on all continents point to the need for structural materials that will perform successfully under increasingly extreme stress conditions.

Problem: Disaster-prone housing
Our changing global climate brings more frequent and severe weather events that overwhelm conventionally built structures. Present-day housing construction is driven by a short-term cost mentality and heavy, inflexible, age-old materials that are abutted, patched together and otherwise coerced to coexist. Their present design forces us to build most structures using 90-degree angles. But we only need to spend more time outside to observe that biological systems (the most supremely efficient in the structure and use of raw materials) do not use Cartesian coordinates to grow and sustain life.

Up to now, we have continued to rely on these traditional methods in hurricane-prone areas even though they regularly fail to meet the overwhelming stress/force demands on structures. Building codes and property insurers’ regulations are abruptly changing due to recent catastrophes. We must re-think our design and use of materials to anticipate catastrophic events and be dramatically more robust to extreme conditions.

Flextegrity’s Response:
Our proprietary micro-architecture opens the potential for disaster-resistant buildings (new and retro-fitted) possessing a tough, continuous web-like integrity throughout critical areas of the entire structure. Assemblies for retrofitting existing foundations and walls could be factory-built to custom sizes and exact specifications. In new construction, the structure could be designed as a ‘unibody’ whereby the rafters and walls are of the same integral construction to create unprecedented resilience against novel and unpredictable external forces. The diverse design potential of Flextegrity materials could allow for dramatic increases in structural integrity without sacrificing traditional architecture’s look and feel.

Problem: Stormwater and Erosion Management
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” can also be accurately paraphrased as “The road to hell is PAVED.” Environmentally damaging run-off is increasing as we pave our world. Simultaneously, water quality is decreasing as current control methods channel eroded soils and pollutants into streams and rivers. The more we pave, the less opportunity for water to percolate through the soil before reaching the aquifers and rivers that provide clean water for our cities.

For example, concrete sidewalks are ubiquitous and relatively easy to construct but impermeable, contributing polluted run-off to waterways. Conventional hard surfaces present additional problems as they lack resilience and break under the simplest of life’s forces—the pressure of a growing tree root. On-point repair is impossible—we are forced to jackhammer the problem, haul off the debris, and start over. Municipalities and contractors face an increasingly high bar of EPA-mandated stormwater and erosion control regulations (with hefty fines for noncompliance) that more frequently prohibit use of hard, impervious materials, and they are searching for versatile, effective and legal solutions.

Flextegrity’s Response:
We intend to meet the demand for EPA-required soil stabilization and stormwater control products that balance strength and durability needs with environmental requirements. Structural 3-D geogrids and bridge-scale ‘elastics’ that are load-bearing yet permeable could provide intrinsically controlled drainage and natural filtration of stormwater. Our anisotropic and prescriptively assembled arrays could respond to precisely defined load specifications, and the component parts could be dissembled and reassembled onsite for maintenance.

OUR SOLUTIONS
Flextegrity, Inc. is developing advanced structural materials that anticipate and meet the comprehensive demands of disaster-resistant housing, environmental solutions, and revolutionary product design. The foundation of Flextegrity’s intellectual property is a unique and innovative icosahedron-based architecture for assembled structural materials.

At its simplest, Flextegrity’s invention is an omni-extensible array comprised of icosahedral elements held in a tensile matrix. Our patent-pending micro|macro-structured materials optimize distribution of compression and tension forces to achieve significantly enhanced properties. The invention is the architecture itself, independent of the materials from which it might be formed, and is inherently stable, permeable and ordered. In the abstract this geometry can be expressed without regard to size or location, therefore it is scalable from the very small to the very large.

Specifically, the patterned structural arrays engage icosahedral shapes as omni-axial structural compression elements, suspended and secured in an open multi-axial ‘web’ that is robust in both tension and compression. The resultant omni-extensible, self-stabilizing integrity is suitable for construction of load-bearing 3-dimensional materials, flexible structural blocks, hybrid material sheets, and infinitely variable custom shapes.

This radically simple yet elegant technology can provide innovative solutions to existing material needs using conventional resources. As a far-reaching horizontal technology, it possesses the inherent capability to impact and feed multiple vertically integrated technologies.

Properties
The dynamic equilibrium inherent in the complementary coexistence of tension and compression offers material scientists, architects, engineers and product designers a wide range of highly desirable and unique properties:
• The geometry is infinitely scalable in unit size (from nano- to mega-scale) and in frequency of icosahedra in all-spatial planes of the material matrix
• The array is omni-extensible—the repeating pattern of the geometry may be extended in all directions to achieve material dimensionality not limited by any ‘natural’ dimensions of the constituent raw materials.
• Strength-to-weight ratio is inherently high even before material choice. Open yet strong geometry efficiently reduces weight, material requirements, and transportation costs. Failure-resistance is a natural by-product of the constituent shape factors and discontinuous geometry, such that fractures are limited in length and not self-perpetuating. Provides adequate redundancy against failure while maintaining high efficiency in material use.
• Like the strongest traditional materials, Flextegrity’s geometry has significant strength both in tension and compression, affording greater freedom and efficiency in design and use.
• Response to applied stress is one of local deformation while maintaining global stiffness due to integrity of compression/tension synergy within the material.
• Because the icosahedra are not close-packed at equilibrium, material applications of the technology are permeable, breathable and self-draining without sacrificing toughness and structural integrity.
• Material/product design can be implemented in virtually any category and combination of new or recycled materials (plastics, metals, textiles, bio-materials).
• A wide range of non-homogeneous characteristics can be custom-engineered within a single product even when manufactured of homogeneous material, making product performance local and site-specific.
• Open 3-D geometry creates regular, stable matrices with increased internal ‘active’ surface area and addressable location potential. Spaces within and among icosahedral elements enable positioning and retention of functional 'guest' elements within the matrix (i.e., chemical ‘beads,’ circuitry, lighting/heating elements, solar cells, seeds, phase-change materials, barrier layers).
• The capability to ‘custom-knit’ large, multi-functional structural components in a controlled factory setting ensures a higher level of quality assurance, and can significantly shorten on-site construction times.
• At nano-scale, there is clear potential for extremely thin/strong 3-D membranes, molecularly self-assembled by leveraging electro-chemical and other bonds.

Development Status
Flextegrity’s major strategic accomplishments include:
• Developing early-round models/prototypes—3rd generation prototypes were met with enthusiastic response at a recent stormwater management conference, 4th generation design is in process.
• Conducting technical and market research to determine specific unanswered market opportunities, including identification of most receptive sectors.
• Securing intellectual property—two patent applications are pending.
• Establishing scientific proof-of-concept including FEA, mathematical modeling, and destructive testing to corroborate modeling efforts.
• Developing two websites to communicate the properties and opportunities inherent in the geometry (www.flextegrity.com www.FlexBloxSolutions.com ).

ECONOMICS
Efforts to now have been supported entirely by the founders’ private funds (approximately $500,000) and sweat equity, but we are now actively seeking capital to bridge research and development from prototype to mass production to achieve the cost efficiencies necessary for successful market penetration.

During the process of identifying market sectors with highest needs and lowest entry hurdles, we have also focused on vetting out potential strategic partners in those sectors with the needed capital, manufacturing/distribution expertise and critical vision for transforming design and engineering paradigms.

NEXT STAGE
Flextegrity’s management team consists of experienced, veteran entrepreneurs. Our proven support team of engineers and mathematicians is top-tier. For example, our consulting structural engineer conducted the FEA work on the landing gear of Boeing’s industry-changing 787 Dreamliner.

Our next major initiative is to develop techniques and processes for mass-production of materials for civil and structural engineering markets. While initial units can be individually crafted to avoid major short-term capital investment, our expertise will allow us to collaborate with manufacturing engineers and material fabricators to build automation tools necessary for large volume production with favorable pricing.