8 ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 designing and analyzing polymers. Capable of mixing materials, analyzing their properties, and maintaining a digital database, the system will accelerate ongoing and future efforts to develop energy-efficient manufacturing methods and produce sustainable plastics. The three-year installation pro- cess is set to begin in November 2023. The system consists of four large modules, and the process begins when researchers load a selection of starter materials into the first module. These ingredients can be solid, liquid, or a viscous consistency that exists between the two, and they are stored individually inside the module. From these materials, investigators can order project-specific solutions, which the machine dispenses into test tubes and transfers to the mixers via robotic arm. With the test tubes filled and mixed, the samples advance to the subsequent modules for characterization to identify their properties. One module will gauge thermal properties, another rheo- logical properties—and yet another is fully customizable for project-specific characterizations like optical imaging. Additional modules may be added in the future as research interests ebb and flow. More than just a physical task- master, the system will also include sophisticated software to match the details of each solution to an accurate description of its properties, making results more reliable and experiments more repeatable. Researchers aided by TESTING | CHARACTERIZATION BALL MILLING BENEFITS BATTERY MATERIALS Advances in next generation ma- terials for lithium-ion batteries have been getting an extra boost from the use of ball milling. Now, scientists at the University of Birmingham discovered that routine ball milling can cause high pressure effects on battery materials in just a matter of minutes, providing a vital additional variable in the process of synthesizing battery materials. The process is fairly simple and consists of milling powder compounds with small balls that mix and make the particles smaller, creating high-capacity electrode materials and leading to better performing batteries. The researchers found that dy- namic impacts from colliding milling balls with battery materials create a pressure effect which plays an important role in causing the changes. They also discovered that applying heat would cause some compounds to return to their pre-milled state, signifying that an additional variable was at play in the original synthesis—pressure being key. According to the researchers, their discovery provides the opportunity to develop cheaper, more energy efficient processes for battery manufacturers, and also to explore avenues for new materials. www.birmingham.ac.uk. AUTOMATED POLYMER RESEARCH INSTRUMENT With a $3.6 million major research instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will acquire a fully automated system for Triangular holes make this material more likely to crack from left to right. Courtesy of N.R. Brodnik et al./Phys. Rev. Lett. Camtek, Israel, will acquire FormFactor Inc.’s FRT metrology business for $100 million in cash. FRT, Germany, is a supplier of high-precision metrology equipment for the advanced packaging and silicon carbide markets, while Camtek provides inspection and 3D metrology instruments to the semiconductor industry. camtek.com. Different manufacturing techniques could help to create better batteries. Software developer Molydyn will use chemical simulation to test new composite materials in collaboration with the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and Bitrez to make the testing process more sustainable. The U.K.-based project aims to use molecular modeling to develop a viscosity modeling capability for Molydyn’s Atlas simulation platform to help design composite materials with reduced environmental impact. molydyn.com. BRIEFS Development engineer for composites at AMRC tests for material viscosity.
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