The challenge
- Archway designs and manufactures road repair equipment in Co. Leitrim, with patented features for spray injection patching — a controlled mix of aggregate and bitumen emulsion sprayed into potholes.
- The company needed to evaluate the properties of the materials to find the optimum and edge conditions, and a literature search yielded nothing.
- It had no knowledge of relevant researchers in Ireland and had not collaborated with an academic partner before.
How IRDG was involved
- IRDG circulated the challenge to the academic institutions on the company's behalf.
- The response identified several researchers with the expertise the company was looking for.
What the account reports
- The company had a set of potential research partners to choose from, where before it had none.
- At the time of the account, Brexit was taking the company's attention and the process of choosing a partner had not yet begun.
- The intended outcome was a gold-standard operating procedure for spray injection patching. The account does not report the partner chosen or the result.