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1 2 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 | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9 is equivalent to 290,075 pounds per square inch. “Creep-fatigue testing involves exposing materials to high heat and repeated, extended loads, which helps us understand how structures will per- form when placed under loads in ex- treme environments,” continues Rabiei. “That is clearly important for applica- tions such as nuclear reactors, which are designed to operate for decades.” “The ability to capture insights like these is a significant advance for research into any number of new, high-performance materials, particu- larly those that are designed to perform in extreme environments,” Rabiei says. ncsu.edu . NEW NASA METHOD SPOTS FAILING INFRASTRUCTURE FROM SPACE A team of scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have invented a new technique for analyzing satellite data that can TESTING | CHARACTERIZATION CREEP-FATIGUE TESTING THROUGH MICROSCOPY Researchers from North Caro- lina State University (NCSU), Raleigh, recently developed a process enabling them to track microscopic changes in metals or other mate- rials in real time even when the materials are exposed to extreme heat and loads for an extended period of time—a phenomenon known as “creep.” The technique will expedite efforts to develop and characterize materi- als for use in extreme environments, such as nuclear reactors. “Our technique, which is called ‘in situ scanning elec- tron microscopy (SEM) heating and loading,’ allows us to see the micro- scopic changes taking place throughout the process,” says researcher Afsaneh Rabiei. “You can see how cracks form and grow, or how microstructure trans- forms during the failure process.” Rabiei developed the in situ SEM technique for high temperatures and load (tension) as a means of conduct- ing high throughput assessments of the behavior of advanced materials. The goal of the DOE-supported proj- ect was to be able to predict how a material responds under a variety of heating and loading conditions. The instru- ment can capture SEM images at temperatures as high as 1000°C, and at stresses as high as two gigapascal—which An interior view of Prof. Rabiei’s in situ SEM heating and loading device. Courtesy of North Carolina State University. Nordson Corp., Westlake, Ohio, has acquired Optical Control GMBH, a designer and developer of high-speed, fully automatic counting systems utilizing x-ray technology. This offering will expand Nordson’s test and inspection capabilities for electronics customers. Based in Nuremberg, Germany, Optical Control is a leader in its field for the accurate auto- matic counting of components for reels, strips and trays, as well as basic inspection in printed circuit board manufacturing. nordson.com , www. optical-control.de . BRIEFS Additive manufacturer Sintavia LLC, Hollywood, Fla., will acquire QC Laboratories Inc., an NDT services company also based in Hollywood. The acquisition great- ly enhances Sintavia’s NDT capa- bilities for commercial aerospace applications specifically in surface finish conformance testing. sintavia.com , qclabs.net . Element Materials Technology has invested over $3M in comput- ed radiography (CR) equipment and training to expand its aero- space NDT capabilities across the U.K. and U.S. The Group’s nation- wide laboratories have acquired CR systems from Fujifilm and constructed x-ray vaults and ma- chines to perform state-of-the-art testing on large structural invest- ment castings. element.com . A satellite view of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy, prior to its August 2018 collapse, with numbers identifying key bridge components. Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Google.