ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | JULY/AUGUST 2023 6 METALS | POLYMERS | CERAMICS Fort Wayne Metals, Ind., a manufacturer of precision wire-based materials, acquired specialized wiredrawing equipment from Plansee SE, Austria, to facilitate tantalum production. Tantalum processing will begin by the end of the year. fwmetals.com. MAGNESIUM ALLOY BONDING Due to their low density and excellent strength-to-weight ratio, magnesium alloys are considered the next-generation base metal for multi-material design and have been touted as a possible replacement for conventional steels when appropriate. However, due to the immiscible nature of magnesium and iron, it’s been a challenge for scientists to develop bonding technology that successfully combines the alloys with structural steels. Now, a research team from Tohoku University, Japan, has succeeded in establishing a dealloying bonding technology that obtains a strong mechanical bond between iron and magnesium. “Our dealloying reaction derives from the miscibility and immiscibility of the constituent elements in the bond, and also helped create a 3D, interlocked microstructure at the interface of the two materials,” explains researcher Kota Kurabayashi. He also points out BENEFICIAL BAND FORMATION Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison recently found that under the right conditions, shear bands can improve the ductility, or the plasticity, of a material. Using a combination of experimental characterization and simulations, the team identified potential strategies for encouraging shear bands. The work could lead to new ways of increasing toughness in a wide array of materials. After finding plasticity-promoting shear bands in a brittle intermetallic material called samarium cobalt, the team hypothesized that these types of beneficial bands could form in materials that easily transition between crystalline and amorphous phases. To test this, they looked at aluminum samarium, a glassy material studied extensively by lead researcher Izabela Szlufarska and colleagues in the NSF-supported Materials Research Science and Education Center at UW–Madison. Using atomic-level simulations, Szlufarska’s group predicted that the crystalline form of this material should also form shear bands under stress. They not only confirmed the finding in the lab, but also varied the atomic composition of the aluminum samarium, making versions where shear bands led either to fracture or to plasticity. This new understanding led the team to propose criteria for screening new materials that might exhibit similar properties and for identifying when shear bands are beneficial. They hope the new parameters will make it possible to search databases for materials that could benefit from doping or engineering to promote shear band formation. Next, the team intends to test traditional structural materials like oxides, carbides, and borides to determine how they can be optimized. wisc.edu. From le : Professor Izabela Szlufarska along with graduate students Xuanxin Hu and Nuohao Liu have developed new criteria for determining whether shear bands are beneficial or harmful to certain crystalline materials. Courtesy of University of Wisconsin–Madison. Polymer Resources Ltd., Farmington, Conn., upgraded and expanded its compounding facility in Rochester, N.Y., to support a 40% increase in overall compounding capacity. The updated plant also features increased grinding and shredding capacity for recycling plastic. prlresins.com. BRIEFS Researchers successfully established a strong mechanical bond of immiscible iron and magnesium.
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