Alcoa, Cleveland, rolled out the most advanced aluminum wheel alloy in 45 years. The new material opens the door for lighter weight wheels at increased strength with the same corrosion-resistant characteristics as the industry standard, also made by Alcoa. They expect to introduce a new, state-of-the-art wheel featuring the alloy in early 2014. Unveiled at the American Trucking Association Management Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Fla.
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.Mex., and SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., an independent research and innovation center, will join forces to explore, test, and evaluate a broad range of hydrogen and natural gas fuel systems and components for transportation applications under a new agreement.
Materials made from graphite, such as lithium-ion batteries, dislike water-or so researchers have assumed for decades. But a team of engineers from the University of Pittsburgh show that those materials are actually intrinsically attracted to water, or “hydrophilic.” It appears that past samples of graphite were likely contaminated by air, causing the samples to appear hydrophobic, according to the study.
FEI Co., Hillsboro, Ore., has launched the new Metrios TEM (transmission electron microscope) for advanced semiconductor manufacturing metrology; the Talos TEM that provides high-speed imaging and analysis for materials science; and the Titan Themis TEM for enhanced atomic-scale measurements of material properties.
Novelis, Atlanta, announces the opening of its expanded aluminum rolling operations in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The expansion increases production capacity at the plant by more than 50% to greater than 600,000 metric tons of aluminum sheet per year. The $340 million investment represents the largest capital expansion by Novelis in South America in the past decade.
