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Source: Today's Medical Developments - March 2016
3D printing technique using liquid inks and common furnaces is less expensive, faster, and more uniform, says Northwestern University engineering researchers.
Read More: New Ways to print 3D Metals and Alloys
Heat Treating Involved in 3D Printing Technique Read More »
Ipsen recently shipped seven furnaces around the globe, which will be used to support the Aerospace, Automotive and Power industries. This selection of shipments included both custom-built furnaces and standard TITAN® furnaces that were sent to customers in Alabama, California, Missouri and Texas, as well as China and Japan.
The equipment shipped ranged from a vertical, bottom-loading MetalMaster® with an 84″ x 84″ (2,134 mm x 2,134 mm) molybdenum hot zone traveling to California to a TITAN® H2 vacuum furnace that was sent to Japan. Other furnaces shipped included horizontal MetalMaster furnaces, H2- and H4-sized furnaces from Ipsen’s TITAN line and a Global Vertical furnace from Ipsen’s TurboTreater® line. Overall, these shipments represent Ipsen’s ability to provide sophisticated and intuitive heat-treating solutions through an all-inclusive product line that supports various applications and processes.
Ipsen Ships Seven Vacuum Furnaces Read More »
McInnes contracted with Can-Eng Furnaces Intl. Ltd. to design and install the most advanced technology to process large diameter product. The furnace & quench tank designs are augmented by a customized material handling system by Dango & Dienthal Hollerbach GmbH capable of processing loads up to 25 tons. The system’s fast transfer from furnace to quench tank provides optimal and repeatable process controls.
“This new bay nearly doubles our quenched and tempered offerings to the power transmission industry and adds the ability to solution anneal large diameter stainless steel rings. Also, the addition of water quenching improves our ability to meet the high property demands of the custom flange markets,” said Shawn O’Brien, VP Sales & Marketing.
The expanded heat treat operation will officially begin service on March 1, 2016.
Heat Treat Expansion Complete at McGinnis Rolled Rings Read More »
Global testing group Exova has made a series of investments at its laboratory in Plzeň, Czech Republic to extend its range of capabilities for customers within the global aerospace market, and further grow its presence in Mainland Europe.
Central to the laboratory’s investment is a new metallurgical department with increased capacity. This includes modifications to the facility and the acquisition of new state of the art equipment such as optical microscopy and precision cutting machinery to meet the growing demand from the aerospace industry. In addition to the new equipment, the lab has invested in its computer-based operating systems to increase efficiency at each stage of testing, improving both operations and reporting.
As well as a broad scope of mechanical testing, the Plzeň laboratory provides metallurgical assessment, including macro assessment and mapping and a range of micro examinations, along with corrosion resistance testing. Its customers work predominantly in the aerospace sector, but the laboratory conducts testing on forgings and welding, so can work across the automotive, power generation and general engineering sectors as well.
Jiri Fidransky, general manager of the Plzeň laboratory, said: “These upgrades have streamlined our day-to-day operations and reflect the growth we are seeing in the aerospace sector. Exova’s continued strong growth in the sector is driven by our highly technical and efficient service provision, and through these investments our customers will benefit from improved turnaround times and increased capacity, as well as advances in testing capabilities.”
New Metallurgical Department in Czech Republic Read More »
SMS group received an order from Romania’s TMK-ARTROM for a heat-treatment line for tubes. The line will consist of an austenitizing furnace with walking-beam transport system, quenching head, quenching tank, walking-beam tempering furnace and cooling bed. It will allow various process steps, such as quenching, tempering and normalizing. The line, which will be able to treat tubes up to a wall thickness of 60 mm (2.4 inches), is scheduled to start up in the second quarter of 2017.
TMK-ARTROM’s plant in Slatina produces seamless tubes, OCTG pipes and high-strength tubes for mechanical applications. It has an annual capacity of 160,000 tons. This heat-treatment line, which also includes eco-friendly recuperative burners in the furnaces, will strengthen TMK-ARTROM’s presence in the market for tubes for oil and gas exploration
TMK-ARTROM Orders Austenitizing Tube Heat-Treatment Line Read More »
CANTON, Ohio, TimkenSteel (NYSE: TMST, timkensteel.com), a leader in customized alloy steel products and services, today announced that it has developed a new process to manufacture high-pressure tubing (HPT) for use in the production of low-density polyethylene (LDPE).
TimkenSteel recently accepted its first order of HPT for a major petrochemical producer. Over the last decade, HPT for LDPE environments has had extended supply chains that created long lead times for North American customers.
“We have developed a more streamlined process using the assets and operations we have in place to create cost efficiencies. HPT that previously took more than a year to produce now takes a matter of months,” said Shawn Seanor, TimkenSteel’s executive vice president of sales and business development. “Another advantage our process offers is flexibility, allowing customers to buy smaller lot sizes.”
TimkenSteel’s process begins in Canton where its special bar quality (SBQ) steel is forged-rolled and heat treated. It is then sent to TimkenSteel Material Services in Houston where it is bored and honed.
TimkenSteel recently entered into a supply agreement with A&A Machine & Fabrication, LLC, of La Marque, Texas, to further process, market and sell HPT for LDPE customers. A&A completed reliability testing to ASME code on prototype tubing and processed that material to industry fabrication requirements in order to illustrate material performance. A&A and TimkenSteel then met with end-users to gain market acceptance of the material.
“HPT users will be able to plan projects with a more accurate forecast due to the shorter lead times and ease of inspection and oversight of the manufacturing process,” said C. Alan Hutchins, President and CEO of A&A.
SOURCE TimkenSteel
TimkenSteel Develops New Manufacturing Process for High-Pressure Tubing Read More »
According to the just-released latest monthly Energy Infrastructure Update report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission‘s (FERC) Office of Energy Projects, 69 new units of wind accounted for 7,977MW of new generating capacity – or nearly half (48.39%) of all new capacity for the year. That is a third more than the 5,942 MW of new capacity provided by 50 units of natural gas.
Among the other renewable sources, solar placed second with 2,042MW (238 units) followed by biomass with 305MW (26 units), hydropower with 153MW (21 units), and geothermal steam with 48MW (2 units).
FERC reported no new capacity at all for the year from nuclear power and just 15 MW from ten units of oil and only 3 MW from a single new unit of coal. Thus, new capacity from renewable energy sources during 2015 (10,525 MW) is more than 700 times greater than that from oil and over 3,500 times greater than that from coal.
Renewable energy sources now account for 17.83% of total installed operating generating capacity in the U.S.: water – 8.56%, wind – 6.31%, biomass – 1.43%, solar – 1.20%, and geothermal steam – 0.33%. The share of total installed capacity from non-hydro renewables (9.27%) now exceeds that from conventional hydropower (8.56%).
For perspective, when FERC issued its very first Energy Infrastructure Update in December 2010, renewable sources accounted for only 13.71% of total installed operating generation capacity. Over the past five years, solar’s share has increased 12-fold (1.20% vs. 0.10%) while that from wind has nearly doubled (6.31% vs. 3.40%). During the same period, coal’s share of the nation’s generating capacity plummeted from 30.37% to 26.16%.
Finally, for the first time, installed electrical capacity from non-hydro renewables (108.34 GW) has now eclipsed that of nuclear power (107.03GW).
“If it weren’t already obvious, the latest FERC data confirm that the era of coal, oil, and nuclear power is rapidly drawing to a close,” notes Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “The future – in fact, the present – has become renewable energy!”
Source: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Two -thirds new US generating capacity from renewables: Wind largest source Read More »
Source: IHS Engineering 360
Chemical engineers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have swapped out graphite for silicon anodes, resulting in smaller and longer-lasting lithium batteries for products ranging from smart devices to electric cars.
Current lithium-ion batteries, of the sort used in many electronic devices, typically use graphite anodes. Researchers led by Zhongwei Chen, a chemical engineering professor at Waterloo, found that silicon anode materials have a much higher capacity for lithium and are capable of producing batteries with more energy.
The silicon technology yields a 40%-60% increase in energy density, which the researchers say could improve the performance of devices that rely on lithium-ion batteries. An electric car powered by the new technology could be driven up to 500 kilometers between charges, the researchers claim, and the smaller, lighter batteries could also reduce the overall weight of vehicles.
“Graphite has long been used to build the negative electrodes in lithium-ion batteries,” says Chen. “But as batteries improve, graphite is slowly becoming a performance bottleneck because of the limited amount of energy that it can store.”
The most critical challenge the Waterloo researchers faced when they began producing batteries using silicon was the loss of energy that occurs when silicon contracts and then expands by as much as 300% with each charge cycle. The resulting increase and decrease in silicon volume form cracks that reduce battery performance, create short circuits and eventually cause the battery to stop operating.
To overcome this problem, Chen’s team, with help from the General Motors Global Research and Development Center, developed a flash heat treatment for fabricated silicon-based lithium-ion electrodes that minimizes volume expansion while boosting the performance and cycle capability of lithium-ion batteries.
“The economical flash heat treatment creates uniquely structured silicon anode materials that deliver extended cycle life to more than 2,000 cycles with increased energy capacity of the battery,” Chen says. He says he expects to commercialize this technology and have batteries on the market within the next year.
Flash Heat Treat Boost & Silicon Anodes Boost Lithium Batteries’ Energy Read More »
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