Metals & Alloys News

Despite signs of higher consumer spending and a bottoming recession, metals markets, paced by steel, will be depressed into mid 2010. So says MetalMiner, with demand reduced across all markets and only selective restocking. Even demand in China is fueled by speculation and stockpiling — with questions on sustained growth there.

The latest electrohydraulic power units for ships make extensive use of stainless steel. The metal is used in structures, tanks, pipes, and valves that power a vessel's controls and systems, such as hatches and gangways. The metal is corrosion resistant (200 hours salt fog tests) and compatible with biodegradable fluids.

This multi-layer alloy allows core and surface property adjustment (view video). Conflicting requirements of formability and corrosion resistance can be achieved for applications targeted at automotive structural panels. The alloy is fabricated in a direct-chill mold modified to permit multiple metal flows cast into a single sheet ingot.

Copper's superior cooling capacity led to its use in a unique heat sink designed to keep the Xbox 360 gaming system cool. A copper base mounts to the microprocessor. A copper pipe connects the base to aluminum fins cooled by variable speed fans. Water in the evacuated tube readily boils and passes through the fins.

Grand Prize winner (off road) at this year's Powder Metallurgy Design Excellence Awards was an assembly of five PM steel parts for an all-terrain vehicle transmission. Parts included two shift forks, twin sector gears, and a parking pawl. One sector gear is net shape and the others need only minimal machining, for a 60% cost saving.

Laser sintering has long had engineering function. Now the process produces textiles (click special projects > research) of metal or resin, some with the look of medieval chain mail. Layering creates the links already joined, and can build packaging around a garment. Plating applied to resin textiles produces a range of metallic finishes.

Queen's University (Belfast, UK) researcher is developing a damage model of titanium under impact. Of interest are the heating effects made under deformation from explosion and projectiles. Model development targets improved troop safety by optimizing material selection and design. It should reduce the costly testing of armor safety.

All you need to know about soldering, from alloy compositions and choosing one, to heating sources and temperatures is contained in an SMT online article. It discusses low temperature metal joining starting with basic metallurgy. Creating metallurgical solder bonds can be easy if appropriate metallizations, alloys, fluxes, and processes are used.

It's not too early to think about attending The Materials Research Society's annual fall meeting, November 30 to December 4 in Boston. This year's Bean Town clambake emphasizes the cross-disciplinary nature of materials research. Topics will cover nanoscience and technology (and business in the field); energy and the environment (including hydrogen storage and energy catalysts); materials characterization methods; information processing and sensing; and biomaterials and compatibility.

A Northwestern University, Art Institute of Chicago team has combined alloy composition data with art history parameters to formulate composition profiles of cast bronze sculptures by major early 20^th century artists. These could help identify, date, and authenticate artwork. Foundries at the time competitively guarded their bronze compositions and often did not mark their work — so composition maps would go a long way in determining the work's origin for historians and collectors.

Reuse or Recycle?

Less efficient vehicles are removed from the roadways, but was the 'Cash for Clunkers' program green-oriented or wasteful? Was it worth the cost of incentives and energy?