Automotive lightweight materials congress returns to Detroit

August 3, 2015
Source:

Annual Global Automotive Lightweight Materials Congress

August 18-20, 2015 – Detroit

This is the largest and most trusted automotive lightweight materials conference, and this years instalment of GALM is scheduled to be the biggest and best ever. The series has been attended by 2000+ attendees across the globe and is returning to Detroit with a 3-day agenda – to share unprecedented detail across composites, joining, forming, and multi-material design.

Building on the successes of GALM events in London, Detroit, and Shanghai this year, this event is fully expected to sell-out, with over 80 attendees and 24 exhibitors already confirmed.

The expert panel of speakers includes:

  • David Wagner, Technical Leader Lightweight Vehicle Design, Ford Motor Co.
  • Surender Maddela, Sr. Research & Development Engineer, Materials Engineering, Nissan Motor Corp.
  • Stephen Logan, Senior Engineering Specialist, Chrysler Group LLC
  • Bhavesh Shah, Senior Advanced Technology Design Release Engineer, General Motors
  • Nir Khan, Director Of Design, Plasan
  • Mark Voss, Engineering Group Manager, Body Advanced Technical Works, General Motors
  • Venkat Aitharaju, Senior Researcher, Polymer Composites, General Motors Global Research and Development
  • Gregg Peterson, Senior Technical Specialist, Lotus Engineering
  • Raymond Boeman, Program Director, Energy Partnerships, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Laurent Chappuis, Technical Expert - Lightweight Stampings, Vehicle Program Engineering – SBU, Ford Motor Co.
  • Glenn Daehn, Mars G. Fontana Professor Of Metallurgical Engineering, Executive Director, Honda Partnership Program

 

With an agenda re-written from scratch and providing a globally respected platform for leading OEMs, material suppliers, joining and forming partners, the 2015 agenda provides new, exclusive content including:

NINE UNIQUE CASE STUDIES ON JOINING: Mitigating corrosion with strong joining for every material combination that can be applied with low cycle times

FORMING METALS: Benchmarking forming methods for magnesium and aluminum to enable adoption into multi-material architectures

EIGHT DEDICATED SESSIONS ON COMPOSITES: From reducing the costs and cycle times of production to design modeling and application success stories

DESIGN AND MATERIAL SELECTION: Selecting the optimal materials across the body, interior and closures to maximize total weight loss across the vehicle

RECYCLING: Analyzing the lifecycle implications for aluminum and carbon-fiber, tackling segmentation and re-use challenges

View a full conference brochure.

 

Automotive lightweight materials congress returns to Detroit

The Annual Global Automotive Lightweight Materials Congress is taking place August 18-20, 2015 in Detroit.

Continue reading

Buffering planes from luggage bombs

July 30, 2015
Source:

A bomb-proof lining has successfully contained blasts in a series of controlled explosions in the luggage hold of a Boeing 747 and an Airbus 321. Researchers tested the Fly-Bag, which lines an aircraft's luggage hold with multiple layers of novel fabrics and composites, under increasing explosive charges on disused planes at Cotswolds Airport, near Cirencester, England this week.

Using this technology, tests demonstrate that a plane's luggage hold may be able to contain the force of an explosion should a device concealed within a passenger's luggage be detonated during a flight. This would mitigate damage to the plane and help keep passengers safe. After the tests, explosives were placed in the aircraft without the lining to show the damage that could be caused.

Disasters such as the Lockerbie bombing in 1988 drove the need for this kind of invention, as well as the incident in which a printer cartridge bomb was found on-board a cargo plane at East Midlands Airport in 2010. Fundamental to the design of the bag is a combination of fabrics which have high strength and impact and heat resistance. The fabrics include Aramid, which is used in ballistic body armor.

"Key to the concept is that the lining is flexible and this adds to its resilience when containing the explosive force and any fragments produced," says Andy Tyas of the department of civil and structural engineering, who is leading the research at the University of Sheffield. "This helps to ensure that the Fly-Bag acts as a membrane rather than as a rigid-walled container which might shatter on impact. The purpose of the testing was to see how the concept works in the confines of a real aircraft," says Tyas, who calls the results "extremely promising."

Hardened luggage containers (HULD) have been developed to deal with bombs hidden in passenger luggage, but these containers are heavier and more costly than conventional equivalents. A European consortium working on the Fly Bag project includes Blastech, a spin-off company from the University of Sheffield, as well as partners from Greece, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

The technology could either be something that becomes compulsory for all airlines to use if the law was changed or could be used by airlines responding to particular threats. It has also been adapted for use in cabin holds within the plane if the airline crew spot something they think might be a threat and could be a risk to passengers.

Image caption — Damage to a plane following a final test without the Fly-Bag lining in the luggage hold. Courtesy of U. Sheffield.

Buffering planes from luggage bombs

A bomb-proof lining has successfully contained blasts in a series of controlled explosions in the luggage hold of a Boeing 747 and an Airbus 321.

Continue reading

NIST hosts first app challenge to improve data access


Source:

Researchers looking for information on the properties of methane at high temperatures or the isotopic composition of an element know they can rely on standard reference data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Md. But what they really need is an app (or apps) to make the data more accessible.

As a step in that direction, NIST is launching its first app challenge. Prizes totaling $45,000 can go to developers who create applications that offer new ways to access and use data from one or more of six eligible scientific data collections maintained by NIST.

NIST maintains some of the world's most accurate and comprehensive datasets of physical, material, chemical, and biological data covering a broad range of substances and properties. These datasets are invaluable research tools for physicists, biochemical engineers, environmental researchers, students, and many others. The app challenge is meant to boost awareness of these resources and modernize their use. To support the challenge, NIST has made six of its datasets available in machine-readable format. The contest is open to U.S. citizens or permanent residents over the age of 18.

Challenge participants must make the app available for testing at no cost to NIST, and it must be accompanied by a brief text submission, at least one screenshot of the app, and a brief (less than five minute) video describing the functionality of the app. Entries are due by Sept. 28.

NIST experts will vet technical aspects of the apps and a group of judges will evaluate submissions to identify the best. The criteria for judging will be the app's potential impact, its creativity and innovation, how well it is implemented, and the integration of one or more SRD or other data into the app.

The six eligible NIST Standard Reference Datasets to be used in the challenge are:

  • CODATA Fundamental Physical Constants (NIST SRD 121) — provides the most accurate internationally recommended values of the fundamental physical constants that are essential to basic theories of physics and our quantitative understanding of the physical universe.
  • Ground Levels and Ionization Energies for the Neutral Atoms (NIST SRD 111) — primarily used by chemists and astronomers to calculate thermodynamic properties of atoms in chemical reactions and other kinetic processes, and by atomic physicists to benchmark experimental data for advanced atomic theories.
  • Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions (NIST SRD 144) — provides atomic weights for elements 1 through 118 and is used by scientists in detecting radioactive isotopes, dating of paintings and sculptures, determining the origins of meteor samples and more.
  • NIST Computational Chemistry Comparison and Benchmark Database (CCCBDB, NIST SRD 101) — provides thermochemical data for a selected set of more than 1000 gas-phase atoms and molecules. It is used by chemists to compare experimental results with computational ideal-gas properties.
  • NIST-JANAF Thermochemical Tables (NIST SRD 13) — originally used by the aerospace industry to understand rocket propellant combustion, these thermochemical data for a range of chemical substances are used world-wide in a range of chemistry, environmental and materials applications. Industry scientists use these tables to predict thermodynamic information about chemical substances, including equilibrium mixtures and heat release.
  • NIST ITS-90 Thermocouple Database (NIST SRD 60) — provides temperature calibration data for converting a measured voltage to temperature, and is the basis for calibration of thermometers, instrument controllers and other devices that rely on temperature for process control. These types of devices are found in virtually every technology including kitchen ovens, hot water heaters, residential and commercial furnaces, power plants, and more.

 

The Reference Data Challenge follows NIST's first participation in the National Day of Civic Hacking, held June 6 in which NIST invited coders from across the U.S. to play with a subset of its Standard Reference Data. The challenge also complements NIST's ongoing efforts to ensure its data and research results are publicly accessible. On July 8, 2015, NIST released a new data access plan and is asking the public for feedback to help guide its policies and procedures.

For detailed information on the NIST Reference Data Challenge, visit nistdata.ChallengePost.com. View the Federal Register notice here.

NIST hosts first app challenge to improve data access

Researchers looking for information on the properties of methane at high temperatures or the isotopic composition of an element know they can rely on standard reference data from NIST.

Continue reading

Collaboration to develop carbon fiber for automotive light-weighting

June 11, 2015
Source:

The Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., and DowAksa, Turkey signed a joint development agreement to formally advance research on cost-effective, high-volume manufacturing of automotive-grade carbon fiber—a material poised to play a significant role in the drive to make vehicles lighter for greater fuel efficiency, performance and capability.

The agreement will combine DowAksa's feedstock capacity, carbon fiber conversion and downstream intermediates production capabilities with Ford's expertise in design, engineering and high-volume manufacturing. The goal is to produce materials that make cost-effective carbon fiber composite parts that are much lighter than steel but meet automotive strength requirements.

"This joint development agreement reinforces Ford's commitment to our partnership with DowAksa, and our drive to bring carbon fiber components to the broader market," says Mike Whitens, director, Vehicle Enterprise Sciences, Ford Research & Advanced Engineering. "The goal of our work here fits within the company's Blueprint for Sustainability, where future Ford vehicles will be lighter with optimized performance that would help consumers further improve fuel economy and reduce emissions."

"Today's agreement marks another milestone in the partnership to develop lightweighting solutions for the automotive industry," says DowAksa Chairman Heinz Haller. "Ford and DowAksa's collaboration will accelerate delivery of advanced materials and technologies to meet and exceed expectations for high performance and fuel economy."

"Automotive manufacturers' use of carbon fiber composites has been hindered by the absence of both high-volume manufacturing methods and affordable material formats," said DowAska Vice Chairman Mehmet Ali Berkman. "This partnership combines the individual strengths of each company to target these challenges."

The JDA allows the companies to collaboratively generate new, lower-cost automotive grades of carbon fiber that can be applied to aligned and random fiber formats while maintaining compatibility with both thermoset and thermoplastic matrices. The agreement also includes a pathway for potential extension of development collaboration into a commercial manufacturing partnership.

"DowAksa is committed to bringing the benefits of carbon fiber to the industrial marketplace," Berkman added. "By entering into this agreement, DowAksa is taking a serious approach to providing environmentally sustainable solutions, the goal being the manufacture of much lighter vehicles with optimized performance and cost, which will ensure reduced fuel consumption and exhaust emissions."

As announced in January, the companies will be part of the Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), announced by President Obama as part of the larger National Network for Manufacturing Innovation supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. The JDA will facilitate the companies' efforts in conjunction with IACMI to overcome the high cost and limited availability of carbon fiber in automotive applications.

Collaboration to develop carbon fiber for automotive light-weighting

The Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich., and DowAksa, Turkey signed a joint development agreement to formally advance research on cost-effective, high-volume manufacturing of automotive-grade carbon fiber.

Continue reading

3D-Printed Habitat Challenge

May 27, 2015
Source:

NASA and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, known as America Makes, are holding a new $2.25 million competition to design and build a 3D printed habitat for deep space exploration, including the agency's journey to Mars.

The multi-phase 3-D Printed Habitat Challenge, part of NASA's Centennial Challenges program, is designed to advance the additive construction technology needed to create sustainable housing solutions for Earth and beyond.

The first phase of the competition runs through Sept. 27. This phase, a design competition, calls on participants to develop state-of-the-art architectural concepts that take advantage of the unique capabilities 3D printing offers. The top 30 submissions will be judged and a prize purse of $50,000 will be awarded at the 2015 World Maker Faire in New York.

The second phase of the competition is divided into two levels. The Structural Member Competition (Level 1) focuses on the fabrication technologies needed to manufacture structural components from a combination of indigenous materials and recyclables, or indigenous materials alone. The On-Site Habitat Competition (Level 2) challenges competitors to fabricate full-scale habitats using indigenous materials or indigenous materials combined with recyclables. Both levels open for registration Sept. 26, and each carries a $1.1 million prize.

3D-Printed Habitat Challenge

NASA and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, known as America Makes, are holding a new $2.25 million competition to design and build a 3D printed habitat for deep space exploration.

Continue reading

ASM International partners with AQM to offer classes overseas

October 2, 2014
Source:

ASM International, Materials Park, Ohio, announced a new education collaboration agreement with AQM, a primary technical services center in northern Italy. Through this new partnership, AQM is now an educational support location in Europe for ASM International. Starting this fall, multiple metallurgical blended and online courses are planned using the metallurgical laboratories and the metallography and the heat treatment schools of AQM and will be taught by ASM International instructors.  

"We hope this partnership will help extend our global reach, fuel a passionate sense of community, energize members to aspire to new levels of success, and advance the development of materials," said Thom Passek, managing director of ASM. "AQM has a similar mission and the goal of our collaboration is to ultimately elevate the importance of materials professions. European metallurgical  students will be able to lower their costs of training by traveling to a local destination and we hope that provides an extra incentive to take a course with us."

"AQM has always supported the training and growth of technical competence in the field of metallurgy, believing that this is one of the key factors for competitive growth of enterprises," says Gabriele Ceselin, CEO of AQM. "This collaboration will provide an additional impulse in this direction, promoting an approach at the highest level, and the access to innovative international relations."

Topics of the educational courses include:

  • Metallurgy for Non-Metallurgist
  • Practical interpretation of Microstructures
  • Corrosion
  • Principle of Failure Analysis
  • Failure Analysis in the Oil and Gas Industry
  • Metallographic Interpretation
     

Students will receive a complimentary one year ASM International membership, allowing them to share ideas and solutions with other members about technologies and application processes while building personal and professional networks around the world. They will also have free access to online journals and technical publications, as well as access to special offers available only to members.

The new ASM International-AQM training offer is intended to complement and reinforce the AQM Expertise Center's "Materials and Quality Control of Products," which already has a full calendar of courses through the School of Metallography.
Do you belong to an ASM European chapter? Contact them directly for a special promotional code and save on registration! 

ASM International partners with AQM to offer classes overseas

Fall metallurgical class schedule available for new Italy location

Continue reading

Solar Atmospheres certified for liquid penetrant inspection testing

May 28, 2014
Source:

Solar Atmospheres, Hermitage, Pa., announces that it has been certified by Nadcap for fluorescent liquid penetrant inspection. In this process, a liquid penetrant is uniformly applied to the part, allowed to remain for a pre-determined length of time, and then washed away. The part is then air dried by passing through a controlled temperature dryer, and slowly advanced through a darkroom where fluorescent lighting and magnification are used to identify crack locations. Cracked parts are rejected and segregated, and the customer is  notified.

The company has been continuously Nadcap NDT certified since 2009. The original certification resulted primarily from an audit of current inspection work on major aerospace structural parts.

As a nationally recognized, Nadcap-certified vacuum heat treater, Solar Atmospheres, with three plants across the United States, has numerous third party quality certifications as well as many prime certifications. This renewed certification recently awarded to the Hermitage plant covers a process where fluorescent light is used to check for cracks immediately following heat treating.

The company also recently passed, with merit status, a Nadcap heat treating audit, an accomplishment not common among heat treaters. Merit status allows Solar to go 24 months before their next Nadcap Heat Treat audit. "Achieving Nadcap accreditation is not easy: it is one of the ways in which the aerospace industry identifies those who excel at manufacturing quality product through superior special processes. Companies such as Solar Atmospheres of Western PA go above and beyond achieving Nadcap accreditation to obtain Merit status and they should be justifiably proud of it," said Joe Pinto, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Performance Review Institute.

www.solaratm.com

Solar Atmospheres certified for liquid penetrant inspection testing

Solar Atmospheres, Hermitage, Pa., has been certified by Nadcap for fluorescent liquid penetrant inspection.

Continue reading