November 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 | N O V E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 1 3 PROCESS TECHNOLOGY Hyperion Materials & Technologies Inc., Worthington, Ohio, a global materials science company focused on hard and superhard materials for high precision applications, will acquire Arno Friedrichs Hartmetall GmbH & Co. KG, Germany, a global solutions provider in premium cemented carbide blanks used in the manufacture of high precision rotary cutting tools for drilling and milling applications. hyperionmt.com/en, afcarbide.de/en. Nanotronics, Brooklyn, N.Y., will open a high-tech manufacturing center at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, creating 190 new jobs and invest- ing $11 million. nanotronics.co. BRIEFS AM BREAKTHROUGH WITH ALUMINUM ALLOYS Through extensive testing, scien- tists have found aluminum alloy pow- ders that are suitable for sintering with binder jet technology. These findings have major implications for the auto- motive industry as aluminum alloys represent over 30% of the overall mate- rial demand in this space. The research was conducted by scientists at McGill University, Canada, in partnership with manufacturers at Equispheres. Binder jet printers are 100 times faster than traditional laser based ad- ditive manufacturing (AM) printers and hold the promise of enabling AM to be used in mass production. However, until now, binder jet printer technolo- gy was unable to sinter aluminum al- loys. The powder, developed by Equi- spheres, Canada, will enable one of the most efficient and scalable production methods—binder jet printing—to work with some of the most in-demand pro- duction materials, including aluminum alloys. This combination was previous- ly unfeasible. Equispheres is presently working with key partners on the de- velopment of specialized binder agents required for aluminum and for specif- ic automotive applications. equispheres. com, mcgill.ca. NEW MATERIALS FOR FAST- NEUTRON REACTORS Creating a new generation of fast-neutron reactors calls for the de- velopment of new structural materials. Now, scientists from NUST MISIS, Mos- cow, have developed a composite ma- terial that can be used in harsh tem- perature conditions, such as those in nuclear reactors. To simultaneously achieve both the microhardness and the thermal stability of the composite material, the scientists used one of the severe plastic deformation methods—high- pressure torsion (HPT)—which enabled the creation of a specific multilayer structure with vanadium alloy. The resulting sample showed that, after HPT, the strength of the “sand- wich” increased by three times com- pared to the strength of each of the in- dividual components. In addition, the multilayer structure enabled the final material to withstand heating up to 700°C. Thus, for the first time, a com- posite nanostructured sandwich mate- rial with such high thermal stability was obtained. en.misis.ru. NOVEL PRINTING CAPABILITY A team of researchers from Ore- gon State University, Portland, and Uni- versity of Oregon, Eugene, in collabo- ration with HP Labs, Palo Alto, Calif., is developing the capability to print elec- tric and magnetic devices. In a project funded by the National Science Foun- dation, the first milestone will be the ability to print devices such as sensors or antennas. In the same way a standard inkjet printer mixes color, the team’s experi- mental printer uses inks composed of dielectric and magnetic nanoparticles to digitally print materials with tailored electromagnetic properties. If it proves successful, device designers will have the ability to print custom equipment for very specific applications. This novel printing capability will also accelerate the development of new technologies by enabling rapid proto- typing and optimization. uoregon.edu. SEM image of Equispheres’ aluminum alloy powder. Courtesy of Business Wire. This digital inket printer head uses magnetic or dielectric particles.