June_AMP_Digital

10 / 62

A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | J U N E 2 0 1 5
1 0 TESTING | CHARACTERIZATION
BRIEFS
Aleris, Cleveland, offers a new 7017 aluminum alloy in North America for commercial
plate and defense uses. After extensive review and testing, the U.S. Army Research
Lab issued MIL-DTL-32505 for use in armor applications. 7017 offers high strength,
good weldability, and corrosion resistance. It is currently used in Europe and Asia on
combat vehicles to achieve superior ballistic protection. aleris.com.
TRIPLE THREAT INSTRUMENT
PROBES CHEMISTRY,
TOPOGRAPHY, MECHANICS
Atomic force microscopes (AFMs)
scan surfaces to reveal details at a res-
olution 1000 times greater than that of
optical microscopes, which is ideal for
analyzing physical features but does not
work for chemical analysis—researchers
For a 500-nm-deep polymeric thin filmmade of polystyrene (lighter) and poly-2-
vinylpyridine (darker), onemultimodal instrument imaged, from left, surface topogra-
phy, elasticity of the bulkmaterial, and buried chemical behavior. Courtesy of ORNL.
This new technique for functional
imaging allows probing of regions on
the order of nanometers to character-
ize a sample’s surface hills and valleys,
elasticity throughout deeper layers,
and chemical composition. Previously,
AFM tips could penetrate only 20 nm to
explore a substance’s ability to expand
and contract. Adding a thermal desorp-
tion probe to the mix allows scientists
to probe deeper, as the technique cooks
matter off the surface and removes it as
deep as 140 nm. .
ENGINEERS PREPARE TO
ANALYZE ORION HEAT SHIELD
Engineers from three NASA field
centers are working together at NASA’s
Marshall Space Flight Center in Hunts-
ville, Ala., to remove and analyze 180
small squares of an ablative material
called Avcoat—the outer coating of the
heat shield that protected the Orion
crew module during its 2014 flight test.
NASA is developing the spacecraft to
carry future astronauts on new missions
to an asteroid and to Mars. Charred
during the test flight known as Explora-
tion Flight Test 1, or EFT-1, the 16.5-ft-
diameter heat shield arrived at Marshall
onMarch9. Itwas installed in the center’s
seven-axis milling machine, which uses
computer-aided tools to manufacture
parts and cut large metal or composite
materials or structures. Built for NASA
by Lockheed Martin of Huntsville, the
machine is the largest of its kind in the
world except its twin at NASA’s Michoud
Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
must use mass spectrometers. A team
from the DOE’s Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, Tenn., has combined these
capabilities into one instrument that
can probe a sample in 3D and overlay
information about surface topogra-
phy, atomic-scale mechanical behavior
near the surface, and chemistry at and
beneath the surface. This multimodal
imaging allows scientists to explore
thin films of phase-separated polymers
important for energy conversion and
storage.
“Combining the two capabilities
marries the best of both worlds,” says
project leader Olga Ovchinnikova. “For
the same location, you get not only
precise location and physical charac-
terization, but also precise chemical
information.”
A novel x-ray scattering concept
by researchers at Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory’s
Advanced Light Source (ALS),
Calif., is receiving $2.4 million in
support from the Gordon and
Betty Moore Foundation. Funding
will enable development of a new
spectrometer to study materials
via x-ray scattering. The grant is
part of the Foundation’s Emergent
Phenomena in Quantum Systems
initiative, which “strives to deepen
our understanding of the com-
plex collective behavior electrons
exhibit in materials and engineered
structures.” .
BRIEFS
Grafoid Inc., Canada, acquired analytical services provider MuAnalysis
Inc., Ottawa, Ontario. MuAnalysis provides analysis to the electronics,
photonics, life sciences, and manufacturing industries and offers exper-
tise in electron microscopy, optical microscopy, materials and failure
analysis techniques, and reliability testing. The company is Grafoid’s
third advanced technology acquisition within the last 12 months, joining
Braille Battery Inc., Sarasota, Fla., and Alcereco Inc., Kingston, Ontario.