Metal powders are potential replacement for fossil fuels
December 17, 2015
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Can you imagine a future where your car is fueled by iron powder instead of gasoline? Metal powders, produced using clean primary energy sources, could provide a more viable long-term replacement for fossil fuels than other widely discussed alternatives, such as hydrogen, biofuels or batteries, according to a study researchers at McGill University, Canada.
"Technologies to generate clean electricity—primarily solar and wind power—are being developed rapidly; but we can't use that electricity for many of the things that oil and gas are used for today, such as transportation and global energy trade," says Professor Jeffrey Bergthorson.
"Biofuels can be part of the solution, but won't be able to satisfy all the demand; hydrogen requires big, heavy fuel tanks and is explosive, and batteries are too bulky and don't store enough energy for many applications," says Bergthorson. "Using metal powders as recyclable fuels that store clean primary energy for later use is a very promising alternative solution."
Novel concept
The research includes other McGill researchers and a European Space Agency scientist in the Netherlands, lays out a novel concept for using tiny metal particles—similar in size to fine flour or icing sugar—to power external-combustion engines.
Unlike the internal-combustion engines used in gasoline-powered cars, external-combustion engines use heat from an outside source to drive an engine. External-combustion engines, modern versions of the coal-fired steam locomotives that drove the industrial era, are widely used to generate power from nuclear, coal or biomass fuels in power stations.
The idea of burning metal powders is nothing new – they've been used for centuries in fireworks, for instance. Since the mid-20th century, they've also been used in rocket propellants, such as the space shuttle's solid-fuel booster rockets. But relatively little research has been done in recent decades on the properties of metal flames, and the potential for metal powders to be used as a recyclable fuel in a wide range of applications has been largely overlooked by scientists.
Recyclable after combustion
The idea put forward by the McGill team takes advantage of an important property of metal powders: when burned, they react with air to form stable, nontoxic solid-oxide products that can be collected relatively easily for recycling – unlike the CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels that escape into the atmosphere.
Using a custom-built burner, the team demonstrated that a flame can be stabilized in a flow of tiny metal particles suspended in air. Flames from metal powders "appear quite similar" to those produced by burning hydrocarbon fuels, according to researchers. "The energy and power densities of the proposed metal-fueled heat engines are predicted to be close to current fossil-fueled internal combustion engines, making them an attractive technology for a future low-carbon society."
Iron could be the primary candidate for this purpose. Millions of tons of iron powders are already produced annually for the metallurgy, chemical and electronic industries. And iron is readily recyclable with well-established technologies, and some novel techniques can avoid the carbon dioxide emissions associated with traditional iron production using coal.
Next step: building a prototype
While laboratory work at McGill and elsewhere has shown that the use of metal fuels with heat engines is technically feasible, no one has yet demonstrated the idea in practice. The next step toward turning the lab findings into usable technology, therefore, will be "to build a prototype burner and couple it to a heat engine," Bergthorson says. "Developing metal recycling processes that don't involve CO2 emissions is also critical."
David Jarvis, head of strategic and emerging technologies at the European Space Agency, adds: "We are very interested in this technology because it opens the door to new propulsion systems that can be used in space and on earth. The shift away from fossil fuels for vehicle propulsion is a clear trend for the future. While not perfected and commercialized today, the use of low-cost metallic fuels, like iron powder, is a worthy alternative to petrol and diesel fuels. If we can demonstrate, for the first time, an iron-fueled engine with almost zero CO2 emissions, we believe this would then trigger even more innovation and cost reduction in the near future."
Research on metal combustion at McGill has been funded over the past 20 years by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Department of National Defence, the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, Martec Ltd. (Halifax, NS), and the Trottier Institute for Sustainability in Engineering and Design.
Image caption — Stabilized flames of different metal powders burning with air, compared to a methane-air flame.
Can you imagine a future where your car is fueled by iron powder instead of gasoline?
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Ipsen Atlas furnace system improves capabilities for commercial heat treater
December 16, 2015
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Ipsen, Cherry Valley, Ill., reports that a Midwest commercial heat treater recently purchased an Atlas atmosphere furnace for several processes, including carburizing, neutral hardening, and carbonitriding, as well as to help the company further increase its capabilities and product offerings.
The Atlas furnace features a 36 x 48 x 38-inch load size, with a 3500-pound load capacity. It operates at temperatures of 1450 to 1800°F and has a quench oil capacity of 3500 gallons. Equipped with Ipsen's newest design features and innovations, the Atlas is configured for maximum compatibility and to consistently produce quality parts. Featuring variable-speed quench agitation, users are able to achieve and maintain better quenching control, which in turn, results in minimized distortion and high part quality.
Benefits include the ability to integrate into existing furnace lines and fit into existing pits; a flexible design that conveniently positions components so as to maximize the use of floor space; and energy-efficient operation thanks to the utilization of Ipsen's Recon III Burners, single-ended radiant tubes, tight door seals, insulation, and intuitive controls. Intuitive Carb-o-Prof controls software allows users to gain ultimate control over the process while also saving valuable time and resources.
www.ipsenusa.com
Ipsen, Cherry Valley, Ill., reports that a Midwest commercial heat treater recently purchased an Atlas atmosphere furnace for several processes, including carburizing, neutral hardening, and carbonitriding, as well as to help the company further increase its capabilities and product offerings.
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High-energy X-rays provide affordable way to optimize cast iron
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Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill., reports that its engineers have learned that the structure of graphite, its spatial arrangement in cast iron, and its phase connectivity are key factors that determine the properties of cast iron. However, the shape, size, and distribution of graphite particles in cast iron depend on processing parameters such as the chemistry of the melt and various inoculants added to molten iron.
Researchers learned how to optimize the strength and durability of cast iron by studying its microstructure with high-energy X-rays during the manufacturing process to determine the exact processing parameters needed to elicit the ideal properties for each cast iron application.
High-energy X-ray tomography can reveal previously unknown reactions of graphite in cast iron, such as the growth of nodules, as it undergoes various treatments. The X-rays also can unambiguously classify the particle types involved, which is critical to identifying the structure-process relationship. These insights hold the key to manipulating the atomic structure of the graphite through changing the chemistry of the melt, and altering the inoculants added to the liquid cast iron.
Synchrotron X-ray analysis has several advantages over the current techniques used to evaluate graphite microstructure. Focused ion beams (FIB) and transmission electron microscopy can provide high-resolution 3-D images. However, these technologies are labor-intensive and time consuming — and they destroy the sample. On the other hand, high-energy X-rays penetrate nonhomogeneous samples up to a centimeter thick under real operating conditions. This avoids the challenges of FIB and TEM techniques, while also providing a better statistical representation of parameters in bulk material.
The research team found that the synchrotron characterization methods enable new insight into why compacted graphite iron can conduct heat better than ductile iron while maintaining good ductile strength. The learned that the answer lies in the shape, size, and distribution of the graphite particles in the cast iron.
For the transportation industry, the ability to modify manufacturing processes to create high-performance materials could aid in the development of more fuel-efficient engines or engine parts that can withstand heat better to have longer lifespans.
"Researchers at Caterpillar are actively seeking to improve our understanding of cast iron alloys in order to provide innovative product solutions to our customers," said Richard Huff, a Technical Team Leader with Caterpillar Inc., which supplied engine alloy castings for the proof of principle study.
The results were published in the journal Scripta Materialia in the article "3D quantitative analysis of graphite morphology in high strength cast iron by high-energy X-ray tomography".
www.anl.gov
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill., reports that its engineers have learned that the structure of graphite, its spatial arrangement in cast iron, and its phase connectivity are key factors that determine the properties of cast iron.
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Lockheed Martin commemorates the USS Milwaukee with custom motorcycle
December 9, 2015
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Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, Md., announces that it has collaborated with Harley-Davidson on a one-of-a-kind motorcycle to honor the U.S. Navy and the city of Milwaukee, to commemorate the commissioning of the USS Milwaukee, our nation's fifth Littoral Combat Ship.
"We wanted to do something special for the occasion and support the families of our military men and women who sacrifice so much to protect our freedoms," said Stephanie C. Hill, Lockheed Martin vice president of Ship & Aviation Systems. "We're excited to collaborate with Milwaukee's own Harley-Davidson, a company that has been fulfilling dreams of personal freedom for over 100 years."
The motorcycle will be on display during USS Milwaukee Commissioning week, followed by appearances at U.S. Navy, industry, and STEM events over the next year, culminating with a charity auction to support the National Military Family Association (NMFA).
Harley-Davidson Chief Stylist Ray Drea designed the motorcycle, drawing inspiration from touring the Fincantieri Marinette Marine Corp. shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin, where the Lockheed Martin-led industry team builds the Freedom-variant LCS. The design also honors historic WWII-era Harley-Davidson motorcycles to model some of the authentic Navy and military custom details.
The fifth U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name Milwaukee, the ship will transit to its homeport in San Diego, California. There it will be integrated into the fleet, and the industry-Navy team will conduct additional program testing and crew training before she begins her first deployment.
www.lockheedmartin.com
Lockheed Martin, Bethesda, Md., announces that it has collaborated with Harley-Davidson on a one-of-a-kind motorcycle to honor the U.S. Navy and the city of Milwaukee, to commemorate the commissioning of the USS Milwaukee, our nation’s fifth Littoral Combat Ship.
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Seco-Warwick furnaces reduce costs for Netherlands heat treater
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Seco-Warwick, Meadville, Pa., has delivered two retort vacuum tempering furnaces for high vacuum treatment to H&ST Eindhoven to reduce costs and to increase capacity and quality of treated parts. These furnaces provide more efficiency at high temperatures, and increase brightness of the parts after annealing/tempering. The solution will exceed parameters of the process in furnaces based on nitrogen, argon, or forming gas.
The retort vacuum tempering furnaces provide full control of the process parameters displayed on the LCD screen, and include a separate system for maintenance reminders and parameters control. The furnaces can be connected to the internal data from every process of the furnace.
According to Seco-Warwick's Katarzyna Sawka, Group Marketing Director, "This solution comes along with a new development of the Western Europe market. We have started a process of planting sales and service offices around Europe to ensure quick response time and continuous maintenance for our customers and products."
"We are happy to deliver the solution that answers our client's needs," says Georg Cluse, Managing Director of Seco-Warwick Germany. "Alberts Industries haven't used such technology in their operations, so we are introducing not only a new product, but also a new way of thinking about effective heat treatment solutions."
www.secowarwick.com
Seco-Warwick, Meadville, Pa., has delivered two retort vacuum tempering furnaces for high vacuum treatment to H&ST Eindhoven to reduce costs and to increase capacity and quality of treated parts.
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Oxygen-free copper strip produced in continuous casting, rolling, and coiling process
November 30, 2015
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Mansfelder, Kupfer, und Messing GmbH (MKM), Germany, has begun the production of high-purity, oxygen-free copper strip via Conti-M technology, which makes it possible to cast, hot-roll, mill, and coil copper strip in a continuous process. The oxygen-free (OFE) copper contains no elements that can outgas in vacuum, is an excellent conductor of electricity and heat, and is particularly resistant to hydrogen in both natural and industrial atmospheres.
OFE copper is also resistant to stress corrosion cracking. MKM will be offering OFE copper predominantly to customers in the electrical engineering, electronics, and vacuum systems engineering segments, for whom this high-quality copper strip offers exceptional properties. OFE copper not only possesses very good hot and cold forming properties, but also is good for welding and very good for hard and soft soldering.
According to Roland Harings, CEO of MKM, "With OFE copper strip, we at MKM have now begun a quality-oriented expansion of our product portfolio that fulfils the demands of many of our customers. Numerous tests have clearly confirmed that MKM OFE copper strip can offer exceptionally high quality standards and process reliability."
MKM is the only manufacturer in the world to offer copper wire, strips, tubes, bars, and sheets from a single source. In the past year, MKM processed 245,000 metric ton of copper, with a workforce of about 1100 employees. Approximately 1000 customers from 60 different countries place their trust in MKM. This positions MKM as a global premium partner for the electronics and construction industry, solar energy, and systems engineering; and the automotive, aerospace and telecommunications segments.
http://www.mkm.eu/en/
Mansfelder, Kupfer, und Messing GmbH (MKM), Germany, has begun the production of high-purity, oxygen-free copper strip via Conti-M technology, which makes it possible to cast, hot-roll, mill, and coil copper strip in a continuous process.
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Constellium to invest $20 million in new aluminum manufacturing facility in Georgia
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Constellium N. V., Amsterdam, announces that it will construct a new 84,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Bartow County, Georgia, in response to growing demand for its automotive aluminum structures in North America. This project represents a $20 million investment by Constellium and an additional $12 million investment by developer Seefried Properties, for a total project value of $32 million. Construction of the plant will begin in early 2016, with start of production anticipated in 2017.
"The new Georgia plant demonstrates Constellium's commitment to work in partnership with automakers in North America and to be near their assembly plants," said Paul Warton, President of Constellium's Automotive Structures and Industry business unit. "This expansion of our footprint in the Southeast United States will allow us to better serve our automotive customers and to respond the industry's growing demand for aluminum structural parts."
The planned 84,000 sq. ft. greenfield facility may be expanded up to 220,000 sq. ft. to adapt to customers' supply needs in the future.
"Georgia has a strong business climate and an advanced technical education network to provide a skilled workforce for our operations," commented Eric Krepps, Vice President and General Manager of Constellium Automotive Structures North America. "We are grateful for the warm welcome we have received from the State of Georgia, Bartow County and a number of partners to help achieve our business goals."
www.constellium.com
Constellium N. V., Amsterdam, announces that it will construct a new 84,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility in Bartow County, Georgia, in response to growing demand for its automotive aluminum structures in North America.
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Novelis opens heat treatment plant in Germany for aluminum automotive sheet
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Novelis, Atlanta, has opened a state-of-the-art aluminum automotive heat treatment line in Nachterstedt, Germany, to serve European and global automotive aluminum sheet customers. Located adjacent to its existing rolling mill and the world's largest aluminum recycling center, the $85 million investment will increase production capacity by 120,000 metric tons of automotive sheet annually.
At full production, this line will increase Novelis' European automotive sheet capacity to 350,000 metric tons per year and will provide global customers with high-quality automotive sheet, including the Novelis Advanz portfolio of alloys for lightweight vehicle structures and body panels. Since 2011, Novelis has invested more than $550 million globally to triple its automotive sheet capacity.
"Coupled with our recent automotive expansions in North America and Asia, the opening of the new production line in Europe strengthens our industry leadership in the automotive market and uniquely positions Novelis to serve our global customers," said Steve Fisher, President and CEO of Novelis.
As a leading supplier of aluminum flat rolled products, Novelis partners with leading automakers such as Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, and Ford to supply the next generation of aluminum vehicles. Novelis aluminum can be found in more than 180 different vehicle models in production today. Together with its customers, Novelis is developing innovative aluminum alloy solutions that achieve high levels of strength, safety and performance.
The technology in the new Nachterstedt finishing line is identical to that of the lines recently commissioned in the United States and China, providing Novelis' global customers with the highest level of quality and consistency regardless of location. With 56 newly created jobs and 1200 employees in total, the Nachterstedt complex is the biggest facility of the nine Novelis plants across Europe and one of the biggest employers in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
www.novelis.com
Novelis, Atlanta, has opened a state-of-the-art aluminum automotive heat treatment line in Nachterstedt, Germany, to serve European and global automotive aluminum sheet customers.
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Can-Eng to design and build T-7 heat treat system for aluminum auto castings
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Can-Eng Furnaces Intl. Ltd., Niagara Falls, Ontario, has been contracted by a large automotive supplier to design, manufacture, and commission an automated T-7 heat treatment system for high-integrity aluminum automotive structural castings. Can-Eng technology was chosen because it provides predictable mechanical properties and maintains the dimensional stability of the casting. The system also offers inherent part-handling features that reduce floor space requirements and energy consumption.
The T-7 cell includes robotic handling, a solution and aging furnace with Precision Air Quench (PAQ) technology, and controls integrated into a Level II SCADA system. The PAQ system offers a unique combination of recirculating air chambers, distribution nozzles, dampers, and directional ductwork. Analysis of CFD modelling ensures that the PAQ system delivers controlled quench media to the casting, leading to repeatable and uniform mechanical properties and accurate dimensional results.
The T-7 heat treatment system is integrated with upstream and downstream processing operations, reducing W.I.P inventories. It is scheduled to be commissioned in the summer of 2016 with a second phase to follow in 2017.
www.can-eng.com
Can-Eng Furnaces Intl. Ltd., Niagara Falls, Ontario, has been contracted by a large automotive supplier to design, manufacture, and commission an automated T-7 heat treatment system for high-integrity aluminum automotive structural castings.
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Low-pressure carbonitration developed for case hardening
November 25, 2015
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Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, reports that its engineers are now working on low-pressure carbonitration, a process for the case hardening of low-alloy steel with methylamine. Together with researchers of Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, they found that methylamine and dimethylamine process gases cause a good enrichment of the surface layer with carbon and nitrogen. The steels hardened in this way are suitable for structures such as the Bosch high-strength auto components shown here.
At temperatures between 800 and 1050°C and total pressures below 50 millibars, the surface of the component to be hardened is enriched with carbon and nitrogen from methylamine and subsequently hardened by quenching. The project is aimed at studying the fundamentals of low-pressure carbonitration and developing this process to maturity in cooperation with research and industry partners.
"Low-pressure carbonitration combines the advantages of low-pressure processes with those of atmospheric carbonitration," says project leader David Koch. Conventional atmospheric carbonitration damages the surface of the components treated by oxidation. This can be prevented by low-pressure processes. In addition, a more homogeneous hardness profile is generated in the component, in particular in complex component geometries.
Up to now, low-pressure carbonitration has been carried out nearly exclusively with ammonia as a nitrogen donor, and ethyne or propane as a carbon donor. The KIT scientists have now studied other gases and gas mixtures for suitability. When using methylamine for low-pressure carbonitration, only one gas instead of two is required, and the usually applied two process steps can be reduced to one. Compared to the use of ammonia as nitrogen donor together with a carbon donor, methylamine alone reaches a higher nitrogen enrichment in the surface layer. As carbon enters the surface layer in parallel, the process duration is shortened considerably. Methylamine also allows for carbonitration at much higher temperatures, which additionally shortens the process duration. Moreover, the degree of utilization of methylamine as a process gas is better, so that less is needed.
The results for low-pressure carbonitration with methylamine have been published in HTM – The Journal of Heat Treatment and Materials.
https://www.kit.edu/english
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany, reports that its engineers are now working on low-pressure carbonitration, a process for the case hardening of low-alloy steel with methylamine.
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