ILC Dover unveils giant inflatable that could save lives, property

A Kent County company best known for protecting astronauts is now turning its attention to safeguarding lives and property here on Earth.

ILC Dover, the Frederica-based manufacturer responsible for every NASA spacesuit made since the 1960s, unveiled its latest product on Tuesday – a massive inflatable plug designed to help protect subway systems from floods and even terror attacks.

"It's very much like an automotive airbag that gets pressurized and conforms to the shape of a tunnel," said Dave Cadogen, the company's director of engineering and product development.

Only this air bag grows to a length of 32-feet and a diameter of 16.5 feet, takes 12 minutes to inflate and can hold back thousands of pounds of flood water for days on end.

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"The plug is incredibly tough, relatively light-weight and can be stored right where it's needed," Cadogen said during a demonstration Tuesday. "Best of all, it can be activated automatically or with the push of a button, which saves times when every second can cost lives and millions of dollars."

This week's product launch came just days after the official start of what is expected to be an unusually active hurricane season in the United States, something ILC Dover expects to become the norm due to climate change and sea level rise. 

The plug, a deceptively simple device intended to mitigate the risk of those storms, was first conceived by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2007. But it took a decade of research and development before the Resilient Tunnel Plug was ready for use in the field.

"It was wild and crazy idea that a lot of transportation officials initially did not think was a very good idea," said John Fortune, program manager for DHS's Science and Technology Directorate. "But we thought it was worth a shot."

Fortune estimated the federal government has spent $15 million over the last decade to help move the project along.

The feds first contacted the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to come up with a prototype that could be deployed in the Washington D.C. Metro system. Built in conjunction with the University of West Virginia, that first model filled the tunnel but was not strong enough to endure the type of flooding that shut down most of the New York City's subway system during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

So Homeland Security turned to ILC Dover – a 70-year-old company with a long track record of producing innovative materials used in the aeronautic, pharmaceutical and defense industries.

The version developed by the private company is made up of three layers, including a urethane-coated nylon, a non-permeable second layer and a webbed fabric outer layer made from a liquid crystal polymer that looks similar to hundreds of interwoven seat belts.

But it would still take another four years of testing in a full-scale replica of a subway tunnel before the product would be complete.

"There are a lot more pieces than you would think," Cadogen said. "We also had to build the infrastructure to develop the system along the way."

The testing phase concluded this spring with a final experiment in which the plug was kept inflated behind a wall of water for 21 days. Having passed that test, the product is finally ready to be introduced to the market.

The company already has sold one plug but declined to identify the facility due to security concerns. But ILC Dover says it has had preliminary discussions with the Massachusettes Bay Transportation Authority in Boston and Bay Area Rapid Transit in California.

ILC Dover also is marketing a new line of products based on spin-off technologies. The company inked a deal in 2015 to install high-strength barriers designed to protect subway station entrances called Stairwell Flex-Gates at 23 stops in New York City.

Its Flex-Wall system can be wrapped around entire buildings, while its Flex-Cover device can be used to protect grated openings. A Portal Flex-Gate also acts like a mini-plug by sealing off doors and other entrance ways, such as gates to parking garages.

ILC Dover declined to release details about the cost of those products, citing its need to remain competitive while bidding on municipal contracts.

"It's minimal compared to the $56 billion worth of damage to New York City" during Superstorm Sandy, said Alan George, a technical sale specialist for the company.

ILC Dover anticipates its full line of flood mitigation products will account for 10 percent of its total revenue in the next year. That could prove vital to the company, which began working to balance its portfolio even before the U.S. abandoned its space shuttle program in 2011.

The company now employs about 550 workers worldwide, including roughly 350 in Frederica – making it one of the largest employers in Kent County. Currently, ILC Dover's biggest product is a pharmaceutical containment system developed in the late 1990s with Eli Lilly.

"We're not trying to get out of government business, but we do want to expand to more commercial opportunities," George said. "We're always looking for what's going to be next and we think this going to be a big part of the company going forward."

Contact business reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.