May/June_AMP_Digital

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 | M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 8 1 2 PROCESS TECHNOLOGY B.K. Sharma, left, and SriraamChan- drasekaran have reportedly developed the first energy-efficient and environmen- tally benign e-waste recycling process. Courtesy of L. Brian Stauffer. Lightweight Innovations For Tomorrow (LIFT), Detroit, and Heller Machine Tools, Troy, Mich., announce a $1.5 million investment in a five-axis FP 6000 machining center at LIFT’s lightweighting facility. The FP 6000 is capable of machining five sides of a work piece, providing the highest available cutting capacity along with a high quality surface finish. heller-us.com , lift.technology. BRIEFS Metal Powder Products LLC, Westfield, Ind., acquired Net- Shape Technologies Inc., Floyds Knobs, Ind., a manufacturer of engineered metal components using powdered metal and metal injection molding technologies. metalpowder.com . AN A-PEELING SOLUTION: COMBINING SOFT MATERIALS Current methods to combine soft materials are limited and can restrict the manufacturing process. But now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), Cambridge, Mass., developed a new method to chemically bond multiple soft materi- als independent of the manufacturing process. The method can be applied to any process, including 3D printing and coating, and opens the door to manu- facturing more complex soft machines. The team focused on hydrogels and elastomers, the two most com- mon building blocks for soft devic- es. To combine the materials, scien- tists mixed chemical coupling agents into the precursors of both hydrogels tive, and energy-efficient chemical sol- vent process to recover polymers from these more complex plastic blends. The most efficient solvent methods in use today involve a chemical called DCM, which releases carcinogenic vapors into the air at near-room-temperature con- ditions. These vapors contaminate the workspace and introduce the potential for release into the atmosphere, say re- searchers. One particularly efficient fea- ture of the new process is the ability to condense the evaporated solvent for re- use again and again. The process leaves behind some residual polymer waste. However, the researchers can convert those remnants into usable fuel oil by pyrolysis, further diverting these plas- tics from landfills. The team has suc- cessfully demonstrated this new sol- vent process with small quantities at the lab scale, producing polymers with comparable quality to their virginmate- rial counterparts. illinois.edu . and elastomers. The re- searchers showed that the method can bond two pieces of cast ma- terials without apply- ing a glue-like layer on the interface. In all of the cases, the hydrogel and elastomer created a strong, long-lasting chemical bond. They also showed that hy- drogels can be made heat-resistant to high temperatures by us- ing a bonded coating, extending the temperature range at which hy- drogel-based devices can be used. seas.harvard.edu. RESEARCHERS TAP E-WASTE, RECOVER POLYMERS Researchers from the Illinois Sus- tainability Technology Center, Cham- paign, report development of the first energy-efficient and environmentally benign e-waste recycling process. The team discovered mixed-plastic elec- tronicswaste couldbe a valuable source of reusable polymers. E-waste from re- frigerators, TVs, computers, monitors, and mobile phones is an ever increas- ing burden to landfills and the recycling industry. While parts of these materials are readily recyclable—glass and met- als—the remaining plastics are a chal- lenge due to their complex mixed-poly- mer composition. The team’s findings are the first to demonstrate a nontoxic, nondestruc- An unmodified hydrogel, left, peels off easily from an elasto- mer. A chemically-bonded hydrogel and elastomer, right, are tough to peel apart, leaving residue behind. Courtesy of Suo Lab/Harvard SEAS.