A team of researchers at Ames National Laboratory, Ames, Iowa, has made significant progress in understanding how surface oxides, a primary cause of decoherence in quantum circuits, can improve the performance of quantum computing circuits.
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The Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology ILT, Germany, is pioneering a new approach in fuel cell production by using extreme high-speed laser material deposition to create wear-resistant functional metal layers on low-cost structural steel, replacing traditional milling methods and significantly reducing costs, construction time, and tool wear.
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GKN Hoeganaes, a division of GKN Powder Metallurgy, England, and one of the largest iron powder producers globally, announced a strategic collaboration with First Phosphate, Canada, marking a significant step toward establishing a North American supply chain for lithium iron phosphate batteries, a critical component for the electric vehicle and energy storage industries.
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Leica Microsystems, Germany, launches the Leica DCM8 for nondestructive three-dimensional surface profiling.
Continue readingSeven university teams were selected to develop concepts supporting metal production on the Moon in NASA’s 2023 annual Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge: Lunar Forge.
The awards total about $1.1 million, with values between $120,000 and $180,000 based on each team’s proposed concept. The challenge is a unique collaboration between NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate’s (STMD) Game Changing Development (GCD) program and NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement Space Grant Project.
The 2023 BIG Idea Challenge awardees are:
Colorado School of Mines
Lunar Alloy Metal Production Plant (LAMPP)
Advisors: Dr. Christopher Dreyer, Dr. George Sowers
Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Honeybee Robotics
Artemis Steelworks: Advancing Reactor Technologies for Electrolytic Manufacturing of In-Situ Steel
Advisors: Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman, Dr. Antoine Allanore, Dr. Olivier De Weck, Dr. Martin Culpepper, George Lordos
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Lunar In-Situ Aluminum Production Through Molten Salt Electrolysis (LISAP-MSE)
Advisors: Dr. Daoru Han, Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Dr. Fateme Rezaei, Dr. David Bayless, Dr. William Schonberg, Dr. Daniel Stutts
Northwestern University with Wearifi, Inc.
ACRE: Autonomous Casting RovEr
Advisor: Dr. Ian McCue
Pennsylvania State University with RFHIC and Jacobs Space Exploration Group
Development of the Smelting with Microwave Energy for Lunar Technologies (SMELT) System for In-Situ Resource Processing
Advisors: Dr. Sven Bilen, Dr. Aleksandra Radlinska
University of North Texas with Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Processes Institute, UNT; Enabled Engineering
Solid-state Integrated Manufacturing Process for Lunar Environment (SIMPLE)
Advisors: Dr. Rajiv S. Mishra, Dr. Hector Siller, Dr. Ravi Sankar Haridas
University of Utah with Powder Metallurgy Research Laboratory
Production of Steel from Lunar Regolith through Carbonyl Iron Refining (CIR)
Advisors: Dr. Hong Y. Sohn, Dr. Michael F. Simpson, Dr. Michael L Free
In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) – or the ability to use naturally existing resources – is fundamental to a steady cadence of Artemis missions and a sustained human presence on the Moon and a lunar economy. Metal’s strength and resistance to corrosion make it key to building structures needed for a lunar base, such as pipes, cables, landing pads, transport rails, and pressure vessels to contain volatiles like fuel. However, the metal materials for infrastructure are heavy, making them challenging and costly to transport from Earth.
Proposing teams submitted a wide variety of concepts for technologies needed at any point in the lunar metal production pipeline.
“The BIG Idea Challenge expands opportunities for students and faculty to immerse themselves in real NASA projects, as well as supports student pursuits in STEM,” said NASA’s Space Grant Project Manager Tomas Gonzalez-Torres. “Through participating in the BIG Idea Challenge, these teams are making big strides at the university level as well as toward excellence in their future careers.”
Once funded, teams continue designing, building, and testing their concepts in advance of a November 2023 forum, where their work will be showcased to the public and judged by a panel of NASA and industry experts. The forum allows the university-led teams to interface with ongoing lunar mission planning discussions that are underway within STMD’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII). Once developed, these projects are incubated by universities and could augment technology currently in development by NASA.
For more information: Big Idea Challenge
An article by one of the leading authorities on titanium brazing – vetted and accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed ASM Handbook, Volume 6, Welding, Brazing, and Soldering – is now available online in digital form. “Brazing of Conventional Titanium Alloys,” a comprehensive, fact-filled survey by industry expert Alexander E. Shapiro, Ph.D., Titanium Brazing Inc., offers in-depth analysis and practical advice on how to braze commercially pure and alloyed titanium with itself as well as with other materials such as copper, stainless steel, carbon steel, ceramics, graphite, and titanium aluminide.
Continue readingThe honor of Fellow of the Society was established to provide recognition to members for distinguished contributions in the field of materials science and engineering, and to develop a broadly based forum for technical and professional leaders to serve as advisors to the Society. The deadline for submission is November 30.
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The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy announced $9.9 million for 7 projects involving emerging phytomining technologies that seek to create low-carbon, cost-competitive U.S. Nickel supply chain and reduce imports.
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Kyocera Corporation, Japan, launched a new Peltier (thermoelectric) module that boasts a maximum heat absorption rate 21% higher than its conventional products, significantly enhancing cooling performance for applications such as automotive battery and seat temperature control.
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Researchers at Microsoft, Redmond, Wash., and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., used artificial intelligence to identify 23 promising battery materials from more than 32 million candidates in just 80 hours, creating a working prototype that could significantly reduce lithium use and advance sustainable energy storage solutions.
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Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., introduced materials engineering innovations designed to increase the performance-per-watt of computer systems by enabling copper wiring to scale to the 2nm logic node and beyond.
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Norman Noble, Highland Heights, OHIO, has been awarded the Superior Safety Award by the National Tooling & Machining Association (NTMA) for its performance in 2023. The award recognizes Norman Noble’s outstanding safety record, which is among the best in the industry according to Gillen Young, NTMA Chairman of the Board.
Norman Noble uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in their Daily Management System to track progress towards health, safety, and environmental goals. These KPIs include the number of lost time claims, recordable injuries, first aid incidents, days of restricted work activity, and near misses.
Julie Bennett Lowry, Director of Facilities and Environmental Health & Safety at Norman Noble, highlighted the company’s commitment to employee health and safety. “The Norman Noble team has made tremendous progress over the past 20 years in Environmental, Health, and Safety fields. Achieving zero lost time claims in 2023 led to this recognition by the NTMA for Superior Safety Performance. As of May 9, 2024, Norman Noble has achieved over 736 days without a lost time claim.”
Norman Noble, Inc., established over 75 years ago, is family-owned and specializes in ultra-precision micromachining of medical implants. The company is renowned for producing nitinol-based implants with sub-miniature precision. They comply with FDA regulations and ISO 13485, offering advanced processes like athermal laser machining, laser welding, Swiss turning and milling, and more.
Researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea, have significantly enhanced the data storage capacity of ferroelectric memory devices using hafnia-based ferroelectric materials and an innovative device structure.
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Titomic Limited, based in Brisbane, Australia, has announced the sale of a custom Titomic Kinetic Fusion System Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing machine to Triton Systems Inc., headquartered in Chelmsford, Mass..
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New research from Binghamton University, State University of New York investigating a way to make metals stronger through oxidation could revolutionize 3D printing and how engineers think about oxidation.
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Researchers at University of Pennsylvania demonstrated memory technology capable of enduring temperatures as high as 600° Celsius—more than twice the tolerance of any commercial drives on the market—and these characteristics were maintained for more than 60 hours, indicating exceptional stability and reliability.
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Researchers from University of Toronto find cheaper, easier way to produce high-entropy alloys for use in aerospace, automotive industries.
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Hardide Coatings, United Kingdom, has launched the first in a new range of ready coated and enhanced components with a JP-5000 4” copper nozzle used in High-Velocity Oxy Fuel thermal spray coating.
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Integrated Global Services’ (IGS), headquartered in Richmond, VA, has improved a copper flash smelting furnace’s performance and lifetime through its high velocity thermal spray technology.
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GKN Powder Metallurgy, Cinnaminson, N.J., announces a strategic collaboration with HP Inc. in which GKN will be the first to deploy the just-launched HP Metal Jet, based on binder jetting technology, into its factories to produce functional metal parts for auto and industrial leaders, including Volkswagen and Wilo, and for companies around the world.
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Blasting abrasives include angular chilled iron grit, alumina, crushed flint, crushed garnet, silicon carbide, and crushed slag.
Continue readingAK Steel announces stainless steel price increase
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The Annual Global Automotive Lightweight Materials Congress is taking place August 18-20, 2015 in Detroit.
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University of Birmingham, UK, researchers have developed Machine Learning (ML) techniques to enable the effective correlation of alloy characteristics.
An ML Neural Network (NN) model is proposed to predict the transformation temperatures (TTs) of NiTiHf for a given combination of elemental composition and processing parameters within an acceptable confidence interval. The main challenge in NiTiHf TTs prediction is the high dimensional dependency of TTs to various parameters as well as not fully clear governing physics. Considerable experimental research was performed from 1995 to design the NiTiHf TTs which in turn paved the path to feed the ML algorithms which are now presenting an excellent approach for material design.
A thorough data set is constructed from both unpublished data and available literature and then analyzed to select twenty input parameters to feed the NN model. To model and forecast the TTs of NiTiHf with a wide range of TTs up to 800°C, a total of 173 data points are gathered, verified, and selected. The model’s overall determination factor (R2 )was 0.92, indicating the viability of the proposed NN model in showing the link between material composition, processing factors, and then defining the TTs of NiTiHf alloy. The effort additionally validates the generated results against existing data in the literature. The validation confirms the significance of the proposed model.
Solar Manufacturing, Sellersville, Pa., has been selected to supply a Mentor Pro vacuum furnace to MSL Heat Treatment, a subsidiary of Magnetic Shields Limited (MSL), Kent, U.K.
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Constellium, France, announced that its facility located in Ravenswood, W. Va., was selected by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations to begin award negotiations for up to $75 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funding as part of the Industrial Demonstrations Program.
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A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Delaware’s Center for Composite Materials (CCM) and DuPont Specialty Products, Wilmington, Del., now provides insights about a composite material that can be used to make thin, flexible and durable circuit boards.
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Scientists from ARCI, an autonomous institution of the Department of Science and Technology, India, found a new technique of synthesizing thin hard surface coatings by high velocity air fuel spraying has the potential of emerging as an environmentally-friendly safer alternative to hard chrome plating used in on car parts, tools, and kitchen utensils.
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Haynes International, Inc., Kokomo, Ind., a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of technologically advanced high-performance alloys, announced it entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by North American Stainless, a wholly owned subsidiary of Acerinox, Spain, in an all-cash transaction valuing the Company at an enterprise value of approximately $970 million and representing a multiple of 12.3x fiscal 2023 EBITDA.
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Scientists at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va., synthesized a composite material whose properties make it an ideal candidate for the burgeoning field of flexible electronics.
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