USC researchers develop 3D-printable MRI coils for low-cost, improved dynamic imaging

Diseases affecting moving organs such as the heart and lungs require dynamic imaging rather than static scans, yet limitations in current MRI technology often hinder early detection and diagnosis. Traditional MRI sensors are costly, rigid, and unable to conform closely to the body, reducing image quality and flexibility. To address this, researchers at the University of Southern California developed a low-cost, silver-ink MRI coil that can be 3D printed in under 10 minutes for patient-specific use. The coil costs about $30 in materials — significantly less than traditional models — and delivers up to four times higher image resolution, improving access to more reliable dynamic imaging.

USC researchers, Yasser Khan and Krishna Nayak teamed up to develop a new silver-ink based MRI coil that costs about $30 in consumable materials, compared with at least thousands of dollars for industry-standard coils, and delivers up to four times higher image resolution. The coils can also be 3D printed in real time in under 10 minutes, enabling patient-specific customization.

The study has removed key barriers in dynamic imaging and represents a major breakthrough in MRI technology, with broad applications in clinical settings such as pediatrics and cardiology.

The work was made possible by bringing together two researchers from USC Viterbi School of Engineering and USC Mark and Mary Stevens School of Computing with expertise in wearable sensors for precision health and MRI imaging: Khan, an assistant professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and with joint appointments in the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, who leads Khan Lab; and Nayak, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, also with a joint appointment in biomedical engineering, who leads the Dynamic Imaging Science Center (DISC). The research was also spearheaded by Félix Muñoz, a student they co-advised, as well as Ye Tian, a research assistant professor in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The team also included Prof. Min-gu Kim, an assistant professor of medical engineering at Yonsei University in Korea.

John Wood, a close collaborator from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, emphasized that this is a game-changer, noting that MRI screening is a platform technology essential for detecting undiagnosed conditions in patients, including children and infants. He added that coil sensors play a critical role in diagnostic accuracy and clinical decision-making.

Expensive and Low-resolution MRI Scanners

Like cameras that detect light waves to form images, MRI scanners process and create images or videos using radiofrequency (RF) signals.

The visual data is made possible with MRI “coils,” which are specialized antennas placed close to the bohiiidy part being imaged to detect weak radiofrequency signals emitted by tissues, acting as the receiver for producing high-resolution images.

In the MRI world, the equivalent of camera resolution is called signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To capture motion in MRI scans, specialized low-field MRI (0.55T) is used to enable dynamic, real-time imaging of motion-intensive processes by leveraging reduced susceptibility artifacts and faster data acquisition.

However, capturing video is particularly difficult at low magnetic field strengths (0.55T) because the signal is inherently weaker, which leads to lower SNR, and consequently lower resolution. Low SNR reduces image quality, making it more difficult for physicians to make accurate clinical assessments.

Today’s standard commercialized coils face many challenges, with low comformity being the biggest limitation. Current coils, typically made of copper, are rigid and follow a one-size-fits-all design. They cannot maintain the close contact required to recover enough signal for high-quality, video-rate imaging. The closer the sensors are to the signal source, the clearer the “picture,” and the closer a coil is to the anatomy, the better the resolution because proximity increases signal strength.

Existing MRI coil arrays are also expensive, priced between $10,000 and $50,000 each.

These high costs are driven by complex manufacturing processes, proprietary markups and rigid, specialized construction that can take significant time to produce. This cost and manufacturing complexity reinforce rigid designs as the commercial standard, making personalization difficult and continuing to limit imaging accuracy.

The limitations of current MRI technologies heavily affect babies and children, as Wood explained that existing coils are designed for adults and then scaled down for children, a process that often fails to accommodate the rapid anatomical changes in growing infants. This sizing mismatch makes MRI screening less accurate in pediatric patients. He also noted that “an infant’s heart can be as small as a walnut,” requiring a coil that is equally small and well-fitted to produce accurate results—something that current, non-customizable coil designs cannot adequately provide.

Silver-based MRI coils as solution: Flexible as human skin and engineered for higher SNR

In the study, Khan’s team aims to tackle the low SNR problem by designing coils that better fit the skin, allowing sensors to be closer to the body.

The lab first experimented with innovative materials that could maintain strong signal performance while being flexible enough to conform to the body like human skin—a longstanding challenge in MRIs for dynamic imaging.

A major limitation with flexible or printed conductors is that they typically have lower conductivity than solid copper, which introduces resistive losses and reduces signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). On the other hand, current industry-standard copper coils lack the flexibility needed to maintain close contact with the body. As high conductivity is key for strong SNR, most flexible materials have historically failed to deliver imaging performance comparable to copper.

Khan’s lab identified silver as an optimal material as it offers conductivity comparable to copper while enabling flexibility when printed onto soft, rubber-like substrates such as thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). The researchers tested various silver inks and selected one formulation, FS0142, that achieved approximately 95% of the signal efficiency of a standard solid copper coil—the first time researchers are able to successfully address the conductivity challenge while maintaining flexibility for dynamic imaging at lower field.

The silver ink is combined with a specialized binder that makes it stretchable, allowing the printed coil to stretch between 5% and 10%, closely matching the natural stretchability of human skin. This enables the coils to wrap tightly around complex anatomical structures, such as the wrist, while maintaining consistent contact.

These new coils, which are as soft and stretchable as human skin, overcome the longstanding tradeoff between rigidity and conductivity. By ensuring a conformal interface where the coil remains in constant contact with the body, the design can effectively replace traditional copper coils while significantly improving imaging performance.

The $30 Breakthrough: 3D-Printed Coils That Are Customizable in Under 10 Minutes

The new coils are also drastically cheaper in both material cost and manufacturing, dropping the price of a standard coil from as much as $50,000 to about $120 per coil.

Muñoz explained that this is partly because the quantity of material needed per coil in his team’s study is extremely small, bringing the consumable cost to roughly $30 per element, despite silver being an expensive and precious metal.

The other key aspect contributing to the low cost is the lab’s automated workflow, which enables coils to be completely 3D printed. Unlike traditional coil manufacturing, which requires complex machinery, proprietary processes and intricate assembly steps that are costly, labor-intensive, the new coils introduced in the study can be produced in as little as eight minutes per element.

These coils are designed using standard Gerber files—the same format used to manufacture circuit boards—allowing for a fully digital workflow. By using automated tools such as the Voltera NOVA printer, a direct-ink-write system, the need for manual routing or complex housing assembly is eliminated, enabling rapid digital fabrication.

This innovation not only reduces cost but also expands the potential for MRI to become more accessible, instead of a limited, high-cost resource. The simple, low-cost, real-time production of these coils allows for on-demand manufacturing tailored to specific patients or body parts, further addressing the longstanding challenge in customization. This makes it possible to create coils of varying sizes, including those small enough for infants.

Because the coils are inexpensive and can be analyzed using low-cost, portable tools, the technology could expand access to high-quality MRI in rural or resource-limited settings worldwide.

At USC, New Coils Meet the World’s Only Low-Field High-Performance MRI System

This work was made possible through a unique collaboration at the University of Southern California, where the newly developed coils could be directly tested on a rare high-performance low-field MRI system—creating an environment that enables proprietary research, innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

A key advantage is the close partnership between Yasser Khan’s lab, which developed the coils, and the Dynamic Imaging Science Center. The center houses a highly specialized MRI scanner: a 0.55 T low-field prototype, a modified 1.5 T Siemens MAGNETOM Aera system, that is now the only one of its kind still operating in the world.

The scanner at DISC offers several technical advantages that make it an ideal match for the new flexible coil technology. Its advanced gradient system enables extremely fast scans, which are essential for capturing high-quality, video-rate dynamic imaging. At the same time, like most low-field MRI systems, the scanner at DISC suffers from lower signal. The flexible coils developed in this study address that limitation by improving signal capture and image quality.

What’s Next: Clinical Use and Patient Testing

The study’s MRI coils have generated strong interest among physicians. Khan said the team’s goal is to move the coils from the lab into clinical settings, with patient testing as a key next step.

Nayak identified pediatric lung imaging as a likely first clinical application to be tested, with John Wood expressing strong interest in eventually adopting the technology for patient care.

“It starts with a signal,” Wood emphasized, noting that regardless of the medical condition, the diagnostic process begins with signal and image quality. He said the study introduces significantly improved signal strength, which could enhance MRI as a platform technology across many diseases and help physicians make more accurate clinical judgments.

Wood emphasized that the technology could be especially impactful for the smallest and most fragile patients, including premature infants. An infant’s heart is extremely small and beats rapidly, making it traditionally difficult to image. Improving signal by bringing the “lens”—the coil—closer to the body allows for clearer visualization of these tiny, fast-moving structures. Screening is a critical first step in identifying conditions in infants, who are more vulnerable to heart and lung diseases or structural abnormalities that require accurate imaging.

Wood also envisions new diagnostic pathways for common infant conditions, including monitoring lung development in bronchopulmonary dysplasia, evaluating swallowing function to prevent aspiration, and studying gastrointestinal malformations.

Muñoz also highlighted applications in wrist injuries, which require clear dynamic imaging of moving joints to identify conditions. In testing, the team’s wrist coil arrays achieved four times higher contrast and five times greater sharpness than commercial coils, allowing clinicians to resolve fine structures such as carpal ligaments that were previously difficult to see.

While the coils were developed to address challenges in dynamic imaging, Wood sees broader applications in standard, still-image MRI scans across a range of clinical settings.

For more information: Nature Communications

Image: The study’s new MRI coils. (Photo Credit: USC Khan Lab)

Researchers measure giant light-conversion effect in chiral carbon nanotubes

A sheet of twisted carbon nanotubes has revealed a long-suspected but previously unmeasured capability, as researchers at Rice University created highly ordered films of chiral nanotubes — carbon cylinders with left- or right-handed twists — that can convert the color of light at rates two to three orders of magnitude greater than conventional materials. The findings confirm decades-old theoretical predictions and suggest ultrathin nanotube films could advance faster optical communications, flexible photonic chips and light-based computing systems that largely remain in early stages.

Since their discovery in the 1990s, carbon nanotubes have been touted as carriers of enormous technological potential due to their tunable conductivity, high mechanical strength, flexibility and ultralow weight. However, they are also difficult to purify and align into larger material architectures.

This holds true for chiral CNTs, whose “handedness” makes them especially difficult to work with.

“Typically, when we have a macroscopic ensemble of carbon nanotubes, half of them are right-handed and the other half are left-handed,” said Junichiro Kono, a senior researcher on the study. “So, their chiral properties cancel each other out.”

That cancellation effect has prevented researchers from measuring one of the material’s most anticipated properties, second harmonic generation (SHG), which occurs when two light waves pass through a material and combine into one new wave with twice the frequency and half the wavelength. For example, due to SHG, two infrared light waves invisible to the human eye can be converted into visible light.

“Theory predicts chiral CNT should be particularly good at such conversion,” said Hanyu Zhu, a Rice materials scientist who led the study alongside Kono. “However, no one was able to quantify this ability because it requires high-quality, pure chiral CNT crystal.”

The Rice-led team solved that challenge by isolating nanotubes with a single handedness – a step carried out by the group of Kazuhiro Yanagi at Tokyo Metropolitan University – aligning them in the same direction and assembling them into thin films spanning several centimeters.

“We successfully made a wafer of film packed closely with chiral CNTs that showed uniform optical properties,” said Kono, director of the Smalley-Curl Institute at Rice and Karl F. Hasselmann Professor in Engineering, professor of electrical and computer engineering and materials science and nanoengineering, and physics and astronomy.

When illuminated with laser pulses, the chiral CNT films produced a “giant” SHG response thanks to their one-dimensional structure, where “one-dimensional” describes materials with two dimensions on the order of a nanometer and a third, much larger, dimension that gives rise to wire- or tubelike architectures.

This structure intensifies interactions between light and matter, particularly through coupled electron-hole states known as excitons. The importance of excitons in the SHG process was theorized by two team members, Vasili Perebeinos at the University at Buffalo and Riichiro Saito at Tohoku University.

“For the first time, we were able to make a more accurate prediction of one-dimensional second-order nonlinear optical response and experimentally demonstrated it,” said Zhu, associate chair and professor of materials science and nanoengineering.

SHG already plays an important role in laser technology and optoelectronic systems. The stronger the SHG effect is, the smaller the devices can be to control and convert light for technology. Chiral CNTs not only outperform materials currently in use in terms of SHG, but they are also flexible, widening the range of applications they could serve.

“CNT is a promising flexible semiconductor for electronics and photonics,” Zhu said. “The film may be easily integrated with silicon photonics for optical information processing and communication.”

For more information: ACS Nano

Image: Hanyu Zhu is the William Marsh Rice Chair and associate professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Steel developed at MIT is key to Formula One

A high-performance steel developed at MIT has come full circle, moving from success in Formula One and Baja 1000 race cars to its latest use in the 2026 electric race car built by the student-run MIT Motorsports team. The computationally designed material is now part of the university’s entry in the Formula SAE Electric competition, where the car is set to compete against teams from other universities in June.

Designing materials

Gregory B. Olson, professor of the practice in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, founded the MIT Steel Research Group (SRG) in 1985 with the goal of using computers to accelerate the hunt for new materials by plumbing databases of those materials’ fundamental properties. It was the beginning of a new field — computational materials design — that would eventually lead to the Materials Genome Initiative, a national program announced by President Barack Obama in 2011.

In 1985, however, “nobody knew whether we could really do this,” says Olson. Olson and colleagues eventually showed that the approach worked, and around 1990 the Army Research Office funded an SRG project aimed at developing high-performance steels for the gears in helicopters. That work came to the attention of producers at “Infinite Voyage,” a science documentary that ran on the Public Broadcasting System.

“When “Infinite Voyage” came to see me about the helicopter gear steels,” Olson remembers, “we got into a discussion about my interest in race cars” and whether the steels might have an application there.

The answer was yes, and Olson found himself connecting with the Newman/Haas racing team that Michael and Mario Andretti were driving for. Newman/Haas was also featured in the “Infinite Voyage” program, so “my first discussion with their chief engineer was on live television,” says Olson, who is also affiliated with the MIT Materials Research Laboratory.

He and colleagues went on to design a novel gear steel that could withstand the extreme conditions associated with a race car. They did the work over a weekend. “The surface hardness was the same as for a conventional gear steel, but we gave it the core properties of an armor steel,” Olson says.

Introducing Ferrium C61

That steel, which became known as Ferrium C61, was commercialized through QuesTek Innovations, the materials-design company Olson co-founded. It became the company’s first product.

Although it was never used in Newman/Haas cars, QuesTek pitched it to Baja 1000 off-road racers.

“We particularly focused on the 1600 class of those racing dune buggies. They would go flying over a sand dune with the wheels spinning in the air. And when they land, there would be a tremendous jolt to the drive gears,” Olson says. The result: The racers’ gears made with conventional steel regularly failed.

“The average life for conventional drive gears was point-six race,” says Olson (meaning on average they lasted for only 60 percent of a race). “With Ferrium C61, we changed it from point-six to six races.” The gears could now complete an average six races before failing.

QuesTek brought that data to meetings with different Formula One teams “to try to get C61 into other racing classes,” Olson says.

Enter Red Bull, the British-licensed Formula One team. “The leading mechanical failure in Formula One racing is gearbox failures,” Olsen says. The gearbox houses the gearset, or collection of gears, in a car’s engine. “Once Red Bull adopted our steel for the gearset, they never had any gearbox failures, and they were world champions four times in the last decade.”

MIT Motorsports heard of this history and within the past year approached Olson about getting a sample of C61. “QuesTek had some stock available, and sold it at a high discount to the MIT team with, of course, instructions on how to heat-treat it,” Olson says.

Because, of course, the students, who are mostly undergraduates, made the gears — and the car — themselves.

For more information: MIT

Image: Gearset for the 2026 race car made by the MIT Motorsports team. It is made of a high-performance steel with MIT origins. CreditsPhoto courtesy of MIT Motorsports.

Wallwork doubles aerospace HIP capacity with second Quintus hot isostatic press

Wallwork Group, Manchester, England, installed a second Quintus Technologies hot isostatic press (HIP) at its UK operations, doubling the company’s HIP capacity for aerospace customers and strengthening process continuity across the UK and European supply chain. The investment will be a centerpiece of the company’s presence at Farnborough International Airshow 2026 (Hall 1, Stand 1000, July 20–24), where Wallwork will showcase how the expanded HIP capability combines with one of the industry’s most comprehensive portfolios of NADCAP- and AS9100-accredited thermal processing and hard coating services. “Farnborough 2026 is the ideal platform to show how Wallwork is investing in the future of aerospace manufacturing,” said Simeon Collins, group director at Wallwork. “Our second Quintus HIP significantly expands capacity for customers, while our full range of accredited thermal processing, surface engineering, and brazing services gives manufacturers a dependable single-source partner.” HIP is a critical post-process for high-integrity aerospace components — particularly castings, additive-manufactured parts, and powder-metallurgy products — closing internal voids and improving tensile strength and fatigue performance in turbine and compressor blades, blisks, disks, structural casings, and engine parts. Wallwork is the United Kingdom’s largest independent aerospace thermal processing and hard coatings specialist, with over 60 years of industry experience, ITAR compliance, major aerospace prime approvals, and operations across Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, and Cambridge. Quintus Technologies, headquartered in Västerås, Sweden, is the global leader in high-pressure technology for hot isostatic pressing, sheet metal forming, and high-pressure processing.

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Bodycote opens new heat treatment facility in Monterrey, Mexico

Bodycote, Macclesfield, England, plans to open a new heat treatment facility in Apodaca, in the Monterrey metropolitan area of Mexico. The new site will expand Bodycote’s North American footprint and provide additional regional capacity to support customers across Mexico and the southern United States, helping reduce logistics complexity and strengthen supply-chain resilience for OEMs and tier suppliers operating in the region’s automotive, aerospace, and industrial markets. The Apodaca facility will offer precision heat treatment capabilities including case hardening and nitriding processes such as carburizing, carbonitriding, and nitrocarburizing, technologies widely used to improve wear resistance, fatigue performance, and dimensional stability in critical drivetrain, gearing, and structural components. The new site complements Bodycote’s existing North American network and reflects continued investment by the group in geographic capacity expansion and customer-proximate service. Bodycote is the world’s largest provider of heat treatment and specialist thermal processing services, operating more than 165 facilities across 22 countries with capabilities spanning vacuum heat treatment, hot isostatic pressing, surface engineering, and advanced thermal processing technologies. The company serves a broad customer base across aerospace, automotive, defense, energy, medical, and general industrial markets, and continues to invest in both new geographies and decarbonized process technologies to support its customers’ performance and sustainability goals.

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SECO/WARWICK USA delivers second vacuum tempering furnace to aerospace manufacturer

SECO/WARWICK USA, Meadville, Pa., announced that a leading international aircraft motion-control manufacturer has placed a repeat order for an identical low-temperature vacuum tempering furnace, following the success of the first unit installed at the customer’s facility. The new furnace is designed for tempering, ageing, and other sub-critical heat-treat processes, with a maximum operating temperature of 1380°F, a 24-by-24-by-36-in. work zone, and a load capacity of 1750 pounds. It meets AMS2750F Class 2 temperature uniformity requirements (±10°F) and supports nitrogen convection heating and cooling, with final cooling handled by an internal recirculation blower and a water-cooled heat exchanger. The repeat unit adds to the customer’s existing SECO/WARWICK installed base, which includes multi-chamber CaseMaster Evolution furnaces in double- and triple-chamber configurations and a Vector single-chamber high-pressure gas-quench vacuum furnace deployed across multiple sites. “This customer’s continued investment in SECO/WARWICK equipment reflects their trust in the quality and reliability required for aerospace applications,” said Piotr Zawistowski, managing director of SECO/WARWICK USA. “Their repeat business underscores the strength of our technology and our long-term customer relationships.” SECO/WARWICK Group is a global manufacturer of vacuum and atmosphere heat-treatment equipment, with headquarters in Świebodzin, Poland, and US operations based in Meadville, Pennsylvania, serving aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, and tool steel markets.

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Norman Noble adds engineering design services for medical implants

Norman Noble, Inc., Highland Heights, Ohio, announced in February 2026 the addition of engineering design services to its medical-implant manufacturing portfolio. The new offering supports customers developing implantable devices that require advanced laser machining of nitinol, cobalt-chromium, titanium, and other high-performance alloys, and lets device makers partner with Norman Noble at the earliest stages of product development.

Through the engineering design service, Norman Noble’s team works with customers on drawing specifications, design for manufacturability, prototyping strategy, and process development with the goal of moving from concept to validated prototype faster than is typical with sequential outsourcing. The capability builds on the company’s existing offerings in laser machining, athermal Noble STEALTH laser processing, Noble SynchroFlash, and Noble DryEPolish surface finishing — all of which are already used across the cardiovascular, structural heart, neurovascular, and orthopedic implant markets.

By adding upfront design support, Norman Noble strengthens its position as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for complex implantable devices. The expansion reflects increasing customer demand for integrated end-to-end partners that can carry a device from early concept through validated production, particularly for nitinol implants where design choices and manufacturing methods are tightly coupled.

Norman Noble, Inc. is a privately held precision contract manufacturer headquartered in Highland Heights, Ohio. The company specializes in laser machining and finishing of nitinol and other implant-grade alloys, and supports the development and manufacture of finished medical implants for global medical device customers.

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FDA approves JenaValve Trilogy transcatheter heart valve for aortic regurgitation

JenaValve Technology, Irvine, California, received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval on March 23, 2026 for the Trilogy Heart Valve System for the treatment of symptomatic severe aortic regurgitation in patients deemed at high or greater risk for surgical aortic valve replacement. Trilogy is the first and only transcatheter heart valve approved in the United States for aortic regurgitation, addressing a long-standing unmet need in structural heart medicine.

The Trilogy device is a self-expanding, transcatheter aortic valve implant built on a low-profile nitinol frame with porcine pericardial tissue leaflets. The device’s locator architecture is designed to engage the native aortic leaflets to provide secure anchoring in regurgitant anatomy that lacks the calcified landing zone typically used for transcatheter valves indicated for aortic stenosis.

The approval is supported by the ALIGN-AR pivotal trial, which evaluated Trilogy in patients with symptomatic severe aortic regurgitation at prohibitive or high surgical risk. The trial demonstrated meaningful reductions in regurgitation severity at one year alongside acceptable safety endpoints, providing the first prospective evidence base for a dedicated AR transcatheter device in the United States.

JenaValve Technology develops transcatheter heart valve systems for the treatment of aortic regurgitation and aortic stenosis. The company is privately held and headquartered in Irvine, California.

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Gore gains FDA approval for first deep venous stent indicated for the IVC and iliofemoral veins

W. L. Gore & Associates, Newark, Delaware, announced on January 6, 2026 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the GORE VIABAHN FORTEGRA Venous Stent for the treatment of deep venous disease in the inferior vena cava (IVC), iliac, and iliofemoral veins. The device is the first stent approved in the United States for the IVC and iliofemoral indication, and previously received FDA Breakthrough Device designation.

The FORTEGRA Venous Stent (formerly the GORE VIAFORT Vascular Stent) consists of an open-structure, self-expanding wire-wound nitinol frame and an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) polymer lattice. The combination is designed to balance conformability to the natural venous anatomy with compression resistance throughout the entire device length, while the wound nitinol architecture supports fracture resistance under the dynamic mechanical loading characteristic of large-vein anatomy.

Approval was supported by an international pivotal trial that evaluated 89 patients with deep venous disease across the IVC, iliac, and iliofemoral veins. The device met its primary safety and effectiveness endpoints and demonstrated patency, freedom from clinically driven reintervention, and safety performance consistent with a first-line venous stent indication.

W. L. Gore & Associates is a privately held global manufacturing company founded in 1958 and headquartered in Newark, Delaware. Its medical products division supplies cardiovascular, vascular, structural heart, and surgical solutions in more than 50 countries and has served the deep venous disease space through prior peripheral and arteriovenous platforms.

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Confluent Medical opens Nitinol Wire Center of Excellence in Hyderabad, India

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.

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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

Constellium signs multi-year aluminum extrusions agreement with Airbus

Constellium, Issoire, France, announced a multi-year agreement with Airbus for the supply of aluminum alloy extrusions, reinforcing the company’s role as a long-term supplier of advanced aluminum solutions to the European airframer’s commercial and defense programs. Under the agreement, Constellium will provide Airbus with bars and a range of small and large extrusions manufactured in advanced aluminum alloys, including the company’s proprietary aluminum-lithium solution Airware®, all engineered to meet stringent quality requirements and optimized for the strength-to-weight performance demanded by aircraft structural applications. The extrusions will be produced at Constellium’s Issoire and Montreuil-Juigné facilities in France. “This agreement reflects Airbus’ trust in our advanced aluminum products and solutions, and in our quality performance, industrial reliability, and consistent supply continuity to support long-term aerospace programs,” said Philippe Hoffmann, president of Constellium’s Aerospace and Transportation business unit. “We are committed to continuing to grow our outstanding relationship with Airbus, leveraging our comprehensive product portfolio, proprietary solutions, unique manufacturing capabilities, and recycling expertise.” Constellium is a leading supplier of advanced aluminum products and solutions to the global aircraft, defense, and space markets, with proven industrial and recycling capabilities and an extensive portfolio of high-performance alloys, including the heat-treatable Airware® family used in next-generation airframe structures.

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Scientists uncover hidden superconductivity in material once thought only magnetic

A new study shows that iron telluride, or FeTe, long thought to be a simple magnetic metal, is actually a superconductor when excess iron atoms are removed. Superconductors carry electricity with no energy loss as heat, enabling technologies such as MRI machines, particle accelerators and potentially quantum computers. Researchers found that extra iron atoms hidden in the material are responsible for its magnetism and suppress superconductivity. Once those atoms are eliminated, electricity flows with zero resistance, and the material’s superconducting properties can be further tuned using layered structures and moiré effects.

The findings are detailed in two papers published back-to-back, both led by Penn State physicist Cui-Zu Chang. The first paper explains how to activate superconductivity in FeTe. The second describes a new type of “quantum dance” in which superconductivity interacts with the material’s atomic structure when a different top layer is added, allowing scientists to adjust its properties.

Mystery Behind FeTe’s Missing Superconductivity

“Unlike the well-known iron-based superconductor iron selenide (FeSe), FeTe has long been considered a magnetic metal without superconductivity, despite having an almost identical crystal structure,” Chang said. “It has remained a mystery why FeTe doesn’t share this important property.”

To investigate this difference, the team created thin films of FeTe using molecular beam epitaxy. This method produces extremely clean, atomically thin materials by slowly depositing source elements onto a suitable surface.

When the researchers examined the samples at the atomic level using scanning tunneling microscopy, they found that the structure was not perfectly uniform. Extra iron atoms were embedded within the crystal lattice of FeTe.

Excess Iron Atoms Disrupt Superconductivity

“These excess iron atoms disrupt the ideal one-to-one ratio of iron and tellurium atoms in FeTe and upset the balance of magnetism and superconductivity,” Chang said, explaining that the researchers theorized that removing the excess atoms to make truly pure FeTe might result in a superconductor.

To test this idea, the researchers developed a way to control the material’s purity by exposing the FeTe films to tellurium vapor. This process offsets the excess iron and pushes the material toward its ideal composition.

“The resulting ideal FeTe exhibits superconductivity with a critical temperature of around 13.5 Kelvin, or about negative 435 degrees Fahrenheit,” Chang said. “The excess iron atoms had disguised its superconductivity, leading to the decades-old view that FeTe was an ordinary magnetic metal. Our findings redefine the phase diagram of this class of iron-containing compounds. Similar phenomena are likely to be present in other correlated materials, where hidden superconducting states or competing magnetic orders remain concealed until disorder is removed or carefully controlled. Understanding the crucial role of disorder will help us to uncover and stabilize such hidden superconducting states in other materials.”

Engineering Superconductivity with Layered Structures

In the second study, after confirming that FeTe is inherently a superconductor, the researchers investigated how its superconducting behavior could be controlled. They built layered structures by placing a thin material with a different crystal lattice on top of FeTe. Because the two materials have different atomic arrangements, they form a larger repeating pattern at their boundary, known as a moiré superlattice.

“The mismatch between the crystal structures at the interface creates what we call a moiré superlattice, which modifies the superconducting properties of FeTe,” Chang said. “In recent years, moiré superlattices in two‑dimensional materials have emerged as an important platform for discovering new quantum states.”

Using scanning tunneling microscopy, which allows imaging at the atomic scale, the team observed that superconductivity appears as a repeating, droplet-like pattern that follows the moiré superlattice, described by the researchers as a “quantum dance.” They also found that this pattern can be tuned by changing the material used in the top layer.

“The role of crystal lattices has often been overlooked in superconductors,” Chang said. “Our findings encourage a renewed focus on the interplay between superconductivity and lattice structure and highlight how moiré interface engineering can serve as a potentially powerful tool for tuning superconductivity and designing next‑generation quantum materials.”

For more information: Nature

Image: A sample of a thin film of the compound iron telluride (FeTe)—the dark region on the clear substrate at the center of the image—created using molecular beam epitaxy. Long thought to be an ordinary magnetic metal, researchers have now shown that exposing the thin film of FeTe to tellurium vapor removes disorder created by excess iron atoms trapped in the crystal structure of the material, revealing that FeTe is a superconductor. Credit: Chang Laboratory/Penn State.

St. Olaf researchers built a computer that doesn’t require electricity

Researchers from St. Olaf College and Syracuse University have built mechanical computers made entirely of common materials that can perform simple calculations without electricity or batteries. Led by St. Olaf College physics professor Joey Paulsen, the team used steel springs and bars to create devices that store and process information by physically responding to motion and force. One machine counts how many times it is moved, another determines whether it has been pushed an odd or even number of times, and a third remembers whether it experienced a medium or large force, demonstrating that everyday materials can both retain memory and perform basic computation.

“We now have a rational way of building these machines that can perform simple computations without a computer chip or a power source,” Paulsen said.

Key findings from the research include:

  • Mechanical computers can perform simple computations without a computer chip or power source.
  • Mechanical computers are able to harvest their power from physical force, rather than electricity.
  • Proof of design that mechanical computers could be a viable alternative to conventional computers in harsh settings—such as extreme temperatures or exposure to corrosive chemicals—when only simple computations are needed.

“Our results are one step towards designing materials that can sense their environment, make a decision, and then respond,” said Paulsen. “Frequently called smart materials, what we learned could help improve people’s lives by having more responsive artificial limbs or tactile rooms.”

Paulsen recommends that future research on mechanical computers focus on understanding their limitations and scalability. Under his leadership, St. Olaf students are currently testing how the state of one rotor affects its interaction with a second rotor –– and potentially a third. This research will continue in the coming months, with opportunities for students to participate through the college’s Collaborative Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (CURI) program.

For more information:  Nature Communications

Image: St. Olaf College students Faten Abu Al Ardat ‘27 and Harry Maakestad ‘26 work on building the mechanical computer.

Graphene just defied a fundamental law of physics

Scientists have observed electrons in graphene flowing like a nearly frictionless liquid, revealing an unusual quantum state that challenges long-standing assumptions in physics and could enable future technologies. Physicists have long sought evidence that electrons can behave collectively as a smooth fluid governed by universal quantum properties, but such behavior is difficult to detect because atomic defects and impurities in real materials typically disrupt these effects. The new observation overcomes those challenges, offering rare experimental insight into electron behavior under exceptionally clean and controlled conditions.

Now, researchers at the Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), working with collaborators from the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan, have finally identified this elusive quantum fluid in graphene. This material consists of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a flat sheet. Their findings, reported in Nature Physics, open a new path for studying quantum phenomena and position graphene as a powerful platform for exploring effects that were previously out of reach in laboratory settings.

“It is amazing that there is so much to do on just a single layer of graphene even after 20 years of discovery,” says Arindam Ghosh, Professor at the Department of Physics, IISc, and one of the corresponding authors of the study.

Breaking a Fundamental Law of Physics

To uncover this behavior, the team created exceptionally clean graphene samples and carefully measured how they conduct both electricity and heat. What they found was unexpected. Instead of increasing together, the two properties moved in opposite directions. As electrical conductivity rose, thermal conductivity dropped, and vice versa.

This result directly contradicts the Wiedemann-Franz law, a well-established principle that states heat and electrical conduction in metals should be proportional. The researchers observed deviations from this law by more than 200 times at low temperatures, revealing a striking separation between how charge and heat move through the material.

A Universal Quantum Connection

Despite this unusual split, the behavior is not random. Both types of conduction appear to follow a universal constant that does not depend on the material itself. This constant is tied to the quantum of conductance, a fundamental quantity that describes how electrons move at the smallest scales.

The Dirac Fluid and Liquid-Like Electrons

This remarkable effect occurs at a special condition known as the “Dirac point,” where graphene sits at a boundary between being a metal and an insulator. By adjusting the number of electrons, researchers can reach this precise state.

At this point, electrons stop behaving like individual particles. Instead, they move collectively, flowing like a liquid. This fluid-like motion resembles water but with far lower resistance to flow. “Since this water-like behaviour is found near the Dirac point, it is called a Dirac fluid — an exotic state of matter which mimics the quark-gluon plasma, a soup of highly energetic subatomic particles observed in particle accelerators at CERN,” says Aniket Majumdar, first author and PhD student at the Department of Physics. The team also measured how easily this fluid flows and found that its viscosity is extremely low, making it one of the closest realizations of a perfect fluid ever observed.

A New Window Into Extreme Physics

These results establish graphene as an accessible and cost-effective system for exploring ideas that are usually associated with extreme environments. Scientists can now investigate phenomena linked to high-energy physics and astrophysics, including black-hole thermodynamics and entanglement entropy scaling, within a laboratory setting.

Future Applications in Quantum Technology

Beyond its scientific importance, this discovery could have practical implications. The presence of a Dirac fluid in graphene may enable the development of highly sensitive quantum sensors. Such devices could amplify extremely weak electrical signals and detect faint magnetic fields, opening the door to new technologies in sensing and measurement.

For more information: Nature Physics

Researchers use large language models to discover recipes for novel materials

Researchers at the University of Rochester have developed an artificial intelligence-based method that uses large language models, similar to ChatGPT, to help chemical engineers discover and manufacture new materials, potentially accelerating efforts such as converting carbon dioxide into fuel. The approach allows researchers to describe desired materials in natural language, receive AI-generated recommendations for experimental procedures, and iteratively refine those experiments by feeding results back into the model. By lowering technical barriers to using AI in catalysis research, the method aims to speed experimentation, improve accessibility and advance materials discovery.

“We’re able to leverage the pre-trained knowledge of large language models and well-established statistical methods for materials discovery to help us as researchers navigate large experimental design spaces more efficiently,” says Marc Porosoff, an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Sustainability Engineering.

Porosoff likens the new AI method to describing a cup of coffee, noting that someone could describe the coffee by its taste, color, and aroma, or by the type of beans, grind size, apparatus, and water temperature used to make the brew. Both representation methods describe the same cup of coffee, but the second approach gives you a recipe to reproduce it that others can easily replicate.

Porosoff and his team are applying the same principle to catalysts for energy applications, using language-based representations to describe materials not just by their properties, but by the steps needed to create them.

To build on their success, the US Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced it will provide nearly $3 million in funding to apply the URochester team’s method toward creating catalysts for the production of fuel from abundant materials, specifically methanol and ethanol from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. Porosoff will lead a multi-institution project team that includes URochester, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Stanford University, Northwestern University, A*STAR Institute of Sustainability for Chemicals, Energy and Environment (ISCE2) in Singapore, and OxEon Energy, a small business based in Salt Lake City.

Leveraging the power of LLMs

Traditional AI methods for materials discovery typically use a strategy called Bayesian optimization to identify and design the best candidates. But the result is complex numerical data about a material’s structure, which requires deep expertise to use effectively. The new LLM method instead produces a set of procedures that researchers can easily understand, execute, and verify to determine if the experiment’s output matches the predicted results.

This can be extremely useful for working with complex materials such as trimetallic catalysts, which are made of three metals.

“Our method reduces the technical barrier associated with using Bayesian optimization, which is a well-established method for efficiently exploring large and complicated parameter spaces,” says Shane Michtavy, a URochester chemical engineering PhD student who helped develop the AI method, synthesize materials, and run the chemical reactions described in the paper. “Using pre-trained LLMs allows users to explore using less data than traditional models, as they are deployed in a frozen state with built-in knowledge of the physical world and catalysis.”

The paper shows how the researchers applied the method to several live experiments, including one to identify catalysts for turning carbon dioxide and hydrogen into carbon monoxide and water using trimetallic catalysts made from low-cost metals. Porosoff says that there are about 360,000 possible experiments that could have been run to find the ideal catalyst, but by using procedures produced by the AI model and providing it with the results from the experiments, they were able to find an ideal candidate in just ten experiments.

The study was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the US Department of Energy. Additional authors included Mayk Caldas, technical staff at Edison Scientific.

Next steps

Now that they have shown the model works as a proof of concept in the lab, Porosoff aims to take the method further using the funding announced through ARPA-E’s Catalytic Application Testing for Accelerated Learning Chemistries via High-throughput Experimentation and Modeling Efficiently (CATALCHEM-E) program.

“Right now, it takes a decade or longer to go from conceptualizing a new catalyst to testing it in a lab to putting it in a real reactor,” says Porosoff. “The CATALCHEM-E program aims to cut that by an order of magnitude to a single year, and we think using AI with text-based representations will be a big factor in shortening the development cycle.”

Porosoff and his collaborators will first demonstrate their workflow on carbon dioxide-to-methanol and then extend the process to higher alcohols such as ethanol, which is a key additive for gasoline and used in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and many other applications. Ultimately, they hope to commercially deploy the model for industries to create catalysts to synthesize alcohols for fuel.

For more information: ACS Central Science

Solar Atmospheres expands California operations with new 10-bar vacuum furnace

Solar Atmospheres, Fontana, California, announced the installation and commissioning of a new 10-bar vacuum furnace at its California facility. Manufactured by sister company Solar Manufacturing, the horizontal furnace features a hot zone measuring 48-in. wide by 48-in. high by 96-in. deep, with a maximum load capacity of 12,000 pounds and an ultimate vacuum level of 1×10⁻⁶ Torr. The furnace expands the facility’s high-pressure quenching capabilities for processing titanium and high-performance alloys serving the aerospace, defense, medical, and power generation markets. “This investment gives our customers another regional solution for high-pressure quenching of large components and heavy workloads,” said Derek Dennis, President of Solar Atmospheres California.

Read further here

Harper International promotes new CEO and COO

Harper International, Buffalo, New York, announced the promotion of Janelle Camesano to Chief Executive Officer and John Schenk to Chief Operating Officer. Camesano, who holds an MBA and PHR certification, has been with Harper for 13 years, rising through human resources and administration roles before assuming the top leadership position. Schenk has been part of the Harper team for over 14 years, most recently serving as Vice President of Operations. The leadership transition reflects an internal succession at the global thermal processing equipment manufacturer, which provides customized furnace, kiln, and oven systems for production of advanced materials including carbon fiber, battery materials, and technical ceramics.

Read further here

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.

Read further here

Boeing commits $7 million CAD to Vac Aero for vacuum furnace purchase

Boeing announced a $7 million CAD commitment to Vac Aero International Inc., a Canadian aerospace and defence supplier with operations in Ontario and Quebec, as part of the CP8A Poseidon Industrial and Technological Benefits (ITB) program. Boeing will purchase two vacuum furnaces for its Tube, Duct and Reservoir Center in Algona, Washington, where they will heat treat tube and duct assemblies critical to various Boeing airplane programs and select space and defense work. “This ITB investment underscores Boeing’s commitment to Canada following the CP8A Poseidon selection and to modern manufacturing and Canadian small businesses,” said Al Meinzinger, Boeing Canada President. Vac Aero CEO Michael Miasek noted the purchase commitment will allow the company to further expand its Canadian manufacturing capacity.

Read further here

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)

Fort Wayne Metals receives Medtronic 2025 Supplier Innovation Excellence Award

Fort Wayne Metals, Fort Wayne, Indiana, received Medtronic’s 2025 Supplier Innovation Excellence Award for its nitinol melt program, which Medtronic recognized for strengthening global supply chain resilience and supporting the advancement of life-improving medical technologies.

Fort Wayne Metals is a fully integrated nitinol supplier, controlling every step of the manufacturing process from ingot melting through custom finishing of wires, tubes, and components. The company began working with nitinol in 1991 and established a dedicated melt facility in 2012. Between 2022 and 2024, production of melted nitinol for medical applications doubled, and a second vacuum arc remelting (VAR) furnace brought online in early 2025 positions the company to double output again. Melted nitinol now represents 74 percent of all nitinol products the company sells.

“Our goal is to enable our customers to develop their innovations, from nitinol melt to custom finishing of products,” said Scott Glaze, President and CEO of Fort Wayne Metals. The award reflects the company’s role as a critical upstream supplier to medical device manufacturers developing stents, guidewires, and implantable components that rely on nitinol’s unique superelastic and shape memory properties.

Fort Wayne Metals employs more than 2,000 people across its Fort Wayne, Indiana headquarters and facilities in Columbia City, Indiana, and Galway, Ireland.

[Read further here](https://www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com/medtronic-nitinol-supplier-fort-wayne-metals/)

Dynalloy transfers Flexinol actuator wire technology to insulin pump leader

Dynalloy Inc., Irvine, California, announced the transfer of its Flexinol actuator wire technology, equipment, personnel, and know-how to support vertical integration at one of the world’s largest providers of insulin pump delivery products. The agreement also includes exclusivity for direct-to-human drug delivery applications.

Flexinol actuator wires are made of nickel-titanium shape memory alloy and contract when electrically heated, functioning as compact, silent, lightweight actuators ideally suited for the precise mechanisms required in miniaturized medical devices. The technology transfer enables the insulin pump manufacturer to integrate advanced SMA actuator capabilities directly into its production operations.

In response to the transfer, Dynalloy has relocated to new state-of-the-art facilities to support increased Flexinol actuator wire manufacturing and related value-added products and sub-assemblies for its broader customer base spanning automotive, consumer electronics, aerospace, and industrial automation applications.

[www.dynalloy.com](https://www.dynalloy.com)

Integer to showcase neuromodulation innovations and fast-charge battery at NANS 2026

nteger Holdings Corporation, Plano, Texas, showcased its latest advancements in neuromodulation and next-generation miniaturized active implantable medical devices at the North American Neuromodulation Society Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, January 22-25, 2026.

The company highlighted the Xcellion Gen 3 Fast Charge lithium ion battery, which delivers best-in-class runtime and can recharge in as little as 30 minutes. Integer also demonstrated end-to-end contract development and manufacturing capabilities spanning high-performance batteries, fully integrated implantable pulse generators, and lead systems designed to accelerate development timelines and reduce risk for device companies bringing novel therapies to market.

“Miniaturization is transforming the future of implantable technologies, and we’re proud to partner with customers to make that future a reality,” said Jim Stephens, President of Cardiac Rhythm Management & Neuromodulation at Integer.

Integer Holdings is among the world’s largest medical device contract development and manufacturing organizations, serving cardiac rhythm management, neuromodulation, and cardiovascular markets. Its brands include Greatbatch Medical and Lake Region Medical.

[www.integer.net](https://www.integer.net)