The Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Mass., and one of its members, GM Global Powertrain Engineering, Pontiac, Mich., have been awarded a patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a method that predicts heat transfer coefficients for metal castings during quenching and cooling operations, an innovation that will help make cast parts more durable.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials, Germany, together with colleagues from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia, have developed a saw wire that can reduce kerf loss when cutting silicon wafers. In place of diamond-impregnated steel wires, the researchers use ultra-thin and extremely stable threads made of carbon nanotubes coated with diamond.
Ametek Inc., Berwyn, Pa., has acquired Creaform Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of innovative portable 3D measurement technologies and a provider of 3D engineering services. Creaform is the industry leader in stand-alone portable 3D scanners. These optical devices are used in a growing number of applications to create accurate 3D models and measurements of a wide range of objects.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Md., announced a competition to create an Advanced Materials Center of Excellence to foster interdisciplinary collaborations between NIST researchers and scientists and engineers from academia and industry. The center will focus on accelerating the discovery and development of advanced materials through innovations in measurement science and in new modeling, simulation, data, and informatics tools.
Sarah Byrnes, Claire A. Campbell, and Timothy De Hennis of the Boeing Company, Chicago, presented “An Investigation of Case-Core Separation in Carburized Steels” at Heat Treat 2013 in Indianapolis in September. They presented an in-depth description of the mechanism that drives the occurrence of case-core separations in carburized steels. They reported on case studies of known case-core separations, and identified and discussed contributing factors for crack initiation.
