ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | APRIL 2024 6 METALS | POLYMERS | CERAMICS Intek Plastics, Hastings, Minn., acquired a 72,000-sq-ft extrusion facility in Medford, Wis. With complementary equipment, the facility is structured to manufacture high-quality extrusion solutions for the fenestration market. The Medford equipment is equivalent to the company’s highvolume twin-screw extruders at the Hastings facility. intekplastics.com. With applications in aerospace and automotive industries, the research offers a path to promising materials that are lighter, stronger, and more corrosion-resistant, setting a new standard in composite material development with wide-reaching industrial implications. english.tyut.edu.cn. IMPROVED PADDING DESIGN A collaborative team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder created a new design for padding that can withstand big impacts. The team’s innovations, which can be printed on commercially available 3D printers, could one day wind up in everything from shipping crates to football pads— anything that helps to protect fragile objects, or bodies, from outside forces and events. The group wrote computer algorithms to meticulously redesign the interior of cushioning materials— allowing them to buckle under force, but only following a careful pattern. To make a more versatile cushion, the researchers opted to rearrange the ALUMINUM MAGNESIUM LAMINATES Researchers at Taiyuan University of Technology, China, are developing Al/Mg/Al laminates, cladding magnesium with aluminum to combine their respective strengths—lightness and better corrosion resistance. They explored various methods such as co-extrusion, casting, and welding, with rolling emerging as a preferred technique for its flexibility and efficiency. The research team produced Al/Mg/Al laminates with large thickness ratios, presenting significant advancements in mechanical properties and interfacial bonding strength. Created through a hot-rolling process, the team’s Al/Mg/Al laminates exhibited varied initial thickness ratios (ITR). By experimenting with ITRs ranging from 5 to 40, they investigated how changing the ITR affects the stress, strain, microstructure evolution, and overall properties of the laminates. Findings indicated that an optimal ITR exists—specifically, an ITR of 20—where the laminates display the best comprehensive mechanical properties. This includes maximizing the ultimate tensile strength and yield strength while also achieving high interfacial bonding strength and optimal elongation. Beyond this optimal point, increases in ITR lead to a decrease in interface bonding strength, affecting the laminate’s overall performance. Nippon Steel Corp., Tokyo, remains committed to acquiring United States Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, by September, according to executive vice president Takahiro Mori. He stated that the acquisition is an “investment to strengthen U.S. Steel, and will also make the automobile and other related industries strong.” nippon.com. BRIEFS Schematic of large thickness ratio Al/Mg/Al laminate rolling process. Courtesy of TranSpread. In laboratory tests, a new design for padding, right, outperformed more conventional technologies like a foam, le , made out of the same springy material. Courtesy of Lawrence Smith.
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