Three Lego aluminum astronauts travel to Jupiter on Juno
July 6, 2016
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The Lego Group, Sweden, provided three 1.5-inch figurines milled out of a single block of aluminum to ride to Jupiter on the Juno spacecraft: the astronomer Galileo, and the Greek gods Juno and Jupiter. The Juno figure holds a magnifying glass to signify her search for the truth, while Jupiter holds a lightning bolt. Galileo holds both a model of the planet and his telescope.
The figurines were milled out of a single block of aluminum rather than plastic, in order to allow the figures to withstand the extreme temperatures encountered during the journey.
The Lego figurines have set records for the fastest-traveling Legos on record. The spacecraft blasted away from Earth in 2011, and reached Jupiter five years later, on July 4.
The Lego pieces are part of a joint agreement between the Lego company and NASA that is aimed at engaging the public in science education. The space agency is encouraging the public to use Lego pieces to construct models of the future of space exploration, and submit these to NASA as part of a competition.
You can read the 2011 Lego news release here: http://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news-room/2011/august/lego-minifigures-on-a-mission-to-promote-space-research
Many other sites report on the Lego figures. Here are two.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/6/12105878/nasa-juno-mission-aluminum-lego-figures-jupiter
www.sciencealert.com
The Lego Group, Sweden, provided three 1.5-inch figurines milled out of a single block of aluminum to ride to Jupiter on the Juno spacecraft: the astronomer Galileo, and the Greek gods Juno and Jupiter.
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One Minute Mentor: Annealing of Austenitic Stainless Steels
June 29, 2016
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The graph shows isothermal precipitation kinetics for detrimental σ/χ phases for the 254 SMO (S31254), 904L, and 317LMN alloys. For comparison, the stability curve for the formation of chromium carbide in type 316 stainless steel is presented.
As the alloying content increases, the time to precipitate these undesirable phases decreases, and the more highly alloyed superaustenitic grades have very limited time (less than a minute) before the onset of precipitation at temperatures in the 1470 to 1700°F range.
Because of this, cooling from the anneal temperature must be controlled to maximize the quench rate and minimize the time in the 1020 to 1920°F temperature range. This is particularly a problem with thick sections, for which rapid cooling rates are difficult to achieve in the center section.
Annealing temperatures for these more highly alloyed austenitic grades tend to be higher than those of the conventional austenitic grades. These high annealing temperatures ensure dissolution of undesirable secondary phases and promote homogenization of as-solidified structures.
Volume 4D, Heat Treating of Irons and Steels ⇒ Heat Treated High-Alloy Steels ⇒ Heat Treating of Austenitic and Duplex Stainless Steels ⇒ Annealing
The graph shows isothermal precipitation kinetics for detrimental ?/? phases for the 254 SMO (S31254), 904L, and 317LMN alloys.
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Xiaoqing Cai Receives 2016 HTS/Bodycote Best Paper in Heat Treating Award
June 27, 2016
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Xiaoqing Cai was presented the 2016 HTS/Bodycote Best Paper in Heat Treating Award by Dean Hoffmann (left) of Bodycote at Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Center for Heat Treating Excellence on June 15 during their spring meeting. The award includes a plaque and a $2500 prize endowed by Bodycote Thermal Process North America.
She received assistance on her winning paper, "Microstructure Development in AISI 4140 Steels During Tempering," from her advisor, Dr. Richard D. Sisson Jr., FASM. Ms. Cai is a Ph.D. student in materials science and engineering at WPI. She is currently working on a research project focused on furnace and induction tempering of steel.
Xiaoqing Cai was presented the 2016 HTS/Bodycote Best Paper in Heat Treating Award by Dean Hoffmann (left) of Bodycote at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Center for Heat Treating Excellence on June 15 during their Spring meeting.
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Single-chamber box furnace heat treats mold tooling for die maker
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Lucifer Furnaces Inc., Warrington, Pa., announces that Century Die Co. LLC, Fremont, Ohio, has purchased a Lucifer Red Devil single-chamber box furnace for heat treating mold tooling. Model RD7-H21 has a working chamber size of 9x12x21 inches, lined with lightweight firebrick and mineral wool backup insulation. Easy-to-replace heating elements for uniform radiation are situated along both side walls, and heat the furnace to 2200°F.
The furnace features a horizontal swing door and safety microswitch, as well as a ceramic hearth plate to support the workload and protect the floor brick insulation. Century Die engineers chose to accessorize the furnace with a base stand to bring the hearth height to 30 inches. The upgraded Honeywell UDC 2500 controller allows programming up to 12 segments. An additional soak timer with alarm contact alerts the operator when heat treating is complete.
Century Die plans on serving higher customer demands and increasingly shorter lead times by keeping the overnight, and sometimes same day, heat-treat requirements in-house. Many customers are running a 24/7 operation and cannot allow excessive downtime.
Mark Carter from Century Die says he has been very happy with performance of an older dual-chamber Lucifer Furnace space-saver unit, which led the company to select Lucifer Furnaces for its new equipment. In addition to being a leading supplier of blow, compression, and thermoform mold tooling for plastic packaging and components, Century Die is also a major repair and refurbishment facility for this type of tooling.
www.luciferfurnaces.com
Lucifer Furnaces Inc., Warrington, Pa., announces that Century Die Co. LLC, Fremont, Ohio, has purchased a Lucifer Red Devil single-chamber box furnace for heat treating mold tooling.
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SecoWarwick Compact furnace hardens tool steels at pressures under 15 Bar
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Seco/Warwick Retech, Meadville, Pa., introduces the Compact furnace, designed for hardening tool and other steels at gas pressures under 15 Bar. With a pumpdown time to operational vacuum of less than 15 minutes and tight uniformity, the Compact meets AMS 2750E, Class 2 requirements at a value price and short delivery time.
The furnace meets the requirements of NADCA, Ford, and GM heat treatment specifications. It has a pre-installed package of recipes for selecting heat treat parameters, depending on grade of steel and part geometry. A smart control system enables reduction of power consumption.
The furnace provides brazing, annealing, hardening, solution heat treating, sintering, and tempering. Controlled cooling, isoquench, interrupted quench, marquenching, and austempering are available.
The furnace treats metals such as tool steels, high-strength low-alloy steels, stainless steels, superalloys, and titanium alloys.
www.secowarwick.com
Seco/Warwick Retech, Meadville, Pa., introduces the Compact furnace, designed for hardening tool and other steels at gas pressures under 15 Bar.
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AFC-Holcroft heat treating systems to process aluminum auto parts
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AFC-Holcroft, Wixom, Mich., announces that a Tier 1 automotive supplier has ordered a roller hearth homogenizing furnace and a solution heat treat line for the processing of aluminum auto parts. The first order will consist of a roller hearth homogenizing furnace for processing aluminum products. The complete system includes a multi-position loading table, a multi-position furnace, a cooling station, and a multi-position unload table.
The second order is for a solution heat treat line, which will also be used for processing aluminum products. This system will include charge and discharge transfer cars, a multi-position solution furnace, water quench system, multi-position age furnace, multi-position accumulation charge and discharge tables, accumulation cross-over mechanism, and a tray pull-off station.
Additionally, AFC-Holcroft will provide its Remote Diagnostic Service during the furnace warranty period. This service provides a complete remote monitoring and diagnostic package, including transmission and analysis of machine data, targeting the most common or noteworthy events and identifying root causes. The Remote Diagnostic Service transmits data automatically to AFC-Holcroft's secure servers, eliminating the human time and cost associated with manually gathering historical data for the same purpose.
"While AFC-Holcroft is best known for providing equipment for the processing of steel components, we also have a long history of providing equipment to the aluminum industry," stated Mark Johnston, Aftermarket Equipment Sales. "This order is a further inroad into this growing market." Field installation, start-up and commissioning are included with both orders.
www.afc-holcroft.com
AFC-Holcroft, Wixom, Mich., announces that a Tier 1 automotive supplier has ordered a roller hearth homogenizing furnace and a solution heat treat line for the processing of aluminum auto parts.
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Atmosphere control system enables oxide-free annealing of steel, copper, brass
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Linde LLC, Murray Hill, N.J., introduces the Hydroflex atmosphere control system, a universal solution for clean and bright oxide-free annealing of steel, stainless steel, copper, bronze, and brass with high reliability and repeatability. Applications include automotive; aerospace and military components; construction and industrial equipment; and electrical systems.
"The Hydroflex atmosphere control system (ACS) can use one or more carrier gases – nitrogen or argon – to maintain the furnace pressure while a controlled ratio of hydrogen helps prevent oxidation," explains Akin Malas, Head of Application Technology, Metals & Glass Market.
With this technology, many annealing tasks can be completed with non-flammable gas mixtures containing less than 5% H2. This contributes to fire safety while optimizing the use of H2 in the process.
"Uses go beyond annealing," says Grzegorz Moroz, Program Manager, Heat Treatment and Atmospheres. "This control system can help optimize your process efficiency and enhance productivity of your process regardless of whether you are annealing, sintering, or brazing copper, steel, stainless steel, bronze, or brass."
Hydroflex ACS features and benefits include a precisely controlled atmosphere; improved heat transfer; uniform heat distribution with faster cooling rate; automatic safety purging with nitrogen; and storage of process data history.
For flammable atmospheres, system installation may include a furnace safety solution developed by Linde to satisfy National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 86) "Standard for Ovens and Furnaces." The furnace safety/protective atmosphere solution includes a nitrogen supply system with integral alarm panel, used to purge flammable atmosphere furnaces in emergencies.
Linde offers a variety of advanced gas control technologies and engineering services for heat treatment furnaces, including the Carbojet gas-injection technology for improving production by up to 20%. In addition, engineers at Linde Application Technology Centers can develop new gas supply systems for heat treatment processes and improve the control systems of existing processes. Metallography laboratory services include material analyses, scanning electron micrography (SEM), and a variety of hardness tests.
www.lindeus.com
Linde LLC, Murray Hill, N.J., introduces the Hydroflex atmosphere control system, a universal solution for clean and bright oxide-free annealing of steel, stainless steel, copper, bronze, and brass with high reliability and repeatability.
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One Minute Mentor: Highly Alloyed Austenitic Stainless Steels
June 23, 2016
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Highly alloyed austenitic stainless steels typically contain larger amounts of molybdenum to provide very good resistance to chloride corrosion. These alloys are austenitic in the mill-annealed condition but do form σ (sigma) and to a lesser extent χ (chi) phases under certain conditions of heat treatment or service. The σ and χ phases are hard, brittle intermetallic compounds that form in the temperature range of approximately 1020 to 1920°F. The formation of these undesirable secondary phases causes reduced corrosion resistance and a loss of ductility and toughness. Because of these detrimental effects, it is important to avoid the formation of σ and χ during heat treatment and quenching of these grades of stainless steel.
The graph shows isocritical pitting temperature curves that demonstrate the effects of isothermal anneals in the temperature range of sigma formation.
Volume 4D, Heat Treating of Irons and Steels ⇒ Heat Treated High-Alloy Steels ⇒ Heat Treating of Austenitic and Duplex Stainless Steels ⇒ Annealing
Highly alloyed austenitic stainless steels typically contain larger amounts of molybdenum to provide very good resistance to chloride corrosion.
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New GE Aviation facilities to produce SiC fibers and ceramic matrix composites
June 22, 2016
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GE Aviation, Cincinnati, has broken ground for two materials factories near Huntsville: One facility will produce SiC ceramic fiber, while the other will use SiC ceramic fiber to make tape for ceramic matrix composite components in jet engines and land-based gas turbines. GE Aviation's total north Alabama investment will be nearly $200 million. When the plants open, the company will sell fiber to the Department of Defense, GE businesses, Herakles (Safran), and other customers subject to U.S. regulations.
The use of lightweight, heat-resistant CMCs in the hot section of GE jet engines is a breakthrough for the jet propulsion industry. With one-third the density of metal alloys, these ultra-lightweight CMCs reduce the overall engine weight. Further, their high-temperature properties greatly enhance engine performance, durability, and fuel economy. CMCs are far more heat-resistant than metal alloys, hence requiring less cooling air in the engine's hot section. By using this air instead in the engine flow path, an engine runs more efficiently.
For more than 20 years, scientists at GE's Global Research Centers and GE's industrial businesses have worked to develop CMCs for commercial applications. The best-selling LEAP engine, being developed by CFM International, the 50/50 joint company of GE and Safran Aircraft Engines of France, is the first commercial jet engine to use CMCs in the high-pressure turbine section. The LEAP engine, with more than 10,500 orders and commitments, is currently completing certification testing. It is scheduled to enter airline service next year powering the Airbus A320neo and in 2017 powering the Boeing 737 MAX.
GE Aviation is investing more than $200 million to construct two factories on 100 acres in Huntsville, Alabama. When the factories are fully operational later this decade, they are expected to employ up to 300 people. The plants are expected to be completed by the first half of 2018. Production begins in 2018. GE expects to begin hiring the hourly workforce later this year.
"GE Aviation is creating a fully integrated supply chain for producing CMC components in large volume, which is unique to the United States," said Sanjay Correa, vice president who leads the industrialization of advanced technologies at GE Aviation. "The new factories in Alabama are vital to this strategy. We are deeply gratified by the tremendous local, state, and national support for this effort."
While meeting critical U.S. needs for CMC materials for commercial and government-funded programs, the new plants will support GE and its international partners in selling and supporting jet engines and gas turbines worldwide. For example, approximately 61% of GE Aviation's 2015 revenues of $25 billion were derived from customers based outside the United States. GE and its partner companies sell most 70% of its commercial jet engines to non-U.S. companies.
www.geaviation.com
GE Aviation, Cincinnati, has broken ground for two materials factories near Huntsville: One facility will produce SiC ceramic fiber, while the other will use SiC ceramic fiber to make tape for ceramic matrix composite components in jet engines and land-based gas turbines.
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NioCorp and IBC to collaborate on scandium-containing aluminum alloys
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NioCorp Developments Ltd., Centennial, Colo., and IBC Advanced Alloys, Vancouver, announce that they have entered into a joint development agreement to investigate and develop applications for scandium-containing alloys of aluminum and other metals for multiple downstream markets. The joint development agreement signals their intent to collaborate to ensure a reliable and secure U.S. supply of scandium and to catalyze greater scandium use across a variety of industries. Scandium is a transition metal (element #21) that can benefit industries such as commercial aviation, automotive, precision manufacturing, defense, electronics, and others.
When alloyed with aluminum, for example, scandium can increase strength and weldability of structures in commercial airliners, which in turn can reduce weight, fuel consumption, and emissions. ONG Commodities LLC has estimated that $1.0 to $1.5 million of scandium oxide in a Boeing 737NG single-aisle airliner can offer $10 to $15 million of net present value in fuel savings alone.
Scandium is seldom used today because global production is severely constrained and unreliable. The U.S. Geological Survey recently estimated that only 10 to 15 metric tons per year of scandium are now produced. However, independent experts such as ONG estimate that latent demand in the aerospace and solid oxide fuel cell sectors alone is several hundred metric tons per year.
NioCorp expects to come online as one of the world's leading producers of scandium from its Superalloy Materials Project in Elk Creek, Nebraska, potentially producing as much as 97 metric tons/year. IBC produces high-performance alloys in a range of product forms for multiple industries and platforms, including cast components for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The President of IBC Engineered Materials, Chris Huskamp, will be leading the joint development effort for IBC. Mr. Huskamp is a former Boeing Associate Technical Fellow in advanced metallic processes who is credited as a named co-inventor of two pending patents regarding scandium-bearing aluminum alloys.
Scott Honan, Vice President of Business Development of NioCorp and President of Elk Creek Resources Corp., will manage the initiative for NioCorp. Mr. Honan is leading the effort to develop and build NioCorp's niobium/scandium/titanium mine and processing facility in Nebraska, and has more than a decade of experience in producing advanced materials for high-performance alloys.
www.niocorp.com
www.ibcadvancedalloys.com
NioCorp Developments Ltd., Centennial, Colo., and IBC Advanced Alloys, Vancouver, announce that they have entered into a joint development agreement to investigate and develop applications for scandium-containing alloys of aluminum and other metals for multiple downstream markets.
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