film with a flame-resistant protection system layer bonded on one or both sides of the film. Typical use is fire and thermal protection of parts exposed to flames and high temperatures. Our FTB has been tested for 25+ mins with a 1000 ºC flame with no resulting burn through. The lightweight and thin nature of our material allows its flexible application onto complex parts while ensuring protection from direct flames.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
B.V: All of our products incorporate our core technology: AeroZero®. AeroZero is a thin, polyimide aerogel film that is used as the primary insulator in AeroZero Thermal Protection Systems (AZ-TPS) in aerospace and defense applications. AeroZero is a flexible, durable film with 85% porosity produced at 165 microns (0.0065 in, 6.5 mil) thickness and provides the thermal insulation, RF transparency, dielectric properties, and lightweight benefits of an aerogel with the ease of use and mechanical strength of a plastic film.
We currently offer these 7 commercial products:
- AZ-TPS
- AZ-TPS Standard Film
- AZ-TPS Double Sided (DS)
- AZ-TPS Graphite (GR)
- AZ-TPS Polyimide (PI)
- AZ-TPS Vapor Deposited Aluminum Polyimide (VDA PI)
- AZ-TPS Flame and Thermal Barrier (FTB)
We provide materials for a range of different markets so the answer is different depending the maturity of a given market. From initial conception to mass-production of a final product, product designers and engineers are rapidly integrating our lightweight and thin thermal protection systems into their designs.
We serve numerous markets, but we can say that they are all currently in rapid growth or transformation. Our products can be used as PTFE / PFAS alternatives. While some of these markets may not have the growth that the aerospace and defense markets have currently, we are seeing growth opportunities due to the environmental concerns associated with these products. Markets such as eVTOL are just developing so growth is extremely fast. While there is no one specific trend that is reflective of the all the markets that we serve, we have seen some similarities in developments across the different sectors. In general, devices are getting smaller, faster, and more efficient. As a result, they face more extreme temperature regimes and stricter design requirements. In the aerospace and defense industries, space and weight are rapidly becoming the most crucial design limitations that engineers encounter.
Some of the coolest and most innovative technologies marketed currently are electric vehicle and takeoff landing aircrafts (eVTOL). These aircrafts take off and land going straight up and down, all using the power of a battery. Since the eVTOLs draw so much power from a battery system, they see an immense amount of heat release and the potential for thermal runaway poses a large issue. Our AZ-TPS Flame and Thermal Barrier offers a lightweight and thin solution for this specific heating issue.
In 2023 and beyond, companies will continue to look for faster, more sustainable design concepts. As materials become more and more advanced, designers and engineers will continue to unlock their projects’ potentials.
