Materials & Manufacturing

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Browse innovative developments in materials and manufacturing that significantly impact military, medical devices, automotive, and industrial manufacturing. Advances in plastics, metals, and composites are transforming 3D printing and rapid prototyping.

Articles: Information Technology
Quantum Leap in Material Science
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White Papers: Software
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Manufacturing Transfers for Medtech Innovators Part 4: Matching Technical Expertise in Equipment and Software Applications

The seamless transition of production from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to a contract manufacturing...

White Papers: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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Manufacturing Transfers for Medtech Innovators Part 3: Making a Move

For medical device companies seeking to optimize their operations, manufacturing transfers bring a unique set of challenges and opportunities. Continuous investment in...

Application Briefs: Energy
Insaco manufactured custom tooling to meet the unique part specifications for NASA’s DISSIPATION mission, which will enable better understanding of how the energy imparted by solar winds into the atmosphere is dispersed.
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Technology & Society: Energy
Sandia engineers convert excess renewable electricity into heat that gets stored in piles of gravel.
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Blog: Materials
Researchers have developed a battery that uses hemoglobin as an electrochemical reaction facilitator, functioning for around 20-30 days.
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Articles: Medical

Women have been making significant improvements to engineering and are at the forefront of innovation and sustainable development. Women in Engineering: Rising Star Awards will shine the...

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Quiz: Robotics, Automation & Control
As generative AI continues to evolve, we are seeing many new applications emerge across industries. How much do you know about generative AI? Take this quiz to test your knowledge.
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5 Ws: Robotics, Automation & Control
A smart modular yardwork robot that can blow leaves and plow snow as well as achieve reductions in carbon emissions at the same time.
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White Papers: Materials
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Superior Corrosion Resistance for Automotive Applications: How NITREX SMART ONC Leads with Advanced Protection Technology

Explore the latest groundbreaking advancements in corrosion resistance for the automotive industry and the economic and...

Blog: Energy
Researchers led by Genki Kobayashi at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research in Japan have developed a solid electrolyte for transporting hydride ions at room temperature.
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Articles: Software
What are the opportunities and risks AI offers in manufacturing? How can manufacturers successfully implement AI and prepare their workforce to integrate it into their processes? What’s its future outlook? Tech Briefs asked four industry experts in this roundtable.
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Products: Electronics & Computers
See what's new on the market, including a new feature for RJG's CoPilot process control system, Renishaw's expanded RenAM 500, AIRMAR's three medium ultra-wide transducers, Coilcraft's molded power inductors, VP810 vapor phase soldering systems from ASSCON, and more.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
An international team of researchers reports on a compact high-brightness mid-IR-driven source combining a gas-filled anti-resonant-ring photonic crystal fiber with a novel nonlinear-crystal. The tabletop source provides a seven-octave coherent spectrum from 340 nm–40,000 nm with spectral brightness 2–5 orders of magnitude higher than one of the brightest synchrotron facilities.
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Briefs: Materials
Using kirigami, the ancient Japanese art of folding and cutting paper, MIT researchers have now manufactured a type of high-performance architected material known as a plate lattice, on a much larger scale than scientists have previously been able to achieve by additive fabrication.
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Briefs: Manned Systems
Recent experiments by a team from the West Virginia University focused on how a weightless microgravity environment affects 3D printing using titania foam, a material with potential applications ranging from UV blocking to water purification. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces published their findings.
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Briefs: Materials
A new method for metal 3D printing aims to make more efficient use of resources by allowing structural modifications to be “programmed” into metal alloys during 3D printing, fine-tuning their properties without the “heating and beating” process that’s been in use for thousands of years.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Harvard researchers have realized a key milestone in the quest for stable, scalable quantum computing, an ultra-high-speed technology that will enable game-changing advances in a variety of fields, including medicine, science, and finance.
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Briefs: Aerospace
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a simplified, tool-less automated tow/tape placement (ATP) system. This invention enables several benefits that mitigate limitations associated with conventional ATP systems. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Materials
Scientists at the Columbia University, University of Connecticut, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory were able to fabricate a pure form of glass and coat specialized pieces of DNA with it to create a material that was not only stronger than steel, but incredibly lightweight.
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Briefs: Physical Sciences
A series of buzzing “loop-currents” could explain a recently discovered, never-before-seen phenomenon in a type of quantum material. The quantum material is known by the chemical formula Mn 3Si2Te6, but it’s safe to call it “honeycomb.” Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Materials
Developed by a team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a self-assembling nanosheet could significantly extend the shelf life of consumer products. And because the new material is recyclable, it could also enable a sustainable manufacturing approach that keeps single-use packaging and electronics out of landfills.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Researchers have unveiled a remarkable new material with potential to impact the world of material science: amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC). Beyond its exceptional strength, this material demonstrates mechanical properties crucial for vibration isolation on a microchip. It is therefore particularly suitable for making ultra-sensitive microchip sensors.
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
The NIST camera is made up of grids of ultrathin electrical wires, cooled to near absolute zero, in which current moves with no resistance until a wire is struck by a photon. In these superconducting-nanowire cameras, the energy imparted by even a single photon can be detected because it shuts down the superconductivity at a particular location (pixel) on the grid. Combining all the locations and intensities of all the photons makes up an image.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed an autonomous, or self-driving, microscopy technique. It uses AI to selectively target points of interest for scanning. Read on to learn more.
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Briefs: Energy
A research team from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory reports that the flow battery, a design optimized for electrical grid energy storage, maintained its capacity to store and release energy for more than a year of continuous charge and discharge.
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Briefs: Energy
A team from Chalmers University of Technology has succeeded in observing how the lithium metal in the cell behaves as it charges and discharges. The new method may contribute to batteries with higher capacity and increased safety in our future cars and devices.
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Briefs: Energy
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are researching solutions to these Li-ion battery issues by testing new materials in battery construction. One such material is sulfur.
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Briefs: Medical
Using 3D Bioprinting to Create Eye Tissue
The research team from the National Eye Institute printed a combination of cells that form the outer blood-retina barrier — eye tissue that supports the retina’s light-sensing photoreceptors. The technique provides a theoretically unlimited supply of patient-derived tissue to study degenerative retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration.

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