Materials & Manufacturing

Materials & Coatings

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.

Stories

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Application Briefs: Materials
Keeping oil and gas production facilities running smoothly is among the toughest challenges in any industry.
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INSIDER: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Mimicking the human body, specifically the actuators that control muscle movement, is of immense interest around the globe. In recent years, it has led to many innovations to improve...
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Articles: Energy
Sustainability isn’t just about making sure your discarded water bottle is recycled. It’s also about teaming with global entities to form innovative, technologically solid partnerships.
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Special Reports: RF & Microwave Electronics
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Special Report: Optics & Photonics Innovations - July 2022
The most powerful telescope ever launched, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will peer back in time to the birth of the universe's first stars. Learn about its highly advanced optics...

Question of the Week: Electronics & Computers
Smart Molecules Act as Computer Transistors
Researchers have discovered a single-molecule switch that can act like a transistor and store binary information. The molecule is around five square nanometers in size — more than one billion of them would fit onto the cross-section of a human hair.
INSIDER: Physical Sciences
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have discovered a physical phenomenon that is the basis for a new material that has 150% better thermal conductivity than conventional materials used in...
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INSIDER: Materials
A team from the Tulane University School of Science and Engineering has developed a new family of two-dimensional materials that researchers say has promising applications, including in advanced...
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Articles: Design
With its instant repellency and its ability to repel rather than kill or deactivate pathogens, RepelWrap presents an effective alternative to current technologies.
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Blog: Electronics & Computers
As I was scrolling through research lab press releases for a Q&A column, one caught my eye: “Remote High-Voltage Sensor Unveiled at Sandia Gamma Ray Lab.” High voltage is not the sexiest of technology...
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Facility Focus: Research Lab
The University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, more commonly known as Penn Engineering or SEAS, offers programs that emphasize hands-on study of engineering...
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Briefs: Materials
Researchers have developed a new kind of bandage that helps blood to clot and doesn’t stick to the wound. They tested various superhydrophobic materials — which are, like...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A fish-inspired robot that can travel 26 meters through the air after takeoff could be used to collect water samples in hazardous and cluttered environments, such...
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Briefs: Software
Robotic assistants are expected to become increasingly marketable as caregivers; however, the external hard structure of current caregiving robots prevents them from establishing a safe human-robot interaction....
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Briefs: Materials
Engineers have invented a way to spray extremely thin wires made of a plant-based material that could be used in N95 mask filters, devices that harvest energy for electricity, and potentially the...
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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
Engineers have created a highly effective way to paint complex 3D-printed objects, such as lightweight frames for aircraft and biomedical stents, that could save manufacturers time and money and provide new...
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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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Briefs: Manufacturing & Prototyping
The Modular Artificial-Gravity Orbital Refinery Spacecraft (MAGORS) is a technology from NASA Ames Research Center for in-situ refining or recycling of materials in space, including mass...
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Briefs: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Light-emitting diode (LED)-based communications techniques allow computing devices, including cellphones, to communicate with one another using infrared light. However, LED techniques...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
A new research focusing on topological control capabilities in an integrated acoustic-electronic system at technologically relevant frequencies could pave the way for additional research on...
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Briefs: Photonics/Optics
Scientists discovered a new platform for quantum technologies by suspending two-dimensional (2D) crystals over pores in a slab of gold. When heated, the metal reflows to form a porous structure and...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Computer processors have shrunk to nanometer scales over the years, with billions of transistors sitting on a single computer chip. While the increased number of transistors helps make...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Engineers have added a new capability to electronic microchips: flight. About the size of a grain of sand, the new flying microchip (microflier) does not have a motor or engine. Instead, it catches...
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Briefs: Electronics & Computers
Researchers have discovered a single-molecule switch that can act like a transistor and store binary information such as the 1s and 0s used in classical computing. The molecule is around five square...
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Articles: Wearables
This article is a marked departure from my annual reporting on the past year’s performance of the health of the MEMS industry vis-à-vis my MEMS Industry Commercialization Report Card. [1] Here, I have...
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Articles: Manufacturing & Prototyping
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
Georgia Tech researchers have shown that robots about the size of a particle of dust are capable of precise bidirectional control. By harnessing the power of a magnetic field generated by a...
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Special Reports: Test & Measurement
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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 keep...

INSIDER: Power
In a paper published in American Chemical Society’s ACS Photonics, a University of Surrey team detailed how they used characteristics of sunlight to design a disordered honeycomb layer to...
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