Mechanical Fasteners - Airplane Fastener Failure due to Fatigue Challenge from IdeaCONNECTION

Whether materials scientists, engineers and technitions would or would not like to join virtual teams to solve industrial problems such this one:  Mechanical Fasteners - Airplane Fastener Failure due to Fatigue Challenge.

1. The challenge site is an excellent place to start when studying Aviation Assembly Fastners and the extremely demanding issues involving materials science and engineering; innovation,materials,design and assembly.

2. There are also many other industrial and other challenges to suit a wide panel of readers.

So please do not hesitate to visit IdeaConnection Site.

Fraunhofer UK launch from Materials World Blog

I have just added Materials World's blog to My list of blogs followed that may be found at the foot of my page following the leading blog posts.

I selected the article by Rachel Lawler from which I have taken the following:

"The UK branch of Fraunhofer, Europe’s biggest applied research organisation, at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London. The not-for-profit company will partner with UK universities and industry to ensure that the best research makes the transition into commercial success.

The project is already underway with the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics open at the University of Strathclyde. Professor Martin Dawson, head of the new centre, was also in attendance and feeling optimistic about the future of his field thanks to the launch. Since the centre opened in October last year, the field seems to have gone from strength to strength – Dawson estimated that the project has so far secured contracts worth £1.5m. ‘Photonics is often described as the “electronics of the 21st Century”[…] the academic strength of the UK in this area is internationally recognised,’ he said. And while he though it was ‘fitting’ that the first Fraunhofer centre focused on this area of UK expertise, Dawson hoped not to be alone as a Head of Centre for very much longer, as Fraunhofer UK looks to open more centres in the near future."

"Hear, hear"! Perhaps there is a lesson here for other EU countries.
Comments most welcome such is the impact of industrial restructuring in the EU!

Open competition to design an automobile seat - Prizes, The global winner gets 6000euros, Two regional winners get 3000Euros

Chemical Company BASF has opened a global car seat design competition in collaboration with several automobile manufacturers. The contest is open to anyone interested in automotive design.  This opportunity invites you to imagine and design your ideas for the automobile seat of the future, using BASF materials in an innovative way.

designfabrik® – sit down. move.   

Alternative link

Original news item and much more via Materials World - IOM3 member house journal, Nov 2012 magazine cover.

More information and free materials at IOM3 & MW

News & Videos: Manufacturing complex 3D metallic structures at nanoscale made possible - Aalto University Finland

Manufacturing complex 3D metallic structures at nanoscale made possible

18.10.2012

The fabrication of many objects, machines, and devices around us rely on the controlled deformation of metals by industrial processes such as bending, shearing, and stamping. Is this technology transferrable to nanoscale? Can we build similarly complex devices and machines with very small dimensions?

Scientists from Aalto University in Finland and the University of Washington in the US have just demonstrated this to be possible. By combining ion processing and nanolithography they have managed to create complex three-dimensional structures at nanoscale.

The discovery follows from a quest for understanding the irregular folding of metallic thin films after being processed by reactive ion etching.

– We were puzzled by the strong-width-dependent curvatures in the metallic strips. Usually initially-strained bilayer metals do not curl up this way, explains Khattiya Chalapat from Aalto University.

The puzzle began to unravel when Chalapat noticed, together with Dr. Hua Jiang, that the Ti peak was absent from the EDX spectra of folded Ti/Al bilayers.

Further experiments at the O.V. Lounasmaa Laboratory confirmed that the strips bend upward with strong width-dependent curvatures if the bottom layer of the strips is made more reactive to ions than the top surface.

In nature, similar geometrical effects take place in self-organization directly observable to the human eye. When dandelion flowers bloom, one may try cutting the flower stem into small strips; put them in water, and the strips will fold with observable width-dependent curvatures due to differences in the water absorption between the inside and outside parts of the stem.

– Our idea was to find a way to adapt these natural processes to nanofabrication. This led us to an incidental finding that a focused ion beam can locally induce bending with nanoscale resolution.

The technology has various applications in the fabrication of nanoscale devices. The structures are surprisingly resilient:­ the team found them to be quite sturdy and robust under a variety of adverse conditions, such as electrostatic discharge and heating.

– Because the structures are so small, the coupling and the magnitude of typical nanoscale forces acting on them would be commensurately small, reminds Docent Sorin Paraoanu, the leader of the Kvantti research group, Aalto University.

– As for applications, we have demonstrated so far that these structures can capture and retain particles with dimensions of the order of a micrometer. However, we believe that we are just scratching the tip of the iceberg: a comprehensive theory of ion-assisted self-assembly processes is yet to be reached, notes Paraoanu.

The research has been recently published in the Early View edition of Advanced Materials.

Khattiya Chalapat and Sorin Paraoanu would like to give credit to the Aalto University research facilities for microfabrication and imaging at Micronova Centre for Micro and Nanotechnology and the Nanomicroscopy Center in Finland.

The article online (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)

Kvantti research group (ltk.tkk.fi)

Further information:
Khattiya Chalapat, Ph.D. student
O. V. Lounasmaa Laboratory, Aalto University
khattiya.chalapat@aalto.fi

Sorin Paraoanu, Docent, Group Leader
O. V. Lounasmaa Laboratory, Aalto University
sorin.paraoanu@aalto.fi

News: Manufacturing complex 3D metallic structures at nanoscale made possible - Aalto University

Innovation in Plastics decoration and surface treatment - Free Papers

"Keep up with innovation!
Plastics decoration and surface treatment 2011 Innovation Briefs downloaded for free from pdtechwatch"
was the message sent via the professional social network Linkedin by my colleague Ed Crutchley an International Consultant for Plastics Surface Treatment and Decoration. base in UK.


I have just reviewed the pdtechwatch site with great pleasure. It is a good source to freely obtain introductory, initial overviews of many aspects of these subjects.


Respect from this metallurgist.

Concrete Up-dates

This post follows naturally from my two previous posts on CO2 reduction in Concrete manufacturing and use throughout it's life-span. The figure opposite sums-up much of what has be written previously and is taken from a full well presented article in the NYT of 11 April 2009 entitled Concrete Is Remixed With Environment in Mind.

As often quoted in my pages (Napoleon) "A good drawing is worth more than a long discourse" the reader is cordially invited to consult the figure-click to enlarge.

The article is an excellent paper for public understanding of cement and concrete. All sort of careful chemistry is going on: Some add silica fume industrial waste which improves impermeability and gives reinforced steel bars corrosion protection from road salts. Some add titanium oxide to accelerate oxidation which breaks down organic airborne pollutants so producing a permanently attractive white surface.

NYT reporter Henry Fountain, goes much further than the scientists reported in my earlier post and introduces NYT readers to the much more heartening and ambitious aim of "reversing the manufacturing CO2 emissions equation" to achieve a negative carbon emissions, or overall absorption during the "concrete life-cycle", by both reducing the emissions during production and absorption of CO2 during it's useful life.

"Some researchers want to eventually eliminate Portland cement entirely and replace it with other cements to produce zero-carbon, or even carbon-negative, concrete."

Dr. Brent R. Constantz, company founder, of Calera does not describe Calera as a cement company:

“We’re primarily driven by the need to capture large amounts of CO2 and sequester it,”

NB. The high standard fall-out from Dr. Constantz, background in cements, having made specialty products for use in orthopedic surgery. But he

Back-ground from from NYT- cement manufacture basic process:

"Portland cement is at the heart of concrete’s environmental problems. About a ton of CO2 is emitted for every ton of cement produced. The basic manufacturing process involves burning limestone and other minerals at about 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit(about 1480°C) to create an intermediate product called clinker.

“Essentially, we’re trying to make the same minerals that they did in 1825,” said Mr. Stehly, who is head of a committee addressing sustainability issues at the American Concrete Institute.

The cement industry, particularly in the United States and Europe, has reduced CO2 emissions through the use of more efficient kilns and processes, and is now allowed to add some ground unburned limestone to the clinker, reducing the actual cement in the mix. But about half of the CO2 from cement cannot be eliminated — it is produced in the reaction, called calcination, that occurs as the limestone (which consists of calcium carbonate) is being burned."



NYT points to two innovative companies, strongly engaged in this adventure:

1. Calera Corporation, is developing a process to bubble gas-fired electric power plant flue gases through seawater or other brackish water, using the CO2 in the gases to precipitate carbonate minerals for use as cement or aggregates in concrete. The process mimics, to some extent, what corals and other calcifying marine organisms do.

2. Carbon Science associated with Novacem, a British start-up, is developing a cement that does not use carbonates and can make concrete that absorbs carbon dioxide.

1. Calera Corporation,

At a site adjacent to a gas-fired electricity generation plant in Moss Landing, Calif., the Calera Corporation is developing a process to bubble power plant flue gases through seawater or other brackish water, using the CO2 in the gases to precipitate carbonate minerals for use as cement or aggregates in concrete. The process mimics, to some extent, what corals and other calcifying marine organisms do.

Calera calculates that producing a ton of these minerals consumes half a ton of CO2, so the resulting concrete could potentially be carbon negative — sequestering carbon dioxide permanently.

Brent R. Constantz, the company’s founder, has a background in cements, having made specialty products for use in orthopedic surgery. But he does not describe Calera as a cement company. “We’re primarily driven by the need to capture large amounts of CO2 and sequester it,” he said.

The company probably will begin by making aggregate, because the barriers to making a commercially acceptable product are lower than with cement. Even with aggregate, any new product must meet standards and must be accepted by the concrete industry, which can be conservative. “Any time you introduce anything new,” Dr. Constantz said, “it’s a challenge.”

More about Calera in Scientific American[pdf].

2. Carbon Science associated with Novacem, a British start-up, is developing a cement that does not use carbonates and can make concrete that absorbs carbon dioxide.


"To reduce concrete’s carbon footprint to near zero or less, different approaches are needed. Novacem, a British start-up, is developing a cement that does not use carbonates and can make concrete that absorbs carbon dioxide. Carbon Sense Solutions, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, wants to bubble CO2 through wet cement, sequestering the gas through carbonation (a process that occurs naturally, though very slowly, under normal conditions)."

My professional house journal, Materials World, almost a year earlier (7 months ago) in their news report entitled Concrete carbonation,MW 01 Oct. 2008 described the above second highly innovative company(2) in a balance way.

The pros (a) and cons(b)
a)The pros:

Combustion flue gases will be redirected to the curing process. The resulting effluent is scrubbed of CO2 in under an hour. The gas is stored in the concrete as calcite with no further reactions occurring.

‘Calcite, otherwise known as limestone, is the process feedstock for cement. We are simply reverting it back to its natural and most stable state. You can call this cradle-to-cradle engineering,’ says Robert President of Carbon Sense Solutions. The material is said to store up to half the weight of cement as CO2.

Niven is guarded about revealing more about the process, but says, compared to previous efforts at concrete carbonation, this work involves ‘a new reactor design that achieves complete carbonation, faster processing and improved material properties [faster early strength development, lower permeability, reduced shrinkage cracking and efflorescence resistance]’.

b) The cons:

However, concrete and cement science expert Dr Charles Fentiman of Fentiman Consulting in Southwater, UK, is sceptical about the ability to achieve complete carbonation during curing. He reserves judgement until the work is taken out of the laboratory and shown to overcome the practical problems that have impeded academics and industry for decades.

He says, ‘This seems to be an idea of making concrete elements and giving a warm cure in CO2. [But] in my experience, as soon as cement hydration starts, the CO2 coats everything and blocks further hydration. It does accelerate hardening, but then ongoing strength development is low and the concrete remains porous because hydration is blocked’.

Fentiman explains that academics have previously tried to overcome this through super-critical carbonation after the concrete has cured and the cement hydrated. However, ‘this would greatly slow the manufacturing process and the extra cost would need to be covered by the end user’.

Prepare for the worst but hope for the Best.

New Years Resolution Time: Systems - Synergy 4 Motivation, Innovation in Our Professional Disciplines: Materials-Minerals-Mining.

Materials Science, Technology and Engineering news feed is moving fast.

On the contrary slower moving realisation, seldom lives-up to expectations. Arguably this can result in a lowering of expectations with an accompanying lowering of standards?

Now is the time for making New Years Resolutions - Few will regret the end to 2008!

Someone who wished to remain anonymous, but granted me permission to publish, recently wrote in a personal and confidential document the following statements:

"NB. Currently Studying Opportunities for a new concept(s) for CO2 absorption with simultaneous production of Hydrogen, industrially oriented; Steelmaking, mining and metallurgical extraction =>energy production, distribution & control of industrial gas emissions:

From local (motivation) to global...

Systems /Synergy 4 Approach:
-click to enlarge the Venn Diag image opposite.

1. Focus: CCS-Carbon, Capture & Storage,
2.Mining (Coal)– Motivation, Coal reserves France(58)-Scotland, Ayrshire...
3.Coal Powered Electricity & Heat generation,
4.Metallurgy/Materials/Advanced Processes,

It is common knowledge that immediate action is required and plebiscited. The 2009 clean economy appears to be the time to start -get over this crises stuff and no hedging!

One of my resolutions will be to report on these fields and contribute as far as my professional skills permit.

I strongly believe a concurrent engineering approach is the best way forward, if the coal burning lobby is to avoid being named and shamed globally!

Having failed to post regularly on the many advances during 2008 I shall echo a couple of news items from our pro-association IOM3 (UK)



1. Peridotite

Peridotite carbonation can be accelerated via drilling, hydraulic fracture, input of purified CO2 at elevated pressure, and, in particular, increased temperature at depth. After an initial heating step, CO2 pumped at 25 or 30 °C can be heated by exothermic carbonation reactions that sustain high temperature and rapid reaction rates at depth with little expenditure of energy. In situ carbonation of peridotite could consume >1 billion tons of CO2 per year in Oman alone, affording a low-cost, safe, and permanent method to capture and store atmospheric CO2.

ref: In situ carbonation of peridotite for CO2 storage,PNAS By Peter B. Kelemen and Jürg Matter of the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964

NB. P.B.K. and J.M. have a preliminary patent filing for the technique of heating peridotite to achieve self-sustaining, rapid carbonation. Good luck with the realisations.

2. Coal of Africa.
A new coal mine in RSA-Republic of South Africa has started production. The company aims to Produce 5-6 MT/y, 70% for exportation.

Hypertext Enhanced Materials Science Paper - Semicon Fab. from TMS, and CSE considerations

I have just tried my CSE - Customised Search Engine on my "conversations-on-innovations" web-log site, with the key words "Innovation, Challenges" to check my two new Challenge posted links Innocentive -Boston Area & NineSigma-Chicago. Well I still have some work To Be Do (TBD)-It did turn-up Innocentive,my old partner but not my new found friends at NineSigma. Another reason to read these blogs "n'est ce pas"! It did turn-up some very interesting links including blogs on innovation. However, it did turn up the following Materials Science - Semiconductor, Microtech /Nanotech Roadmap site paper and numerous links, thanks to our friends at TMS which I just cannot keep from the Materials Community cf below. Although the paper is dated 2004, the links are great (some may require refreshing use the waybackmachine from Alexa). If this paper does not "grab-you" then there are other links to similarily enhanced hypertext papers. While you check this out, I'll just back-track to TMS site for more enhanced hypertext papers.
Global Perspectives on Electronic Materials: Challenges and ...
A recent report2 describes the concept of innovation ecosystems consisting of .... electronic materials systems present extreme challenges based on the ... Trans. Met. Soc's. - JOM-Journal of Metals - 50k -Cached

Metallurgy-Materials-Advanced Processes

In these web-logs, I intend to refer regularily to to the large corpus
of ever expanding member journals online made available by my life-long

The Institutes; The Iron & Steel Institute, The Institute of Metals,

The Metallurgist, all this and more today, are grouped under one Institute,

The Institute of Materials Mining and Minerals. (IOM3).

Their many available journal resources are as follows:

1. Advances in Applied Ceramics (formerly British Ceramic Transactions)
2. Appied Earth Science (IMM Transactions section B)
3. Corrosion Engineering, Science and Technology ((formerly British Corrosion Journal)
4. Energy Materials: Materials Science and Enginering for Energy Systems

5. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

6. International Heat Treatment & Surface Engineering
7. International Materials Reviews,

8. Ironmaking & Steelmaking
9.Materials Research Innovations
10. Materials Science & Technology (My seminal paper is in the first edition Feb 1985)
11.Materials Technology: Advanced Performance Materials
12.Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy (IMM Transactions section C)
13.Mining Technology (IMM Transactions section A)
14.Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy Plastics, Rubber & Composites : 15.Macromolecular Engineering
16.Powder Metallurgy
17. Science & Technology of Welding & Joining
18. Surface Engineering
19. Tribology-Materials, Surfaces & Interfaces

All titles are available via Ingenta's enhanced website http://www.ingentaconnect.com/.

and to members via IOM3' members site. In many of theses matters,

I among others members, constitute your privileged access and interpretation route, feel free to get in touch.

I hope also to use my french to review work carried out under the banner of
SF2M much of which is available in english to their members.

Looking forward to a useful & successful blog experience.