Materials Processing and Treatment Archives

Elmet acquires ams Osram operations to expand European tungsten and molybdenum production

The Elmet Group Co., Portland, Maine, has agreed to acquire ams OSRAM’s tungsten and molybdenum operations in Schwabmünchen, Germany, establishing its first EU production footprint for refractory metal components.

AML3D joins AUD $3.9M advanced aerospace manufacturing project

AML3D Limited, Australia, is participating in a AUD $3.9 million, three-year R&D project with an aerospace prime to qualify its Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing technology for producing aerospace tooling.

Bodycote invests more than $30 million to support Ohio’s growing aerospace sector

Bodycote, U.K., has invested more than $30 million across two facilities in Ohio, expanding its capacity and capabilities in response to growing demand from aerospace and defense manufacturers in the region.

Spray Tips: Substrate preparation, part configuration, and coating location

The following is a discussion of considerations for substrate preparation, part configuration, and coating location.

TPS Solutions bolsters position for thermal spray systems in aerospace

Following a record-breaking year of thermal spray system deliveries in 2025, Switzerland-based TPS Solutions has strengthened its sales and engineering teams to expand its position in the European and North American aerospace sectors.

Oerlikon Metco Coatings Ltd. strengthens aerospace offerings with Nadcap accreditation

Oerlikon Metco Coatings Ltd., U.K., has successfully completed the Nadcap accreditation process, marking an important milestone in the company’s continued expansion into the U.K. aerospace sector.

John Cockerill India inaugurates advanced thermal spraying rolls coating facility at Taloja

John Cockerill India has inaugurated its Rolls Coating Facility at Taloja, expanding its value services offering and supporting the steel industry with advanced lifecycle solutions.

Titomic achieves DNV qualification for oil & gas

Titomic Limited, Australia, has received a Statement of Qualification from Det Norske Veritas to use its low- and medium-pressure systems for applying protective, corrosion-resistant aluminum coatings in the field for the oil and gas sector.

AI speeds selective and high-yield recovery of critical minerals from industrial waste

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.

Rice researchers redefine electronics manufacturing with focused microwave 3D printing

Researchers at Rice University, Houston, Texas, have developed a 3D-printing process that utilizes focused microwaves to selectively heat functional inks, enabling the direct integration of electronics onto temperature-sensitive materials such as biopolymers and living biological tissue without damaging the underlying substrate.

One Minute Mentor: Austenitizing of Water-Hardening Tool Steels

Austenitizing temperatures for water-hardening tool steels normally vary from 760 to 845 °C (1400 to 1550 °F), as indicated in Table 2. Higher temperatures are sometimes used for special purposes (Fig. 2). Hardenability increases as austenitizing temperature increases. The optimum time at austenitizing temperature is from 10 to 30 min. Preheating is unusual except for very large tools or those with intricate cross sections. It is particularly important to protect shallow-hardening steels against scaling and decarburization. Severe scaling can interfere with heat transfer during quenching and slow the required high rate of cooling. Decarburization will produce a soft surface on any tool steel, but in a deep-hardening steel it can be ground off until the underlying hard high-carbon area is reached. Grinding a shallow-hardening steel will frequently expose the soft core.

For more information, click on the link below (subscription required). Then scroll to Figure 2.

Rafael Agnelli Mesquita; Reinhold Schneider; Cristiane Sales Gonçalves, Heat Treating of Cold-Work Tool Steels — Low- and Un-Alloyed Water and Oil Hardening Steels, ASM International, 2014. https://doi.org/10.31399/asm.hb.v04d.a0005972

Applied Materials introduces deposition systems for Angstrom-era logic chips

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.

Wisconsin Oven ships draw batch oven to the military

Wisconsin Oven Corp., East Troy, Wisconsin, announced the shipment of an Electrically Heated Standard Draw Batch Oven (SDB Series) to a United States Military Base. The industrial oven will be used for heat treating aerospace components and features combination-style airflow delivering both horizontal and vertical upward flow for optimal heating rates and consistent temperature distribution. Temperature uniformity of ±5°F was verified at set points of 200°F, 700°F, and 1200°F in accordance with a Class 1 Temperature Uniformity Survey per AMS 2750H. The oven incorporates CAN-style construction with a heavy plate exterior and 6 inches of high-temperature industrial insulation, a 15,000 CFM recirculation system with variable frequency drive, and a UL508A-certified control panel.

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One Minute Mentor: Type W1 Tool Steels

W1 steels are capable of hardening to high surface hardness and soft core, which is useful in some shock applications. They are low-cost tool steels with fair to good wear resistance as carbon content increases. As they are water quenched and have poor dimensional stability, their use is limited to fairly uniform sections with a minimum amount of stress risers; in other applications quench cracking can occur. Figure 1 shows an isothermal transformation diagram for a W1 steel.

For more information, click on the link below (subscription required). Then scroll to Figure 1.Rafael Agnelli Mesquita; Reinhold Schneider; Cristiane Sales Gonçalves, *Heat Treating of Cold-Work Tool Steels — Low- and Un-Alloyed Water and Oil Hardening Steels*, ASM International, 2014 [https://doi.org/10.31399/asm.hb.v04d.a0005972](https://doi.org/10.31399/asm.hb.v04d.a0005972)

CVD Equipment Corporation sells its SDC Division

CVD Equipment Corporation, Central Islip, entered into a definitive agreement under which the Company’s Stainless Design Concepts (“SDC”) business division will become part of Atlas Copco Group, Sweden.

SPEE3D tech helped restore critical US Army defense assets in under 24 hours

The deployable cold spray metal additive manufacturing technology from SPEE3D, Australia, enabled the Tennessee Army National Guard, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory to demonstrate the rapid repair of a combat support vehicle and other critical assets during a live mission scenario, enhancing military readiness.

Florida delegation secures $9.3M+ for FIU research leadership

A $10 million programmatic increase at the Army Research Laboratory for rapid deposition research is anticipated to support cold spray engineering research at Florida International University.

Spray Tips: Disadvantages of thermal spraying

As with all coating technologies, thermal spray has some limitations; understanding them is important so that engineers can design effective solutions to the challenges of surface modification.

PRIME Project Launches to Strengthen Global Nitinol Supply Chain

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.

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GE Aerospace invests $300M USD to bolster engine repair capabilities in Singapore

Partnership between GE Aerospace, Cincinnati, Ohio and the Singapore Economic Development Board brings AI-enabled inspection, predictive maintenance, and automated repair to speed turnaround and improve connectivity and customer experiences.

Titomic secures early manufacturing development contract with leading defense prime

Titomic Limited, Australia’s global leader in cold spray additive manufacturing using its Titomic Kinetic Fusion technology, has secured a USD 1.7 million Early Manufacturing Development contract with a leading defense prime to produce next-generation defense components at its Huntsville facility by mid-2026.

HP accelerates AM adoption with new materials and collaborations

HP Inc., Palo Alto, Calif., drives additive manufacturing adoption through portfolio expansion, new material innovations, and global collaborations—including its partnership with GKN Powder Metallurgy, Cincinnati, Ohio, to expand copper applications using HP Metal Jet technology for cloud computing, electrification, and thermal management.

Microstructure on demand for additive manufacturing

Fraunhofer ICON Project “UltraGRAIN” demonstrates local microstructure control in metallic components during laser-based directed energy deposition, using pulsed-laser-induced melt pool excitation with potential for tailored products.

Spray Tips: Advantages of thermal spraying

This introductory article reviews the key advantages of thermal spray processing and shows how sound practices help maximize coating performance.

New AI system fixes 3D printing defects in real time

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pa., are automating 3D printing with a new large language model that fixes printer errors in real time without the need for any pre-training.

NVIDIA and Samsung build AI factory to transform global intelligent manufacturing

NVIDIA, Santa Clara, Calif., and Samsung, South Korea, are building a new AI factory with 50,000 NVIDIA GPUs to accelerate agentic and physical AI applications for advanced chip manufacturing, mobile devices, and robotics.

Linde Advanced Material Technologies and Velo3D advance U.S. Navy shipbuilding with fully domestic additive manufacturing supply chain

Velo3D, Inc., Fremont, Calif., a leading additive manufacturing company for mission-critical metal parts, and Linde AMT, Speedway, Ind., (formerly known as Praxair Surface Technologies), a global leader in metal powders and coatings, have signed an agreement to supply domestically produced CuNi (70-30 Copper-Nickel) powder in support of the U.S. Navy and the Maritime Industrial Base Program.