Women in engineering profile: Lesley D. Frame
June 9, 2016 Source: ASM International
This new profile series introduces leading materials scientists from around the world who happen to be females. Here we speak with Lesley D. Frame, Director of Product Development for Thermatool Corp.
Continue readingIMS Welcomes the Failure Analysis Society
June 2, 2016 Source:
Hello IMS Members,
On behalf of the International Metallographic Society and its board of directors, I would like to welcome the new ASM affiliate, the Failure Analysis Society. The society is dedicated to advancing the important role failure analysis plays in the materials science industry. The new affiliate society emerged from an existing ASM committee that has offered failure analysis programming and content for more than 15 years. Currently, FAS has approximately 2500 members.
FAS will continue to provide collaboration, networking, and educational opportunities for materials science professionals. It will also continue to have its own technical programming at the annual Materials Science & Technology conference, and will continue to publish its own journal, the Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention. In addition, an online database of failure analysis case studies will be available in the future.
Metallographic evaluation, interpretation, and expertise are an integral tool to the world of failure analysis. There is a common bond between our two affiliate societies. Our members should welcome to the opportunity to collaborate with this new ASM affiliate society.
FAS is the sixth affiliate society launched by ASM, joining the Heat Treating Society, Thermal Spray Society, International Metallographic Society, Electronic Device Failure Analysis Society, and the International Organization on Shape Memory and Superelastic Technologies.
The FAS membership fee is $25 annually and also requires a membership to ASM International.
Sincerely,
Daniel P. Dennies, Ph.D., P.E., FASM
Director, International Metallographic Society
Director, Failure Analysis Society
On behalf of the International Metallographic Society and its board of directors, I would like to welcome the new ASM affiliate, the Failure Analysis Society.
Continue readingASM forms strategic alliance with SVC
May 4, 2016 Source: ASM International
The new strategic alliance brings the complementary strengths of both organizations together to better serve their global members and the community at large.
Continue readingSpace telescope boasts a dozen flight mirrors
May 3, 2016 Source:
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.
Continue readingHeat-treated powder metallurgy titanium alloy has higher strength, lower cost
April 13, 2016 Source:
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.
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.
Continue reading3D-printed metal aircraft parts
April 8, 2016 Source:
Alcoa, Pittsburgh, entered into an agreement with Airbus, France, to supply 3D-printed metal parts for commercial aircraft. The parts will be produced using comprehensive capabilities—from multimaterial alloy development to additive manufacturing and aerospace parts qualification. The first additive manufactured parts are expected to be delivered midyear.
The agreement draws on Alcoa's aerospace experience and new technologies gained through its recent acquisition of RTI. The company also recently invested in 3D-printing and metallic powder production capabilities at its technical center outside of Pittsburgh.
Last year, Alcoa acquired RTI International Metals (RTI)—now known as Alcoa Titanium & Engineered Products (ATEP)—which grew its additive manufacturing capabilities to include 3D-printed titanium and specialty metals parts produced at ATEP's Austin, Texas facility. The Airbus agreement draws on these capabilities as well as ATEP's titanium ingot melting and billetizing, machining, finishing, and inspection technologies.
Alcoa will use advanced CT scan and hot isostatic pressing (HIP) capabilities at its advanced aerospace facility in Whitehall, Mich. HIP strengthens the metallic structures of traditional and additive manufactured parts made of titanium and nickel based superalloys. Through a $22 million investment in the technology, Alcoa today owns and operates one of the largest aerospace HIP technology complexes in the world.
Additionally, Alcoa is bolstering its additive manufacturing capabilities through a $60 million expansion in advanced 3D-printing materials and processes, including metallic powders. The expansion is located at the Alcoa Technical Center near Pittsburgh.
Alcoa, Pittsburgh, entered into an agreement with Airbus, France, to supply 3D-printed metal parts for commercial aircraft.
Continue readingTresa Pollock named Principal Editor for Metallurgical and Materials Transactions
January 19, 2016 Source: ASM International
ASM International, Materials Park, Ohio, announces that the new principal editor of the Metallurgical and Materials Transactions (Met Trans) family of journals will be Dr. Tresa M. Pollock, an internationally recognized leader in the science and technology of advanced structural alloys.
Continue readingWinners of Head Health Challenge III announced
December 18, 2015 Source:
The National Football League (NFL), Under Armour, General Electric , and the U.S. Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), recently announced the five winners of Head Health Challenge III, an open innovation competition to support the discovery, design, and development of advanced materials that better absorb or dissipate impact. The new materials have the potential to improve the performance of protective gear, playing surfaces, and equipment for athletes, members of the military, and others.
Each of the winners will receive $250,000 to advance their work in developing state-of-the-art materials. A panel of leading experts in the field of materials science selected these five winners from 125 entries because they met the challenge's technical criteria to maximize energy absorption and minimize momentum transfer. One overall Head Health Challenge III winner will be selected from the five awardees to receive a $500,000 grand prize.
The Challenge III award winners are:
The finalists will work with the HHC III partners to optimize their materials over the coming year.
The Challenge III judges were:
Head Health Challenge III, part of the larger Head Health Initiative, a four-year, $60 million collaboration between GE and the NFL, is one of three open innovation challenges to invest up to $20 million in research and technology development to better understand, identify and protect against brain injury. Challenge I focused on discovering imaging and methods for diagnosis and prognosis of mild traumatic brain injuries, and in July 2015, six grand prize winners were awarded $500,000 to further their revolutionary research. Challenge II focused on new technologies to monitor, identify and protect against mild traumatic brain injury, and in December 2015, three grand prize winners were announced. The winners could receive up to $1 million over the next year to continue to advance their innovations.
The Head Health Challenge III collaboration helps implement a pledge by NIST and the Department of Commerce to invest resources to accelerate the development of materials that can protect against concussions, made at the White House's Healthy Kids and Safe Sports Concussion Summit in May 2014.
The National Football League (NFL), Under Armour, General Electric , and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), recently announced the five winners of Head Health Challenge III, an open innovation competition to support the discovery, design, and development of advanced materials that better absorb or dissipate impact.
Continue readingMetal powders are potential replacement for fossil fuels
December 17, 2015 Source:
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?
Continue readingWhite House Energy Summit focuses on advancing technology safety and low-cost energy
November 12, 2015 Source:
Speaking at the White House Summit on Nuclear Energy on November 6, physicist Christina Back of General Atomics (GA), San Diego, highlighted the urgency of developing next-generation fast-gas reactors with new materials to enhance safety and ensure energy security.
As GA's Director of Nuclear Technologies and Materials, Back specializes in developing new heat-resistant ceramics to enable delivery of cost-competitive clean energy with unprecedented safety via the innovative gas-cooled reactor, the Energy Multiplier Module or EM2.
She participated as one of five expert panelists at a forum spotlighting the Obama Administration's commitment to advanced nuclear energy and maintaining U.S. technology leadership in the industry. Back emphasized during her remarks that nuclear energy is the dominant energy source that is sustainable, compatible with 21st century power grids and free of greenhouse gases.
Panelists featured nuclear energy industry leaders including John Kotek, Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy. The invited audience included leaders in academia, government, labor, environmental organizations, the nuclear industry, non-governmental organizations, think tanks and the investment community.
The panel focused on innovations in nuclear energy, with Back explaining that the design of EM2 draws on GA's 60 years of experience in designing and building safe reactors and aims to solve four big challenges: safety, waste, economics, and nonproliferation.
"Nuclear energy is important for the security of our country," says Back, noting that to turn new technology innovation into clean-energy reality, "We need investment and support from the DOE and Congress and the nation to understand what the challenges are, but also to understand what the huge payoff and benefits are for our country."
EM2 is a gas-cooled fast reactor designed to deliver low-cost nuclear energy by using a high-efficiency system, a "convert-and-burn" fuel cycle able to produce 265 megawatts-electric, in a compact modular design. It incorporates industry-leading safety and nonproliferation features and can run on nuclear waste.
The White House Summit on Nuclear Energy was billed by officials as a forum for highlighting the Administration's commitment to nuclear energy as a clean energy solution and "for maintaining U.S. leadership in nuclear energy to realize economic competitiveness, national security and nonproliferation objectives."
GA continues to be a leader in fission and fusion focused on a wide range of energy solutions. The DIII-D National Fusion Facility, operated by GA for the U.S. Department of Energy, is the largest magnetic fusion device in the nation and one of the largest in the world. GA is also a leading manufacturer of precision technology for inertial confinement fusion.
Image caption — EM2 waste-to-energy fast-gas reactor being developed by General Atomics with unprecedented safety innovations.
Speaking at the White House Summit on Nuclear Energy physicist Christina Back of General Atomics highlighted the urgency of developing next-generation fast-gas reactors with new materials to enhance safety and ensure energy security.
Continue reading