Ohio Company Introduces New Product With Help From NASA Moen Incorporated, a producer of residential and commercial plumbing products, identified a need for durable polished brass kitchen faucets, but faced a technology challenge. Historically, polished brass has not been widely used due to the short lifetime of the finish.
Polished brass is soft, corrodes easily, and is relatively expensive.
Seeing an opportunity for brass fixtures, Moen sought to identify technologies to create a brass finish as durable as chrome at an affordable cost. NASA assistance allowed the Ohio-based company to move ahead with development of a new finish and increase its marketshare when foreign competitors were knocking at the door. The Great Lakes Industrial Technology Center, NASA's Midwest Regional Technology Transfer Center, connected Moen to the NASA Lewis Research Center Electro-Physics Lab. Working with Lewis allowed Moen to avoid significant research costs by testing different coatings and identifying new technologies and techniques to improve the finish of the brass fixtures. Moen launched a new line of brass fixtures that offers the beauty of polished brass with the durability of chrome at the January National Association of Home Builders Show.