Materials & Manufacturing

Materials & Coatings

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Access the technical resources for a range of materials and coatings. Design engineers can browse news, technical briefs, and applications for plastics, composites, rubbers, elastomers, and metals.

Latest Briefs & News

On-Demand Webinars: Materials
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The reliability, durability, and performance of small and miniature parts in a product or sub assembly depends heavily on the material used, the...

Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The Create the Future Design Contest, launched in 2002 by SAE Media Group, recognizes and rewards engineering innovations that benefit humanity, the environment, and the economy. The annual contest draws product designs from engineers, students, and entrepreneurs worldwide.
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Engineers have made progress toward lithium-metal batteries that charge as fast as an hour. This fast charging is thanks to lithium metal crystals that can be seeded and grown — quickly and uniformly — on a surprising surface.
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Briefs: RF & Microwave Electronics
Researchers have developed a viable dust, water, and ice mitigation optical coating for space flight, aeronautical, and ground applications. The innovation of the LOTUS coating prevents contamination on sensitive surfaces.
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Special Reports: Energy
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EV Battery Innovation - November 2023

Read about the latest advances in EV battery testing, fast-charging, materials technology, and much more in this new report brought to you by Battery & Electrification Technology and Automotive...

Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A team of researchers demonstrated the first light-emitting array with 49 different colors on a single chip. This novel optoelectronic device is built on metal-oxide semiconductor capacitors.
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Briefs: Materials
With a new microscopy technique that uses blue light to measure electrons in semiconductors and other nanoscale materials, a team of researchers is opening a new realm of possibilities in the study of these critical components, which can help power devices like mobile phones and laptops.
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Articles: Robotics, Automation & Control
See the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest's Robotics & Automation Finalist: Patchflow, robotics for in-pipe leak repair.
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Articles: Design
Learn about the 2023 Create the Future Design Contest's Manufacturing & Materials Finalist: TenseFlatables, 3D-printed tensegrity-assisted inflatable structures.
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Briefs: Materials
Innovators at NASA Johnson Space Center have developed a carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) sleeve, that, when fitted over a cylindrical Li-ion battery cell, can prevent cell-to-cell propagation by containing a thermal runaway (TR) event to the originating cell.
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Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
Researchers continue to refine the process to improve electrochemical performance. The goal is to balance the benefits and drawbacks of the thicker electrode: It has the potential for higher energy loading and is easy to roll, but it may provide less power, since the ions have further to travel.
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Briefs: Energy
Most space satellites are powered by photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight to electricity. Exposure to certain orbit radiation can damage the devices. Scientists have proposed a radiation-tolerant photovoltaic cell design that features an ultrathin layer of light-absorbing material.
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Briefs: Materials
Cage structures made with nanoparticles could be a step toward making organized nanostructures with mixed materials, and researchers at the University of Michigan have shown how to achieve this through computer simulations.
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Briefs: Lighting
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed soft devices containing algae that glow in the dark when experiencing mechanical stress, such as being squished, stretched, twisted, or bent.
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Briefs: Materials
Researchers from Imperial College London and University College London have demonstrated the first spontaneously self-organizing laser device, which can reconfigure when conditions change.
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INSIDER: Materials

A collaborative group of researchers has manipulated the behavior of light as if it were under the influence of gravity. The findings, which were published in...

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INSIDER: Propulsion

An international team of scientists has recently developed a novel type of nano-engine made of DNA. It is driven by a clever mechanism that can perform pulsing movements. The researchers are now planning to fit it with a...

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White Papers: Green Design & Manufacturing
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The Benefits of 420 Chrome Stainless Steel Coiled Spring Pins

Coiled Spring Pins are available in light, standard, and heavy duty to create the optimum combination of strength, flexibility, and diameter to suit specific host materials and...

White Papers: Materials
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How to Measure Long Distances Precisely in Industrial Applications

In factory and plant automation, large distances between sensor and target must be reliably monitored. Laser distance sensors provide precise measurement results with high...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Continuous monitoring of sweat can reveal valuable information about human health, such as the body’s glucose levels. However, wearable sensors previously developed for...

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INSIDER: Materials

Researchers have developed a method of “wiring up” graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), a class of one-dimensional materials that are of interest in the scaling of microelectronic devices....

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INSIDER: Sensors/Data Acquisition

We live in an analog world of continuous information flow that is both processed and stored by our brains at the same time, but our electronic devices process...

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Technology & Society: Green Design & Manufacturing
A new type of material developed at the University of California San Diego could offer a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to clean pollutants from water.
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Q&A: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Professor Pablo Zavattieri and his team from Purdue University have developed an architected material that can dissipate energy caused by bending, compression, torque, and tensile stresses, avoiding permanent plastic deformation or damage.
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On-Demand Webinars: Defense
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In extreme environments, materials tend to break down or crack from long-term heat exposure or become brittle when exposed to extremely low temperatures. For satellites...

Blog: Green Design & Manufacturing
Researchers at University of Texas at Austin were able to pull water out of the atmosphere and make it drinkable using solar energy, in conditions as low as 104°.
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Blog: Materials
A promising technology that could potentially revolutionize the process of testing bacterial viability in food.
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Briefs: Materials
Enhancing At-Home COVID Tests with Glow-in-The-Dark Materials
Researchers at the University of Houston are using glow-in-the-dark materials to enhance and improve rapid COVID-19 home tests.
Briefs: Materials
Prompted by conversations regarding soft robotics, a research group has developed a design for a new sensor using 3D electrodes inspired by the folding patterns used in origami, able to measure a strain range of up to three times higher than a typical sensor.
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