Materials

Aluminum

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NASA Spinoff: Materials
The new possibility of 3D-printed aluminum engine parts will mean significant savings for NASA in terms of time, money, and, most importantly, the weight of future spacecraft. Elementum 3D Inc., a partner on the project, is now bringing the benefits of that technology to its customers.
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Articles: Energy
While Daimler Truck and Paccar are pursuing LFP battery cells, Volvo Trucks employs lithium-ion batteries in which lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) is used as the cathode — for now anyway. The Swedish truck maker is continuously exploring other battery technologies. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Energy
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have created a new and efficient way to recycle metals from spent electric vehicle (EV) batteries. The method allows recovery of 100 percent of the aluminum and 98 percent of the lithium in EV batteries.
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Briefs: Materials
NASA has developed a new metal matrix composite (MMC) that can repair itself from large fatigue cracks that occur during the service life of a structure.
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Application Briefs: Propulsion
Eddy current displacement sensors can make measurements in harsh Industrial environments, even where pressure, dirt, or temperature fluctuations occur.
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Briefs: Transportation
Applications include manufacturing structural components for aerospace vehicles, cars, trucks, trains, ships, and submarines.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The rechargeable batteries could be a safer and more environmentally friendly alternative to lithium-ion batteries.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Potential applications include lightweight building materials and growing cells for biomedical purposes.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Adding polymers and fireproofing to a battery’s current collectors makes it lighter, safer, and about 20% more efficient.
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Briefs: Energy
The system is effective in urban environments where there are tall buildings on all sides.
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Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Altering the traditional intensity distribution of fiber lasers improves weld quality.
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Briefs: Aerospace
Titanium-copper alloys for 3D printing could create high-performance alloys for medical device and aerospace applications.
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Briefs: Aerospace
This framework can be used by commercial and military aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.
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Briefs: Automotive
An advanced manufacturing process was developed to produce nano-structured rods and tubes directly from high-performance aluminum alloy powder in a single step. Using a Solid Phase Processing approach,...
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Briefs: Power
Directly converting electrical power to heat is easy; however, converting heat into electrical power is not as easy. To address this issue, a tiny silicon-based device was developed that can harness...
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Application Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Minalex Corp.Whitehouse Station, NJwww.minalex.com In PyeongChang, South Korea this month, competitors representing 89 countries will be competing for Olympic gold. For many skiers,...
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Briefs: Nanotechnology
When choosing materials to make something, tradeoffs need to be made among properties such as thickness, stiffness, and weight. A new material called nanocardboard was...
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Briefs: Materials
New Material Composition Withstands Extreme Impact and Temperature
A super-strong alloy of copper and tantalum was created that can withstand extreme impact and temperature, providing high strength and good electrical conductivity. The alloy is a model system with structure that can be passed on to other alternative material systems. Materials...
Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Most metals, with the notable exception of gold, tend to oxidize when exposed to air and water. This reaction — which produces rust on iron, tarnish on silver, and verdigris on copper or...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Novel Radiation Shielding Material for Dramatically Extending the Orbit Life of CubeSats
NASA Langley Research Center has developed an innovative radiation shield made by layering metal materials in the Z-shielding method. It is a new, low-cost, and easy-to-implement method to protect CubeSat electronic circuits from ionizing radiation found in low...
Briefs: Energy
Batteries and combustion engines each have distinctive benefits and limitations. Batteries have simple construction and operate silently; however, their energy density (i.e., the energy per unit volume) is poor, and...
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Articles: Automotive
Learn how advanced materials are creating high-efficiency engines, better powertrains, and lighter components.
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Briefs: Energy
Superalloy Surface Treatment for Improved Performance of Power Turbines
To produce power more efficiently and cleanly, the next generation of power turbines will have to operate at extreme temperatures and pressures. Currently, single-crystal, nickel-based superalloys are used in such extreme environments. MCrAlY coatings (where M = Co, Ni, or...
Briefs: Materials
Corrosion of structural materials is a serious problem for industrial and civil infrastructure worldwide, costing billions of dollars, and hampering gross domestic product. Corrosion also presents a...
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Briefs: Imaging
Color-Changing Surface Tunable Through Electrical Voltage
Video screens are made up of hundreds of thousands of pixels that display different colors to form the images. With current technology, each of these pixels contains three subpixels — one red, one green, and one blue. A new method was developed to tune the color of the subpixels. The new...
Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A transfer technique based on thin sacrificial layers of boron nitride could allow high-performance gallium nitride gas sensors to be grown on sapphire substrates and then...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Magnesium is 75 percent lighter than steel, 33 percent lighter than aluminum, and is the fourth most common element on Earth behind iron, silicon, and oxygen. But despite its light...
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Articles: Motion Control
This column presents technologies that have applications in commercial areas, possibly creating the products of tomorrow. To learn more about each technology, see the contact information provided for that innovation.
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Briefs: Materials
Aluminum Alloy for High-Temperature Applications
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center originally developed a high-performance piston alloy to meet U.S. legislative restrictions on vehicular exhaust hydrocarbon emissions. NASA 398 aluminum alloy exhibits excellent tensile and fatigue strength at elevated temperatures. NASA 398 alloy also offers...

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