Lindberg/MPH ships cyclone pit furnace for heat treating aerospace parts
May 17, 2016
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Lindberg/MPH, Riverside, Mich., announces the shipment of a cyclone pit furnace for heat treating aircraft components to a supplier of the aerospace industry. The cyclone design has historically provided optimum heat distribution and exceptional temperature uniformity, which makes it ideal for applications such as tempering, normalizing, annealing, and solution treatment of aluminum.
This heat treating pit furnace has a maximum temperature rating of 1250°F, and the work chamber has a diameter of 16 inches with a depth of 20 inches. This cyclone pit furnace is a direct replacement of an existing piece of Lindberg/MPH equipment the customer already had in place.
Lindberg/MPH provided a centralized control system with a programmable logic controller to control this equipment and six other furnaces. The cyclone pit furnace design utilizes a heater plug assembly that is easily lifted out and replaced externally without having to pull elements out through the furnace walls.
"This customer was looking to improve operating efficiency of the furnace line," says Jason Dobberstein, Inside Sales Manage. "By providing a control system that allows operators to monitor and control multiple units, it greatly simplifies the process and fulfills data acquisition needs."
Unique features of this cyclone pit furnace:
An alloy liner that protects the work chamber from high-velocity flow and prevents damage while loading/unloading; Easily replaceable heater plug assembly; Recirculating fan with variable frequency drive; Workload support; Lid limit switch.
www.lindbergmph.com
Lindberg/MPH, Riverside, Mich., announces the shipment of a cyclone pit furnace for heat treating aircraft components to a supplier of the aerospace industry.
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Vac Aero refurbishes hot zone of aerospace heat treatment furnace
May 11, 2016
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Vac Aero, Burlington, Ontario, recently received an order for a complete refurbishment of the all-metal hot zone in a horizontal furnace for a customer in the aerospace heat treatment sector in Canada. The hot zone features unitized construction for easy removal and maintenance, and the lightweight design's low thermal mass enables faster quenching and longer life.
The heat shield package consists of one layer of 0.020-inch lanthanated molybdenum (MoLa) sheet backed by one layer of 0.010-inch molybdenum sheet, and three layers of 0.014-inch stainless steel sheet. The heat shield package is supported by a 14 gauge stainless steel assembly that also acts as a manifold to distribute the quenching gas uniformly throughout the workload.
Built for rugged usage and low maintenance, Vac Aero hot zones feature unitized construction for easy removal and maintenance. Replacement hot zones are constructed using state of the art manufacturing technology and materials for years of reliable service. Both graphite-based and all-metal heat shield construction are available. All hot zone materials and new designs are fully tested in our own heat treating facilities before being offered to our customers.
Vac Aero hot zones contain the following design features: Modular Design: Vac Aero hot zones have unitized construction for easy removal and maintenance; the insulation package is mounted on a stainless steel support ring; support rings are designed in a modular fashion for easy installation and maintenance.
Vac Aero uses layers of graphite felt blanket as the core of the insulation package. Compared to graphite board used by some manufacturers, the blanket is far easier to install and maintain, it won't break, and it does not wear at the edges like board, so there is no risk of heat loss due to gaps developing in the insulation.
www.vacaero.com
Vac Aero, Burlington, Ontario, recently received an order for a complete refurbishment of the all-metal hot zone in a horizontal furnace for a customer in the aerospace heat treatment sector in Canada.
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Space telescope boasts a dozen flight mirrors
May 3, 2016
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One dozen flight mirrors are now installed on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, out of the eighteen mirror segments that make up the primary mirror. The assembly of the primary mirror is an important milestone for the Webb telescope, but is just one component of this huge and complex observatory.
Since December 2015, scientists and engineers have been working tirelessly to install all the primary mirror segments onto the telescope structure in the large clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The twelfth mirror was installed on January 2, 2016.
"This milestone signifies that all of the hexagonal shaped mirrors on the fixed central section of the telescope structure are installed and only the three mirrors on each wing are left for installation," says Lee Feinberg at NASA Goddard. "The incredibly skilled and dedicated team assembling the telescope continues to find ways to do things faster and more efficiently."
Each hexagonal-shaped segment measures just over 4.2 ft (1.3 m) across and weighs approximately 88 lb (40 kg). After being pieced together, the 18 primary mirror segments will work together as one large 21.3-ft (6.5-m) mirror. The primary mirror will unfold and adjust to shape after launch. The mirrors are made of ultra-lightweight beryllium. The mirrors are placed on the telescope's backplane using a robotic arm, guided by engineers. The full installation is expected to be completed soon.
The mirrors were built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. Ball is the principal subcontractor to Northrop Grumman, Falls Church, Va., for the optical technology and lightweight mirror system. The installation of the mirrors onto the telescope structure is performed by Harris Corp., Rochester, N.Y. Harris Corp. leads integration and testing for the telescope.
While the mirror assembly is a very significant milestone, there are many more steps involved in assembling the Webb telescope. The primary mirror and the tennis-court-sized sunshield are the largest and most visible components of the Webb telescope. However, there are four smaller components that are less visible, yet critical. The instruments that will fly aboard Webb—cameras and spectrographs with detectors able to record extremely faint signals—are part of the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM), which is currently undergoing its final cryogenic vacuum test and will be integrated with the mirror later this year.
The near infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec) has programmable microshutters which enable observation up to 100 objects simultaneously. The near infrared camera (NIRCam) is equipped with coronagraphs, instruments that allow astronomers to take pictures of very faint objects around a central bright object, like stellar systems.
The Webb telescope also has a cryocooler for cooling the mid-infrared instrument (MIRI) to a very cold 7 K so they can work. MIRI has both a camera and a spectrograph that sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, with wavelengths that are longer than our eyes see. There's also the Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) allows Webb to point precisely, so that it can obtain high-quality images.
Over the next two years in preparation for launch, various components of the Webb telescope will endure rigorous environmental and optical testing. The sunshield will be joined with the spacecraft bus (main structure) followed by more testing. The Webb telescope is planned for launch in 2018.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency.
Image caption — One dozen (out of 18) flight mirror segments that make up the primary mirror on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have been installed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Courtesy of NASA/Chris Gunn.
One dozen flight mirrors are now installed on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, out of the eighteen mirror segments that make up the primary mirror.
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Rick Sisson Wins Trustees Research & Creative Scholarship Award
April 28, 2016
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ASM Fellow Richard D. Sisson has received Worcester Polytechnic Institute's 2016 Board of Trustees' Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Scholarship. The award recognizes continuing excellence in research and scholarship by faculty members over a period of at least five years.
Prof. Sisson is the George F. Fuller Professor of Mechanical Engineering, director of Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Manufacturing and Materials Engineering Programs, and technical director of the WPI Center for Heat Treating Excellence.
He is internationally recognized for his research in materials science and engineering, as well as manufacturing. His pioneering work spans several areas of physical metallurgy, and he has written more than 250 journal articles and 250 technical presentations.
Prof. Sisson is currently principal investigator for a multi-million-dollar, multi-institution project aimed at developing new metallurgical methods and new lightweight alloys to help the military build more effective and durable vehicles and systems. He has won numerous national and international awards, and has served as president of the ASM Heat Treating Society.
wpi.edu/+chte
ASM Fellow Richard D. Sisson has received Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s 2016 Board of Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Scholarship.
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Solar Atmospheres to heat treat Ferrium C61 drive train for Venus robot
April 26, 2016
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Solar Atmospheres, Souderton, Pa., announces that it has been selected by Honeybee Robotics to provide heat treating for the robotic Venus explorer on drive train components comprised of a specialized alloy, Ferrium C61. The alloy is designed as a high strength, high fracture-toughness carburizing grade steel capable of high-temperature applications in corrosive environments.
Solar Atmospheres developed the difficult processing conditions required to optimize the properties for the specialty alloy and satisfy the demanding heat treat requirements. The drive train components are vacuum carburized at 1825°F, high-pressure nitrogen-gas quenched, cooled to −150°F, and tempered in a vacuum at 900°F.
Honeybee Robotics, Brooklyn, N.Y., received NASA funding to contribute to developing future planetary exploration, space mining, and in-situ resource utilization. One of the projects is the High Temperature Venus Drill and Sample Delivery System to provide drilling and sampling operations in the challenging environmental conditions of the planet Venus.
Romans named the planet after Venus, their goddess of love and beauty, but conditions on the planet are anything but lovely and beautiful. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system at a constant 895°F with an atmospheric pressure 90 times higher than the air pressure on Earth.
www.solaratm.com
Solar Atmospheres, Souderton, Pa., announces that it has been selected by Honeybee Robotics to provide heat treating for the robotic Venus explorer on drive train components comprised of a specialized alloy, Ferrium C61.
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SSAB introduces five steel product families for specific applications
April 20, 2016
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SSAB, Stockholm, introduces five steel product families tailored for production processes and maximized end-product performance: SSAB Domex, SSAB Boron, SSAB Form, SSAB Laser Plus, and SSAB Weathering. The new SSAB brand families include hot rolled plate, hot and cold rolled strip, metal coated, and tubes and sections.
SSAB Domex comprises a wide range of versatile structural steels with excellent cold-forming properties for high productivity and reliable performance.
SSAB Boron is a hardenable steel made for the easy and consistent production of wear-resistant products quenched in the customer's own workshop.
SSAB Form is the right choice for stamping, stretching, deep drawing, bending, metal spinning, and other forming procedures, particularly in high-volume production requiring exact and consistent properties.
SSAB Laser Plus (shown in photo) is a structural steel for efficient laser, water, and plasma cutting, improving yield and product quality thanks to guaranteed flatness after cutting, low internal stresses, and smooth surface.
SSAB Weathering and COR-TEN provide customers with an exceptionally wide choice, and flexible ordering of high-strength corrosion-resistant steel grades.
"Customers want to know what a product can offer, so it makes sense to group our products according to how they are used," says Olavi Huhtala, Head of SSAB Europe. "This will make it much easier to identify the right product for the right application. We have created these optimized offers by combining recently-developed products with a selection of the best products from our earlier ranges."
The new product ranges also provide SSAB´s customers with direct access to the company´s extensive services and support. Customers are welcome to contact SSAB for workshop recommendations and technical support on how to improve productivity.
The merger between SSAB and Ruukki has resulted in a restructuring of SSAB's steel portfolio. Last year, SSAB announced some new offerings, and this product launch, together with a forthcoming relaunch of the Docol brand for the automotive industry, will complete SSAB´s new product portfolio.
www.ssab.com
SSAB, Stockholm, introduces five steel product families tailored for production processes and maximized end-product performance: SSAB Domex, SSAB Boron, SSAB Form, SSAB Laser Plus, and SSAB Weathering.
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Advanced thermal imaging cameras can detect temperature differences of 1 mK
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Flir Systems, Wilsonville, Oregon, has developed X6000sc and X8000sc series thermal imaging cameras with Lock-In, Transient, and Pulse capabilities for advanced inspections such as nondestructive testing or stress mapping that resolve temperature differences as low as 1 mK.
Thermal imaging cameras offer the ability to detect internal defects through target excitation and the observation of thermal differences on a target's surface. In addition, thermal imaging cameras provide a valuable tool for detecting defects and points of failure in composites, solar cells, bridges, and electronics. They also enable thermal mapping of stress during materials testing.
The FLIR X8000sc/X6000sc Series thermal imaging cameras are designed to provide the best thermal measurement performance. Designed for scientists, engineers and researchers they can provide high resolution thermal images up to 1280 x 1024 pixels (FLIR X8400sc) that enable seeing the smallest of details with excellent measurement accuracy. These advanced thermal cameras detect temperature differences smaller than 25 mK (18 mK typically).
With Flir Systems proprietary "lock-in" process, temperature differences as small as 1mK will become clearly visible. The cameras automatically adjust their temperature range to best fit the thermal scene. Designed to unlock the secrets of almost any application, a Flir X8400sc camera can measure temperatures up to 3000°C with an accuracy of +/- 1°C, or +/- 1%, or faint thermal emissions from areas as small as 3x3 microns. The X8000sc and X6000sc Series cameras work seamlessly together with Flir ResearchIR Max software, enabling intuitive viewing, recording, and advanced processing of the thermal data provided by the camera. Each camera comes standard with this software.
www.flir.com
Flir Systems, Wilsonville, Oregon, has developed X6000sc and X8000sc series thermal imaging cameras with Lock-In, Transient, and Pulse capabilities that can resolve temperature differences as low as 1 mK for advanced inspections.
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ATI announces restructuring of Flat Rolled Products operations
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Allegheny Technologies Inc., Pittsburgh, announces the next phase in the restructuring of its Flat Rolled Products (FRP) operations with the reduction of approximately one third of FRP's salaried workforce through the elimination of over 250 positions. This workforce reduction will be completed by the end of the second quarter 2016. As a result of these actions, ATI will record a $9 million severance charge in first quarter 2016 results. These actions are expected to generate annualized cost savings benefits of over $30 million beginning in the third quarter 2016.
"Reducing our flat-rolled products business' dependence on unprofitable commodity products is a difficult process," said Rich Harshman, Chairman, President and CEO. "We believe in U.S. manufacturing. However, it is difficult for a U.S.-based company to compete in the global commodity markets, particularly when significant global overcapacity exists for products such as commodity stainless steel sheet and grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES). The restructuring and right-sizing actions we are taking, while painful for our employees and our company, are necessary to help secure the future of ATI Flat Rolled Products.
"We are in the process of creating a smaller, more agile, streamlined, cohesive, and efficient FRP business that will focus on products and markets with significant technical barriers to entry. As previously announced, our stainless steel facility in Midland, Pa., has been idled to reduce our exposure to commodity stainless steel sheet. Our GOES operation will be idled this month. These actions improve ATI's focus on differentiated flat-rolled products that serve growing global markets. The future restart of the idled operations depends on future business conditions and ATI's ability to earn an acceptable return on invested capital on products manufactured at these operations.
"The reduction in FRP's salaried workforce is another step in our journey to return the FRP business to profitability as quickly as possible, and to execute our strategy for sustainable long-term profitable growth. We expect the FRP business to be modestly profitable in the second half of 2016."
www.ATImetals.com.
Allegheny Technologies Inc., Pittsburgh, announces the next phase in the restructuring of its Flat Rolled Products (FRP) operations with the reduction of approximately one third of FRP’s salaried workforce through the elimination of over 250 positions.
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Heat-treated powder metallurgy titanium alloy has higher strength, lower cost
April 13, 2016
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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., announces that its research team has improved the strength of a titanium alloy by producing it via powder metallurgy and heat treating it at different temperatures, then quenching in cold water.
Five decades ago, metallurgists created an alloy named Ti185 by blending titanium with low-cost iron, aluminum, and vanadium. However, superior strength was observed for this alloy only in some places, and the alloy had a tendency to clump. Iron clustered in some areas, leading to beta fleck defects, making the alloy unsuitable for reliable commercial production.
Subsequently, in a study carried out about six years ago, the PNNL researchers and its collaborators devised a low-cost powder metallurgy process for the industrial-scale production of the alloy. They used titanium hydride powder instead of molten titanium as the starting material, reducing the energy requirements significantly and cutting the process time in half. ADMA co-developed the method with PNNL metallurgist Curt Lavender. The company sells advanced materials such as the titanium hydride powder to industries, including aerospace.
In their earlier study, the researchers had already demonstrated the superior mechanical properties of the titanium alloy created from their low-cost process. In the new study, they explored how to make even stronger titanium alloys. The team was able to gain insights into the nanostructure of the alloy by using a unique atom probe imaging approach and powerful electron microscopes.
Using electron microscopy, the team observed the microstructure of the alloy at a resolution of hundreds of nanometers. The atom probe tomography system at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at PNNL, was used to observe the arrangement of individual atoms in 3D.
The researchers found that their optimized heat-treating process produced an alloy with an alpha phase, consisting of micron and nanometer -size precipitate regions, in a matrix of beta phase. Each region has higher concentrations of certain elements. The aluminum and titanium atoms are found inside the nano-sized alpha phase precipitates, whereas vanadium and iron are in the beta phase.
"We found that if you heat treat it first at a higher temperature before a low -temperature heat treatment step, you could create a titanium alloy 10 to 15% stronger than any commercial titanium alloy currently on the market, and that it has roughly double the strength of steel," says Arun Devaraj, Materials Scientist at PNNL
"This alloy is still more expensive than steel, but with its strength-to-cost ratio, it becomes much more affordable with greater potential for lightweight automotive applications," added Vineet Joshi, who serves as a metallurgist at PNNL.
www.pnnl.gov
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., announces that its research team has improved the strength of a titanium alloy by producing it via powder metallurgy and heat treating it at different temperatures, then quenching in cold water.
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Amorphous steel powder metallurgy alloy has highest impact resistance
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The University of California San Diego announces that a team of engineers has developed and tested SAM2X5-630, a type of amorphous steel with a record-breaking ability to withstand impact without deforming permanently. To make the solid materials that comprise the alloy, Prof. Olivia Graeve and her team first mixed iron and other powders in a graphite mold. The powders were then pressurized at 100 MPa or 1000 atmospheres, and exposed to a powerful current of 10,000 amperes at 1165°F during a process called spark plasma sintering.
The process creates an amorphous structure that contains small crystalline regions that are only a few nanometers in size. Researchers believe that these small regions are key to the material's ability to withstand stress. This finding is promising because it shows that the properties of metallic glasses can be fine-tuned to overcome shortcomings such as brittleness, which have prevented them from becoming commercially applicable on a large scale.
Researchers at the University of Southern California, led by Prof. Veronica Eliasson, tested how the alloy responds to shock without undergoing permanent deformation by hitting samples of the material with copper plates fired from a gas gun at 500 to 1300 meters per second. The material did deform on impact, but not permanently.
The Hugoniot Elastic Limit is defined as the maximum shock a material can take without irreversibly deforming. The limit of a 1.5-1.8 mm-thick piece of SAM2X5-630 was measured at 11.76 GPa. By comparison, stainless steel has an elastic limit of 0.2 GPa, while that of tungsten carbide is 4.5 GPa.
The primary focus of future research efforts on these alloys is increasing the weight of the materials to make them more resistant to impacts.
In addition to Prof. Graeve and Prof. Eliasson, co-authors include Prof. Gauri R. Khanolkar and Prof. Andrea M. Hodge at USC, Prof.Michael B. Rauls at Caltech, and Prof. James Kelly from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego.
This research was supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, grant HDTRA1-11-1-0067.
The full study "Shock Wave Response of Iron-based In Situ Metallic Glass Matrix Composites," published on March 2, can be found online at http://www.nature.com/articles/srep22568
http://jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/
The University of California San Diego announces that a team of engineers has developed and tested SAM2X5-630, a type of amorphous steel with a record-breaking ability to withstand impact without deforming permanently.
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