Chippewa Valley Times

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire students and faculty are collaborating with a small Wisconsin manufacturer on a Department of Defense contract to develop an environmentally friendly, anti-corrosive product for military equipment. The two-year, $231,709 government subcontract received by Dr. Deidra Gerlach, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is the first of its kind for UW-Eau Claire.

Other members of the UW-Eau Claire team include Dr. Krysti Knoche Gupta, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and undergraduate students Jackie Bradley and Connor Koepp. “The experiences of conducting industry-collaborated research are invaluable to students,” Gerlach said. “Participating in research at the direct application stage within the parameters of industry documentation and communication requirements not only gives our students the opportunity to identify their interests in industry but also makes them more marketable as they enter the workforce.”

WPC Technologies, an Oak Creek company with about 50 employees that develops high-performance pigments and additives for the paint and coatings industry, received the larger primary contract and selected UW-Eau Claire as a subcontractor. WPC has a global customer base for its products made at its Wisconsin production facility for commercial aerospace, industrial, and military applications.

WPC Technologies developed an environmentally friendly anti-corrosion pigment currently used on specific types of aluminum for aircraft. The U.S. Navy contract requires WPC to develop a similar pigment applicable to steel and other types of aluminum to improve military equipment's longevity and reliability.

“A commercial airliner over its lifetime might get refurbished just once down to the bare metal,” said Brent St.John, chairman and CEO of WPC Technologies. “A military jet carrier aircraft needs to be refurbished on a more frequent schedule because of harsh conditions.”

UW-Eau Claire has connected with WPC Technologies over the years through internships, including alumnus Eric Colwitz who graduated in December 2020 with a degree in chemistry and now works full-time as a chemist at WPC. St.John highlighted UW-Eau Claire’s testing equipment for chemical analysis as well as their education in quality control testing protocols as reasons for partnering with them.

“We like UW-Eau Claire’s approach with how they deal with commercial companies,” St.John said. “The scale of Dr. Gerlach’s lab fits our project needs perfectly.” He added that it provides students real-world applications for their classroom work.

Gerlach emphasized that Blugold undergraduates are essential participants in optimizing mixtures using WPC’s newest anti-corrosive pigments to meet company and government standards.

“There are many properties of the formulation that need to meet qualifications necessary for sea- and aircraft,” Gerlach said. “Students will be part of identifying variables that will produce viable formulations.”

Jackie Bradley runs experiments analyzing material qualities under this project scope while gaining experience in inorganic/organometallic materials.

“This type of research is more than I could have hoped to find at UW-Eau Claire because of the people I’ve met,” Bradley said.

Six months into this two-year project, St.John expressed satisfaction with technical progress thus far: "Our goal is yearly partnership continuation with UW-Eau Claire."

In 2023, UW-Eau Claire received a $400,000 National Science Foundation grant through Enabling Partnerships To Increase Innovation Capacity program aimed at boosting industry collaboration furthering relationships between academia & regional/state industries per defense department-funded projects enhancing university-industry synergy across sectors significantly benefitting student/faculty involvement advancing industrial R&D objectives crucially impacting workforce preparation/economic development stated Dr.Doug Dunham interim director strategic partnerships/program development