Materials & Coatings

Composites

Explore the latest developments, technical briefs, and a wide range of white papers on the composites used in military, aviation, medical devices, and automotive applications.

Briefs: Green Design & Manufacturing
In Penn’s Clean Energy Conversions Lab, researchers are repurposing waste from industrial mines, storing carbon pulled from the atmosphere into newly formed rock. The team sees great environmental potential in mine tailings.
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Briefs: Materials
A new smart material is activated by both heat and electricity, making it the first ever to respond to two different stimuli. The work paves the way for a wide variety of potential applications, including clothing that warms up while you walk.
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Articles: Materials
Whether you call them packs, boxes, or trays, the structures that envelop and protect EV battery cells and their supporting electrical and thermal-management hardware are among the industry's top subsystem priorities.
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Special Reports: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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Aerospace Manufacturing - February 2023

Learn about advances in 3D printing of spacecraft, large-scale aerospace composites manufacturing, cutting tools for tomorrow's sustainable aircraft, and more in this compendium of recent articles from...

Briefs: Materials
Inflatable and deployable beams and masts are often made of polymer composites and may be stored for one to two years in space before deployment.
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Q&A: Materials
Jason Patrick, assistant professor of civil, construction, and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University, and his team have developed a new composite material for applications like airplane wings and wind turbine blades in which hidden defects and damage can self-heal.
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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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Tech Talks: Aerospace
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There are numerous applications for which flexible composite sheeting and extrusions are uniquely suited, which will be highlighted in this 20-minute Tech Talk, along with new...

Briefs: Design
In batteries, electrolyte is the circulating “blood” that keeps the energy flowing. The electrolyte forms by dissolving salts in solvents, resulting in charged ions that flow between the positive and negative electrodes.
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Briefs: Energy
The system makes it possible to integrate data from prior experiments, and information based on personal observations by experienced workers, into the machine learning process.
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Tests showed the metalens they made could focus its 197-nanometer output onto a spot measuring 1.7 microns in diameter, increasing the power density of the light output by 21 times.
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Briefs: Materials
Applications include a smart fabric for exoskeletons, an adaptive cast that adjusts its stiffness as an injury heals, or a deployable bridge that could be unrolled and stiffened.
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Briefs: Materials
A simple change to the surface of perovskite removes a barrier to its functionality.
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Briefs: Materials
Hydrogen has emerged as an important carrier to store energy generated by renewable resources, as a substitute for fossil fuels used for transportation, in the production of ammonia, and for other industrial applications.
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Briefs: Imaging

Traditional glassmaking techniques can be costly and slow, and 3D printing glass often results in rough textures, making them unsuitable for smooth lenses. Using a new...

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Special Reports: Imaging
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Aerospace Manufacturing - May 2022

Demanding applications in the aerospace industry require products and systems that are manufactured using advanced technologies – in additive manufacturing, machining, metrology, and more. To help you...

Special Reports: Medical
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Advanced Materials & Coatings - May 2022

Breakthroughs in plastics, composites, metals, and other materials technologies are enabling exciting new applications in industries ranging from aerospace to automotive to medical. Read more in this...

Briefs: Materials

Researchers combined additive manufacturing with conventional compression molding to produce high-performance thermoplastic composites reinforced with short carbon fibers. The approach...

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Briefs: Materials

All solid materials, including glass, have a property called elastic stiffness — also known as elastic modulus. It's a measure of how much force per unit area is needed to...

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Briefs: Materials
By electrically stimulating nerves, this therapy can reduce epileptic seizures and soothe chronic pain without the use of conventional drugs like opioids.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
The advance could accelerate engineers’ design process by eliminating the need to solve complex equations.
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Briefs: Materials
The carbon fiber reinforced material can be repeatedly healed with heat.
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
The system creates accurate defect standards for in-situ inspection systems.
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Briefs: Materials
The eco-friendly process removes heavy metals, dyes, and other pollutants.
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Briefs: Aerospace
The film monitors how well aircraft and spacecraft withstand the mechanical stresses of flight.
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Question of the Week: Materials
Will Automotive and Aerospace Industries Adopt Self-Healing Composites?

An INSIDER story this month highlighted how researchers from RPI and the University of Washington have created a composite that reverses fatigue damage — after applying some heat.

Question of the Week: Materials
Will Mars Habitats Be Made from Blood?

Transporting a single brick to Mars is extremely expensive. The high cost presents a challenge for those planning the future construction of a Martian colony.

Blog: Materials
A team has created a new type of carbon fiber reinforced material that reverses any fatigue damage -- you just need a little heat.
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