Materials & Coatings

Metals

Learn what’s trending in the engineering metals used in 3D printing, military, medical devices, automotive, and manufacturing. Find the latest applications that design engineers are using to meet their design challenges.

Stories

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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Method of Fabricating Ultra-Short-Gate-Length Thin-Film Transistors Using Optical Lithography
The speed of thin-film transistors (TFTs) relates directly to their gate length, which must be kept as short as possible to lower electron transport time between electrodes, and improve its high-frequency response characteristics. Since current density is...
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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INSIDER: Materials
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have developed germanium nanoparticles with improved photoluminescence, making them potentially better materials for...
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Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Metal additive manufacturing is being embraced as a choice for parts production across many fields — including aerospace, automotive, healthcare, and other industries —...
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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...
Briefs: Manned Systems
NASA’s Langley Research Center has developed a deployable and stowable mechanical design for filling the cavity behind the leading-edge slat (i.e., slat cove) when it is extended upon landing an aircraft....
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Sound-Off: Automotive
New plastics are helping automotive manufacturers reduce the weight of their vehicles. But how do thermoset composites stack up against traditional metals? A Tech Briefs reader asks our automotive expert.
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Application Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Concept Laser Grapevine, TX For more info click here Now that metal additive manufacturing (AM) is creating fully functional industrial parts, many OEMs are taking a closer look...
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Application Briefs: Materials
LumiShield Pittsburgh, PA For more info click here Corrosion-related issues cost the U.S. economy $276 billion a year. The Energy Department’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)...
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Briefs: Materials
At high temperatures, currently available cast stainless steel alloys used for engine component applications do not have the long-term stability of their original castings, and are lacking in their ability...
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Briefs: Materials
NASA's Glenn Research Center has developed high-temperature solid lubricant materials suitable for foil gas bearings that enable the...
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Articles: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Gears play an essential role in precision robotics, and they can become a limiting factor when the robots must perform in space missions. In particular, the extreme temperatures of deep space pose...
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INSIDER: Materials
Researchers Create Metallic Hydrogen
Nearly a century after it was theorized, scientists from Harvard University have created the first-ever sample of one of the rarest materials on the planet: metallic hydrogen. The atomic metallic hydrogen has a potentially wide range of applications, including as a room-temperature superconductor.
Question of the Week: Materials
Will metallic hydrogen improve transportation?
This week's Question: Today's lead INSIDER story featured the development of metallic hydrogen, a technology that has a range of potential applications, from advanced rocket propellants to room-temperature superconductors. According to the Harvard University researchers, the material could support the...
INSIDER: Materials
Researchers Design Lightweight, 'Stronger-Than-Steel' Material
A team of engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has successfully designed a new 3D material with five percent the density of steel and ten times the strength. By compressing and fusing flakes of graphene, a two-dimensional form of carbon, the sponge-link configuration...
Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Sometimes referred to as “solid smoke,” aerogels are the world’s lightest solid materials, composed of approximately 85% air by volume. Polyamide aerogels open up a whole new world of...
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INSIDER: Photonics/Optics
Glowing Crystals Cleanse Contaminated Drinking Water
Motivated by public hazards associated with contaminated sources of drinking water, a group of scientists has successfully developed and tested tiny, glowing crystals that detect and trap heavy-metal toxins like mercury and lead.
INSIDER: Electronics & Computers
Researchers have created an exotic 3-D racetrack for electrons in ultrathin slices of a nanomaterial they fabricated at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley...
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INSIDER: Materials
Large elements for NASA's Space Launch System are in production, and will be joined together to create the rocket's 212-foot-tall core stage, the backbone of the SLS rocket. The core...
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INSIDER: Medical
A breakthrough by an Australian collaboration of researchers could make infrared technology easy-to-use and cheap, potentially saving millions of dollars in defense and other areas using sensing...
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Articles: Materials
The Contamination and Coatings Engineering Branch at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, provides system-level support in contamination engineering and thermal...
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R&D: Aerospace
A team of Northwestern researchers has created a new way to print three-dimensional metallic objects using rust and metal powders.
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INSIDER: Materials
Taking a page from the beetle's playbook, Virginia Tech biomedical engineers created a way to control condensation and frost growth on airplane parts, condenser coils, and windshields.
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INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Engineers at The Ohio State University have developed a new welding technique that consumes 80 percent less energy than a common welding technique, yet creates bonds that are 50 percent stronger....
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Who's Who: Materials
Dr. Santo Padula has developed testing techniques to support the development of advanced materials like metallic foams and shape memory alloys (SMAs). SMAs...
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INSIDER: Materials
Researchers Weld the Un-Weldable
Despite recent advances in materials design, alternative metals still pose a challenge to manufacturers in practice. Many are considered un-weldable by traditional means, in part because high heat and re-solidification weaken the metals. Engineers at The Ohio State University have developed a new welding technique...
INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The latest generation of electric motors is increasingly being equipped with strong, multi-ton permanent magnets instead of a gearbox. The most powerful magnets are based on neodymium, iron, and...
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INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
Compressor disks for aircraft turbines are milled from a single piece of material. During processing, the blades begin to vibrate. Now, a novel clamping system boosts vibration...
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