A research team at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., has deployed AI agents with the potential to accelerate the recovery of critical minerals from real-world industrial waste in days instead of the months or years required for manual experimentation.
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QuantumDiamonds GmbH, Germany, deployed its QDm.1 quantum sensing system at Integrated Service Technology (iST) in Taiwan, marking its first installation in Asia and a step toward adoption in high-volume semiconductor failure analysis.
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Confluent Medical Technologies, Fremont, California, announced the opening of its Nitinol Wire Center of Excellence in Hyderabad, India on May 4, 2026 — the opening day of the SMST 2026 Conference and Exposition in La Jolla. The new 26,000-square-foot facility doubles the company’s nitinol wire output and provides a dedicated location for nitinol wire manufacturing, allowing Confluent’s Fremont, California, location to focus on nitinol tubing.
The facility is ISO 13485 compliant and offers four-week lead times for wire diameters from 0.004 in. to 0.100 in., with ultra-tight tolerances down to ±0.0002 in. The investment is the latest step in a multi-year program to vertically integrate Confluent’s nitinol supply chain, which already includes melt and conversion partnerships, premium tubing, drawn wire, components, and finished medical-device assemblies.
“Opening our Nitinol Wire Center of Excellence in Hyderabad marks an important milestone in Confluent’s continued investment in a resilient, vertically integrated nitinol supply chain,” said Dean Schauer, chief executive officer, president, and chairman of Confluent Medical Technologies. “This facility expands our global manufacturing capacity and strengthens our ability to support the industry with the highest quality of nitinol material.”
Confluent Medical Technologies is a global contract development and manufacturing organization specializing in nitinol components and complex medical device assemblies. The company serves cardiovascular, structural heart, neurovascular, peripheral vascular, and other minimally invasive markets, with manufacturing operations in Fremont, California, and now Hyderabad, India.
Applied Materials, Santa Clara, Calif., has introduced two new deposition systems—the Precision Selective Nitride PECVD and the Trillium ALD—designed to provide the atomic-level precision necessary for manufacturing the complex 3D Gate-All-Around transistors required for next-generation 2nm logic chips and AI infrastructure.
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Five leading companies in the medical device industry have launched the PRIME project, a strategic initiative dedicated to advancing the consistency, scalability, and performance of nitinol materials. PRIME, which stands for PRoficient Ingot Material Evaluation, brings together deep technical expertise from every stage of the nitinol value chain.
The founding members are Fort Wayne Metals (ingot melting), Vascotube and Euroflex (tube drawing), and Admedes and MeKo MedTech (component manufacturing). Together, the consortium spans the complete nitinol production chain from melting through tube processing to final device assembly.
The initiative was created to strengthen supply chain stability and meet rising market demands through joint testing, real-world validation, and transparent evaluation of new ingot sources. A key goal is to prevent monopolistic dependencies and mitigate future supply risks for critical medical applications such as stents and heart valve frames.
Technical papers with testing data will be made available through the consortium’s website, and ingots, tubes, and components will be available for independent testing and production validation.
To control the distortion that occurs both during and after heat treatment, proper consideration must be given to such factors as design, composition, initial condition, machining procedure, and heat treatment. The design of a tool-steel part directly affects the susceptibility to shape distortion on heating and cooling. Limitations imposed by the design on composition, machining procedure, and heat treatment may indirectly affect both shape and size distortion. The figure shows the expected magnitude of shape distortion for this range of sizes. The difficulty involved in economically attaining the final dimensions of a part is largely determined by the magnitudes of the specified tolerance limits.
For more information, click on the link below (subscription required). Then scroll to Figure 2.Jon L. Dossett; George E. Totten, Control of Distortion in Tool Steels, ASM International, 2014 https://doi.org/10.31399/asm.hb.v04d.9781627081689
Constellium, Paris, France announced the successful completion of the FlexCAR project in partnership with ARENA2036, Germany’s innovation campus for future mobility and production. The five-year, publicly funded initiative brought together leading organizations—including Mercedes-Benz, Siemens, Bosch, and the German Aerospace Center—to explore reconfigurable, modular vehicle architectures.
As part of the project, Constellium developed a modular sill structure using high-strength aluminum extrusions based on its HSA6™ alloy series. Engineered to accommodate various powertrains—including battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell systems—the design improves crash safety, lowers carbon footprint, and enables greater flexibility for evolving vehicle platforms. The aluminum extrusions also incorporate a significant percentage of recycled content, aligning with sustainability goals.
The company emphasized that modular design paired with advanced aluminum materials can extend vehicle lifespans, improve adaptability, and reduce environmental impact. The project is a continuation of Constellium’s long-standing collaboration with ARENA2036, following their work on the Digital Fingerprint project, completed in 2024.
In the earlier initiative, Constellium developed a digital twin of an aluminum component embedded with sensors to monitor performance from production through real-world use. Installed in a Mercedes-Benz test vehicle, the smart aluminum housing enabled crash data collection and lifecycle tracking, supporting predictive maintenance and connected manufacturing strategies.
Constellium supplies rolled and extruded aluminum solutions globally, helping automotive manufacturers reduce vehicle weight and improve efficiency. The company noted that ongoing collaborations such as FlexCAR reinforce its commitment to innovation, modularity, and sustainable mobility.
Read further here: https://www.constellium.com/news/constellium-modular-innovation-smart-aluminum-automotive-structures-arena2036
Bruker, Billerica, Mass., launched eWARP, a new electron backscatter diffraction detector that combines direct electron detection and CMOS technologies to provide the fastest and most signal-efficient materials characterization in scanning electron microscopes.
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The UK Battery Industrialization Center, United Kingdom, opened its new upgraded and extended Battery Development Laboratory, greatly increased the facility’s capabilities in key areas of battery materials characterization, cell analysis, and forensic activities.
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Solar Manufacturing, Sellersville, Pa., announced that it has shipped two Mentor Pro vacuum furnaces to a customer focused on developing advanced renewable energy technologies for large-scale industrial applications. The furnaces were selected after a collaborative process with the customer’s engineers, supported by the Research and Development team from Solar Manufacturing’s affiliate, Solar Atmospheres. The customer valued the furnace’s capabilities and compact design.
The Mentor Pro furnaces feature a molybdenum shielded hot zone, a maximum temperature capacity of 2500°F, and a workload capacity of up to 1000 pounds. They are equipped with SolarVac Essentials, a PLC-based control system, and include an internal gas quenching system with a 50 HP motor and variable frequency drive (VFD), offering flexibility in using nitrogen or argon gas for optimal metallurgical results. These features make the Mentor Pro well-suited for a variety of metallurgical applications in renewable energy development.
Lindberg/MPH, Mich., has announced the shipment of a gas-fired reverberatory aluminum melting and holding furnace equipped with a preheat hearth. The furnace, designed for manufacturing aluminum parts, boasts a melt rate of 10,000 pounds per hour and a maximum temperature rating of 1450°F. It has a holding capacity of 85,000 pounds, based on 155 pounds per cubic foot of molten aluminum.
The furnace features a vertically rising air-operated door for loading the preheat hearth and a full-width cleanout door at the rear for unloading. Designed with an elevated base, it includes a bottom-mounted magnetic stirring mechanism and an air pressure pump well for dispensing molten aluminum. This configuration allows the furnace to remain idle for extended periods without significant temperature variation.
Temperature control is managed by three controllers, while flame supervision equipment ensures safety, including forced-air purging and automatic shutdown in case of system failures.
High-speed steels show a typical distortion behavior depending on the heat treatment parameters. The figure shows the change in length of cylindrical bars (diameter = 20 mm, or 0.8 in.) and length = 140 mm, or5.5 in.), with rolling direction longitudinal to the sample) for various heat treatment conditions with austenitizing, salt bath quenching, and double tempering.
Quenching and tempering up to 500 °C (930 °F) results only in very small changes in length (either growth or shrinking). Higher tempering temperatures lead to a transformation of the retained austenite into martensite and a corresponding growth in length. For typical tempering temperature of 560 °C (1040 °F) changes in length of about 0.2% take place. Additional alloying with Co (5%) leads to slightly higher changes in length. The effect of an additional third tempering shifts the curve slightly to the left, whereas oil quenching leads to a slight reduction of the change in length.
For more information, click on the link below (subscription required). Then scroll to Figure 9. R Schneider; R. Mesquita; W Schützenhöfer, Distortion in Tool Steels, ASM International, 2014 https://doi.org/10.31399/asm.hb.v04d.a0005980
Constellium, Paris, has announced an initiative to enhance the circularity of beverage cans. In collaboration with three leading flat-rolled aluminium manufacturers and members of the European Aluminium Packaging Group (EAPG) – Elval, Novelis, and Speira – Constellium has signed an agreement to embark on a standardization project aimed at maximizing the recycled content in beverage cans. This initiative is a significant step towards substantially lowering carbon emissions by focusing on the increased recyclability of the can end.
This collaborative effort underscores the aluminium industry’s commitment to sustainability. By increasing the recycled content in beverage cans, the project aims to significantly reduce the carbon footprint associated with aluminium production. The focus on recyclability and circularity not only benefits the environment but also sets a new standard for sustainability within the industry.
By prioritizing these eco-friendly practices, Constellium and its partners are paving the way for a more sustainable future in aluminium production, highlighting the importance of innovation and collaboration in achieving environmental goals.
A simple but most effective and very flexible vacuum furnace setup, the single-chamber furnace, consists of one chamber in which the workpiece is both heated (convectively, through vacuum heating) and cooled. Cooling or quenching is accomplished by a closed-loop cooling system.
The pressure vessel is filled with inert gas. This gas is circulated inside the chamber, blowing the inert gas across the workpieces to pick up heat and for further recooling across an internal or external heat exchanger. In order to quench rapidly enough to obtain the desired microstructure of tool steels in various sizes and shapes, it is necessary to increase the pressure and/or flow patterns of the quench gas (usually nitrogen). This is accomplished by high-velocity, high-pressure blowers that have reported cooling gas pressures of up to 20 bar. Turbine powers up to 450 kW are necessary to handle these quenching processes.
For more information, click on the link below (subscription required). Then scroll to Figure 15. R Schneider; R. Mesquita; W Schützenhöfer, Distortion in Tool Steels, ASM International, 2014 https://doi.org/10.31399/asm.hb.v04d.a0005958
Brookhaven Lab researchers and collaborators build structures from 2D materials and study how energy and charge move between layers for future devices
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SECO/WARWICK, Meadville, PA, announced that they will supply a Vector vacuum furnace to the Marle Group, a global manufacturer of orthopedic prostheses. The furnace on order will be used for the heat treatment of cobalt implants. Cobalt alloy hardening requires very high temperatures, and the heating process for these materials require a high puriity environment, temperature uniformity and very fast and effective cooling.
In order for cobalt alloys to be used in implantology, they must be deprived of their ferromagnetic properties. This shiny, hard metal loses this property only when it reaches a temperature higher than 1131°C. Such a high temperature makes it necessary to use a vacuum furnace in the implant production process. The furnace can not only provide such a temperature, but also guarantees its maintenance over a longer period of time. As a comparison, the temperature, above which a ferSECO/WARWICK, Meadville, PA, announced that they will supply a Vector vacuum furnace to the Marle Group, a global manufacturer of orthopedic prostheses. The furnace on order will be used for the heat treatment of cobalt implants. Cobalt alloy hardening requires very high temperatures, and the heating process for these materials require a high puriity environment, temperature uniformity and very fast and effective cooling.
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have identified a novel pathway to stabilize the nanoscale precipitates in alloys.
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Ipsen, Cherry Valley, IL, has successfully achieved ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation for calibrations, enhancing its pyrometry services. This accreditation is particularly significant for customers operating under the National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP) and Aerospace Material Specifications (AMS) 2750G.
A key update in AMS2750G, revised in 2022, mandates that calibration service providers must hold ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation. This requirement encompasses temperature controller calibration, system accuracy testing (SAT), and temperature uniformity surveys (TUS).
Cavan Cardenas, Ipsen’s calibration and pyrometry coordinator, emphasized the importance of this certification: “Obtaining this lab certification reassures our customers of our capability to accurately conduct these tests. It’s crucial for us to verify the precision of our calibration equipment to provide superior support to our clients.”
Ipsen has appointed a dedicated technician for its Calibrations Lab, located at the Vacuum Technology Excellence Center in Cherry Valley, IL. This addition strengthens the company’s commitment to providing advanced calibration solutions.
Testing the longevity of new electric vehicle battery designs could be four times faster with a streamlined approach, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown.
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Researchers have a new scientific tool called Polybot, combining the power of artificial intelligence with robotics. Potential applications include speeding up the discovery of wearable biomedical devices, materials for better batteries and more.
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Sophia University, Japan, researchers have developed a new control scheme for the magnetic shape memory alloy-based actuator (MSMA-BA) that improves its positioning accuracy.
While MSMA-BA is a crucial component for high-precision positioning systems due to its high precision, low energy consumption, and large stroke, its hysteresis is an intrinsic property that can negatively affect its positioning accuracy. The team proposed a multi meta-model approach that combines the nonlinear auto-regressive moving average with exogenous inputs (NARMAX) and Bouc–Wen (BW) models to describe the dynamic hysteresis of MSMA-BA.
A wavelet neural network (WNN) was used to construct the nonlinear function of the multi meta-model, while iterative learning control was combined with a WNN to improve convergence speed. The proposed iterative learning controller was tested on MSMA-BA, with experiments demonstrating the scheme’s validity. The study’s main contribution was the convergence analysis of the iteration learning controller with iteration-dependent uncertainties.
Ipsen, Pecatonica, Ill., formerly known as Ipsen Ceramics, is expanding its vacuum furnace hot zone assembly. The refurbishments include new lighting, HVAC, roofing, and other interior and exterior upgrades. Located at 325 John Street, less than 30 miles from Ipsen’s Vacuum Technology Excellence Center in Cherry Valley, the factory will initially employ up to eight material assemblers.
Incorporating the Pecatonica location into Ipsen’s vacuum furnace production and aftermarket process will provide added benefits to customers. Jake Hamid, Ipsen’s director and chief Operating Officer, stated that “Our goal is to reduce delivery times and better control the critical phase of assembly.” In the future, Ipsen is considering other manufacturing activities in Pecatonica to supplement the needs of the Vacuum Technology Excellence Center.
The move to repurpose the Pecatonica plant aligns with Ipsen’s commitment to providing high-quality vacuum furnace equipment and services to customers. The company’s dedication to meeting customer needs and reducing delivery times will be further enhanced by this strategic move, ensuring that Ipsen remains a leader in the vacuum furnace industry.
Wisconsin Oven Corp., East Troy, has shipped one electrically heated conveyor oven to an automotive manufacturer, which will be used for tempering automotive parts. The conveyor oven features a chain style conveyor system with vertical pins, ensuring the uniform transfer of parts through the heating and cooldown zones of the oven. The maximum temperature rating of the conveyor oven is 260° C, with interior chamber dimensions of 3’6” W x 20’10” L x 9” H.
The conveyor oven also features a top-down bottom-up airflow configuration designed with a 55,000 CFM @ 50 HP blower, ensuring optimal temperature uniformity of ±2.5° C at 163°C, documented with a temperature uniformity test. The oven is equipped with a continuous chain conveyor with vertical pins, programmable temperature controller, and recorder with Ethernet capabilities.
The unique features of this tempering oven include the ability to automatically scan the parts while being loaded onto the conveyor and validate that the correct part is being loaded, providing a pass/fail regarding heating time and temperature. The conveyor oven also includes an ambient cooldown zone and supervised installation with start-up and training.
Mike Grande, vice president of sales,said that, “Our continuous designs provide customers with innovative solutions to meet their load and process requirements. This conveyor oven was designed with high-velocity impingement air nozzles for rapid, uniform heating and optimal part results.” The equipment was fully factory tested and adjusted prior to shipment from the facility, ensuring it met all Wisconsin Oven quality standards. The equipment comes with a 2-year warranty, providing peace of mind for the automotive manufacturer.
