Ceramics and glass business news of the week
Here’s what we are hearing:
Duo’s chemistry makes it possible: natural gas produced from biomass
H.C. Starck and Clausthaler Umwelttechnik-Institut (Germany) have joined forces to successfully develop a completely new generation of catalyzers and process technology for the production of substitute natural gas from biomass as a renewable energy source. The two groups have engineered a range of catalyzers with an oxide base containing cobalt, molybdenum, and aluminum, which have been successfully tested under laboratory and pilot plant conditions. The catalyzers proved to be robust and reclaimable, even under the most unfavorable conditions, having achieved high yields with which the synthesis of substitute natural gas is possible.
Indiana lands turbine blade company
A wind turbine blade manufacturer plans to open two facilities in southern Indiana with intentions of creating up to 400 jobs by 2014. Gov. Mitch Daniels has announced a two-phased project involving GBT USA Inc., a unit of Netherlands-based Global Blade Technology. The company is leasing space at the former Whirlpool plant in Evansville for an engineering design and production facility, which the city says will have nearly 40 employees by next year. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. says GBT also plans to build an additional southern Indiana facility in 2013 to produce composite rotor blades for wind turbine generators.
Company’s ceramic bearings offer flexibility to automation and advanced manufacturing industries
Boca Bearing Company is introducing a new line of full ceramic bearings, ceramic hybrid bearings and lubricants catered towards the automation and advanced manufacturing industries. Its ceramic bearings can be used in varieties of manufacturing environments ranging from extreme temperatures, high speeds to heavy loads. Ceramic hybrid ball bearings use steel races and ceramic balls. Ceramic balls weigh up to 40% less than steel balls. This reduces centrifugal loading and skidding, so hybrid ceramic bearings can operate up to 50% faster than conventional bearings. This means that the outer race groove exerts less force inward against the ball as the bearing spins. This reduction in force reduces the friction and rolling resistance. The lighter ball allows the bearing to spin faster, and uses less energy to maintain its speed. Ceramic hybrid ball bearings have ceramic balls in place of steel balls. They are constructed with steel inner and outer rings, ceramic balls and are known as hybrids.
MesoCoat Inc. opens new metal cladding and coating facility with one of the most powerful arc lamps
MesoCoat Inc. currently occupies two facilities in Ohio with a third 11,000 sq. ft. facility under-construction (expected production start date, Jan. 2012). This new Eastlake facility will be their fourth facility in Ohio within a 5 mile radius. It will primarily be used for cladding plates and components for the oil and gas, mining, and shipbuilding industries. The facility is designed to accommodate two metal fusion cladding lines for CermaClad and thermal spray coating cells for PComP, including a metallurgical and analytical lab. At this facility, MesoCoat will be installing a 600 kW fusion cladding arc lamp system, one of the most powerful arc lamps ever manufactured. MesoCoat acquired this 600 kW arc lamp under a joint development agreement with a multinational heavy equipment manufacturer; where MesoCoat will work towards developing wear and corrosion-resistant cladding using the arc lamp for equipment and components manufactured by them.
Toyota’s Collaborative Safety Research Center today announced 10 new research initiatives and new research agreements with six leading North American universities and research institutions to enhance the development, testing and implementation of new automotive safety innovations across North America. The institutions include MIT’s AgeLab, the Transportation Active Safety Institute, Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University,
Wake Forest School of Medicine, Washtenaw Area Transportation Study and Wayne State University School of Medicine.
CoorsTek acquires advanced ceramics business from BAE Systems
CoorsTek, the world’s largest technical ceramics manufacturer, today officially announced the purchase of BAE Systems’ Vista, California advanced ceramics facilities. These three facilities total 106,000 square feet - adding to the more than three million square feet of manufacturing floor space already in place worldwide. These facilities develop and fabricate lightweight ceramic armor systems, semiconductor components and assemblies and industrial components. Specifically, they manufacture hot-pressed boron carbides, silicon carbides, aluminum nitrides and other advanced ceramic materials.
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Other materials stories that may be of interest
Investigators at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have created strange optical effects, including corkscrew-like vortex beams, by reflecting light off a flat, nanostructured surface. Credit: Nanfang Yu, SEAS.
Check ‘em out:
How Apple could revolutionize solar
Flight time of Stalker small UAS quadrupled to 8 hours with ruggedized propane SOFC
3D lithography by rapid curing of the liquid instabilities at nanoscale
Students: Apply for the Bernard S. Baker Student Award for fuel cell research or new Sir Alistair Pilkington Award for glass research
Rolla researchers predict they can cut cooling costs by 40 percent
Nanopillars on surface of thin-film silicon could lead to better solar cells
Optoelectronics appear as hopeful application for graphene
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Army looking for white papers related to ‘indestructible’ materials
The Army Research Office’s Synthesis and Processing program is seeking white papers on the topic of the creation of superior structural materials through creative combinations of 1) microstructure engineering in extreme yet precise conditions to obtain novel and far-from-equilibrium microstructures; 2) advanced microscopy, probes and other characterization tools; and 3) integrated computational materials engineering.
Although somewhat with tongue in cheek, Suveen N. Mathaudhu, the S&P program manager, says they are looking for concepts with “property limits envisioned only in comic book realms,” a reference to Captain America’s “Vibranium” shield that—at least in the comics and movies—could absorb kinetic energy.
Though Captain America’s shield was fantasized about 75 years ago, Mathaudhu says, “We are still searching for ways to synthesize and process materials with the ability to absorb or channel kinetic energy.” From a materials science perspective, he believes this can be accomplished by concurrent increases in strength and toughness. Mathaudhu, in particular, uses the example of the work Rob Ritchie’s group (at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab) has done with super strong and tough metallic glasses (see video above). He also points to the intellectual exchange about the challenges of making strong–tough materials between Ritchie and Yuris Szenis in Science (“The quest for stronger, tougher materials”).
So, if you think you have a vision for realizing a future of “indestructible” materials though state-of-the-art synthesis and processing tools and characterization strategies, contact Mathaudhu, at the Army Research Office in Durham, N.C. (suveen.mathaudhu(at)us.army.mil).
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Monday materials fun: Robotic flying ‘maple seed’ vehicle with two moving parts
I used to imagine a lot of the bio-inspired ideas, such as flying maple seed pods (above) and artificial jellyfish arose on Thursday or Friday afternoons around happy hour time by brain-fried engineers. You know: It’s easy to imagine sensor, battery, propulsion and aeronautics wonks knocking down a few IPAs and hatching a new scheme to bemuse a project manager.
In this case, it turns out the wild idea didn’t come from engineers letting their hair down, but from ambitious bio-inspired engineering students under the guidance of some encouraging University of Maryland professors impressed with the structural and sensory architecture found in nature.
The above video was shot last week at the AUVSI show where Lockheed Martin got to show off their latest iteration of the UM student’s work original work (see video below).
While both the UM and Lockheed Martin versions show prop propulsion, Gizmag also has a schematic of what appears to be a version powered by a tiny thruster jet.
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Other materials stories that may also be of interest
Check ‘em out:
Why we need a Kelley Blue Book for solar
Swarmanoids (like the Mission Impossible crew, only better)
Building honors site’s history as an aggregate mine with extensive use of concrete
Suppression of the coffee-ring effect by shape-dependent capillary interactions
Lightweight solar panels can be worn by soldiers in combat
Shrinking an arbitrary object as one desires using metamaterials
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