STALMAX, a manufacturer of fasteners, is investing in a belt furnace for tempering in a protective atmosphere. The provided equipment is designed for hardening fasteners, such as bolts and nuts, intended for the automotive industry. The main element of the line is a belt furnace equipped with a muffle, in which the heat process is conducted in a protective endothermic atmosphere.
The applied design solutions allow for a high evenness of temperature uniformity to be achieved. The automated process of the work of the ATG processing line by SECO/WARWICK, equipped with a weighing system, enables a precise loading of the treated elements on the hardening furnace belt.
STALMAX vice president, Robert Jeż, says, “SECO/WARWICK with their solutions answers real manufacturing needs, and ATG-type line is a guaranteed fulfillment of the industry’s and the clients’ requirements. The partner has not only offered an excellent furnace, but also protected us in case of an unwanted failure. In accordance with individual needs, components of element coding have been introduced and are connected to the alarm base (PLC) and electric documentation of the control system. Such a solution allows to immediately identify the failure and the damaged element.”
Dr. Randall (Rand) German, FAPMI, founder of German Materials Technology, will receive the Kempton H. Roll Powder Metallurgy (PM) Lifetime Achievement Award by the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF). The award will be presented during WorldPM2020, World Congress on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials, in Montreal, Canada, on June 28.
German has distinguished himself through his research and teaching of the net-shape fabrication of engineering materials via sintering techniques as used in PM, cemented carbides, and ceramics. He has promoted the growth of PM technology during his 50-year career through his involvement in 12 start-up companies, supervising well over a hundred graduate and post-doctoral students, and prolific PM industry publications. German has also been an active member in APMI International, the American Society for Metals, and the American Ceramics Society.
After completing his bachelor’s degree in material science and engineering at San José State University, German began his PM industry career at Battelle Lab, Columbus, Ohio, prior to joining Sandia National Labs (SNL). He obtained his master’s degree in metallurgical engineering from The Ohio State University and his PhD in engineering at the University of California—Davis before taking a director of research position at Mott Corporation, Farmington, Connecticut.
Dr. Randall German Founder, German Materials Technology
German’s nearly 40-year academic career began in 1980 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where he earned the HuntChair while teaching and conducting research. In 1991, he accepted a position at The Pennsylvania State University where he became the Brush Chair Professor in Materials and the director of the Center for Innovative Sintered Products (CISP) before retiring as an emeritus professor. In 2005, German became the inaugural director for the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University prior to joining San Diego State University in 2008 as associate dean for engineering research until 2013.
German has published 20 books and has 25 patents. He has shared his expertise at powder injection molding tutorials since 1990, and co-chaired over 30 conferences.
Joby Aviation has spent the last 10 years hammering out the designs and flight dynamics of its tilt-rotor eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft . Thanks to an investment round led by Toyota, they now have substantial funding to continue development.
Toyota's share of the US$590 million series C finance round was $394 million, and it comes with a commitment to bring its manufacturing, quality, and cost control approaches to the table as Joby prepares to move closer to FAA certification and commercialization of its five-seat electric VTOL air taxis.
Joby's full-scale prototype features thin wings supporting four tilting prop units, the outer ones on swivel mounts and the inner two extending out and upward on short arms. A V-shaped tail unit carries two more swivel units for a total of six rotors, each about six feet (1.8 m) in diameter with five uniquely shaped blades.
The idea is to have an electric aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically on a helipad or similar that can then transition to winged forward flight once it's airborne for efficient cruising at high speeds. Joby claims its vehicle is capable of 200-mph (322-km/h) flight, and that its small rotors produce about 1 percent of the noise of a regular aircraft on takeoff. In winged cruise mode, the company says it will be virtually silent on the ground.
With six tilting rotors, Joby's eVTOL can do 200 mph, with a range of more than 150 miles per charge (credit: Joby Aviation)
Toyota may also bring hydrogen powertrain to the table. Toyota and Hyundai/Kia are more or less the only companies still forging ahead with hydrogen powertrains for cars, but Japan and Korea are investing in hydrogen in a massive way, envisioning a transport future largely running on fuel cells, using imported energy from overseas to move some of their emissions out of their choked megacities and into the skies of countries like Australia, which is gearing up to become an energy exporter in the form of liquid hydrogen.
Moving to a hydrogen powertrain solves the problem of energy density for eVTOLs in a single stroke. Liquid hydrogen might be a pain to handle and deal with (and explosive in an accident), but its energy density is superb. Running a hydrogen eVTOL air taxi service would enable super-quick refueling and ultra-long-range flight, maybe 10 times the range of what current battery technology can deliver.
A common topic regarding eVTOL is safety, a problem that still needs an answer. The Joby aircraft, like the vast majority of other designs, offers a certain degree of redundancy in case of rotor failures. The problem nobody seems to be able to deal with yet is what happens in case of total catastrophic failure below a height of about 120 ft (37 m). Ballistic parachutes remain troubling, and while helicopters have the ability to autorotate safely to land without power, multirotor eVTOLs do not.
Joby is right at the forefront of eVTOL development right now, alongside other well-funded companies. It has recently signed a deal with Uber to supply and operate these aircraft under an Uber Elevate service. Uber is promising to build and run the skyports and support services for these air taxis as well as managing last-mile connection transport at either end of a journey. Uber is targeting 2023 as a launch date.
Scientists from the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT) at Colorado School of Mines who took part in an international research team have helped develop a nickel-titanium elastocaloric cooling shape memory alloy (SMA) that is highly efficient, eco-friendly, and easily scaled up. The alloys, in which hafnium acts as a strengthening precipitate, hold the promise of requiring only heat treatment to attain functional shape memory performance.
The international team, led by University of Maryland Professor Ichiro Takeuchi, developed the improved elastocaloric cooling material using a blend of nickel and titanium metals, fabricated by a 3D printer, that is not only potentially more efficient than current technology, but is completely “green.” Moreover, it can be quickly scaled for use in larger devices.
Dr. Aaron Stebner, Rowlinson Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
“The key finding of the research is that while elastocaloric materials typically used for solid-state cooling show a degradation in cooling behavior after hundreds of cycles, laser melting these metals creates fatigue-resistant nanocomposite microstructures that can cycle, with consistent cooling capacity, a million times,” said Aaron Stebner, Rowlinson Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a co-author of the paper.
Professor Ichiro Takeuchi, Graduate Program Director in Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland
“Dr. Stebner’s expertise played a crucial role in developing understanding of the fundamental mechanism behind fatigue-resistant behavior of additively manufactured shape memory alloys. His group’s in situ synchrotron diffraction and finite element modeling capabilities gave us unique insight into the inner workings of the material,” Prof. Takeuchi said.
The work, which was published in the Nov. 29 issue of Science, is the result of a collaboration led by researchers from the University of Maryland, together with Ames Laboratory, Mines, Iowa State University, and China’s Xi’an Jiaotong University.
Automotive part designs and heat treating processes have undergone many changes over the years, especially the powertrain. By looking back at the progress of these changes, we can learn more about emerging trends in automotive heat treating today.
In this Heat Treat Today Technical Tuesday feature,Bill Disler, president and CEO of AFC-Holcroft, brings his familiarity with big atmosphere carburizing systems and LPC automotive cell carburizing systems and looks at how the evolution of equipment and process requests says a lot about the trends we see today in automotive heat treating.
Although many components undergo heat treatment processes, the powertrain—specifically, gears— typically requires more carburizing time than other automotive parts. Not surprisingly, the powertrain has also seen many changes in heat treatment trends.
Not only have powertrain designs gone through tremendous transformations but so has the equipment being used to process those evolved components. Having spent years on the supplier side of atmosphere furnaces, vacuum carburizing, and gas quench as well as induction systems, I find it interesting to look back at some of the drivers that have helped morph this industry’s heat treat needs.
Traditional Continuous Atmosphere Furnace
Large atmosphere pusher furnaces produced nearly all of the powertrain gears 20+ years ago. Today, cellular low-pressure carburizing (LPC) and gas quench systems carry the load, although the results have not been cost saving. Moving from high volume gas heated carburizing equipment to small batch carburizing in electrically heated furnaces did not reduce utility costs per part; instead, other areas adjusted to compensate. Eliminating the expense of hard grinding transmission gears was an acceptable rationale for this increase in both capital expense and operating costs. Eventually, streamlining the overall gear manufacturing process, combined with locating heat treat within machining lines, produced positive measurable results. Plant traffic decreased, minimizing safety risks. Cooler and cleaner furnace systems were designed. And installations were made easier. Many agreed the changes were justified.
Integrated Vacuum Heat Treat Cells
As we look back, many of these drivers for change proved valid. Others, not so much. In most cases, consumer preference for quiet powertrains necessitates hard grinding of gears. Green is in and talk of the absolute need for zero intergranular oxidation (IGO) in carburized gears has slowed. LPC/Gas post quenched parts are perceived as cleaner and leaner; however, it is often difficult to differentiate green parts from processed parts, so it has become a best practice to add part marking after carburizing and hardening to avoid even the remote risk of sending soft parts down the line to the next stage of manufacturing. Shot peening is still common for strength reasons. The ability to nest large cellular LPC systems within machining has been a success, but rarely are the installations as quick and easy as promised.
Hybrid Furnace Concepts
Conventional atmosphere furnace technology has advanced as well, although at a slower pace, in step with a renewed interest in energy efficiency, particularly in the U.S. where gas is cheap and electric is not. Combustion systems operate cleaner and at much higher efficiency than in the past. Having said that, it is curious how little interest end users have in trading cost-saving gas-heated systems for the easier to install, neater looking electric heating options. In addition, it is no longer common to use water for cooling conventional atmosphere furnace systems as end users do not want to deal with the cost and complications that accompany this option. The market is polarized over this. LPC systems rely on large water volumes for cooling, and they are small batch, electrically heated systems. At the same time, gas quench systems consume huge quantities of water and require giant 300 HP plus motors that are tough to manage in plant power systems.
Flexible and Re-deployable Heat Treat Systems
It is my observation that the automotive market is anticipating the next iteration of heat treat equipment. One type of process or equipment style will not fit all needs, yet all hope for the perfect single part flow solution—an elusive dream due to physics. The cost/time equation still does not balance, and carburizing offers the benefits many manufacturers are looking for, despite the desire to design the process out of practice. Many automotive transmission parts that were originally processed in LPC and gas quenched now use gas nitriding instead, even though gas nitriding is another long process, and nitriding introduces ammonia back into the process—something most automotive plants are not enthusiastic to have in their plants. Two steps forward and one step back.
Repackaging Continuous Furnace Systems
With the widening range of processes and solutions under exploration, as well as ever changing powertrain systems designed to accommodate supplemental electric motors, lighter weights, smaller cars, and larger SUVs, all we can be certain of is ongoing change. I believe that we have witnessed major adjustments in automotive heat treat processing as the pendulum has swung from big, multi-row atmosphere pushers with salt or oil quench to electric-heated cellular LPC and gas quench units. One surprising result has been the resurgence of salt quenching, which controls distortion of high-pressure gas at a much lower cost with less complexity. Salt, like gas, is a single-phase quench media: It does not boil in these processes like oil does, and it can be used at temperatures that support martensitic quench with far less thermal shock and much higher heat transfer than the options. Older processes carry the baggage of tarnished past reputations, but I no longer count them out. Today’s automation, process control technology, and innovation can provide the foundation for brand new concepts, repackaging of older ideas, and hybrids of multiple technologies. Together, these create building blocks that heat treat equipment suppliers will use to meet changing trends in automotive carburizing and heat treatment. It will be interesting to be involved in the journey as these changes take place.
About the Author: Bill Disler is president and CEO of AFC-Holcroft, part of the Aichelin Group located in Vienna, Austria. He is a member of the Board of Trustees -Metal Treating Institute (MTI), and a member of the Board of Advisors at Lawrence Technical University, College of Engineering in Southfield, Michigan. This article originally appeared in Heat Treat Today’sJune 2019 Automotive print edition.
Lockheed Martin is developing a ground-launched, mobile, hypersonic missile system thanks to a US$31.9 million award by DARPA. The contract will allow them to begin the Operational Fires (OpFires) Phase 3 Weapon System Integration program for the boost-to-glide weapon system.
Hady Mourad, director of Tactical and Strike Missiles Advanced Programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control
“The OpFires missile is critical to providing the US Army with a highly maneuverable and rapid response solution capable of operating from unpredictable land-launch positions to suppress hostile threats,” says Hady Mourad, director of Tactical and Strike Missiles Advanced Programs at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “Lockheed Martin will deliver the prototype missiles utilizing the experienced production teams that currently produce the ATACMS, GMLRS and PAC-3 missile systems.”
The new contract, which involves Lockheed, DARPA, and the US Army, will draw on Lockheed’s three decades of hypersonic missile development, combined with DARPA’s work on new hypersonic propulsion systems and boost-glide technologies. Lockheed is tasked with taking the present design based on initial requirements and taking it through the Critical Design Review (CDR) in late 2021. This will be followed by component and subsystem tests in the same year and integrated flight tests in 2022.
The Hubei province of China has now been shut down for three weeks due to the Coronavirus outbreak, and industries around the world–including automotive and aerospace–face continued uncertainty about the future while an industrial powerhouse roughly the size of Sweden sits quiet. Despite more than 900 lives having been claimed by the virus in China thus far, some companies, including Tesla and Airbus, have cautiously reopened and gone back to work with the government’s blessing while others remain shut.
Airbus’ Chinese division has been given permission by Beijing to “gradually increase production, whilst implementing all required health and safety measures for Airbus employees, which remains the top priority.” Their final assembly line in Tianjin has restarted operations. In response to the Chinese government’s statement, the company stated, “[We are] constantly evaluating the situation and monitoring any potential knock-on effects to production and deliveries and will try to mitigate via alternative plans where necessary.”
Meanwhile, the automotive industry continues to be plagued by shutdowns that are starting to impact global manufacturing. Hyundai Motor, General Motors, Volkswagen, Renault, and Toyota Motor have extended their suspension of operations. Factories in the Hubei province expected to open on February 13 have had that deadline extended, and some provinces and districts have instructed companies not to reopen until March 1. The province of Hubei accounts for 9% of all Chinese automotive production.
Razat Gaurav, CEO Llamasoft
The impact of the shutdown is expected to extend beyond auto companies to manufacturers of auto parts as well. According to Razat Gaurav, CEO of Llamasoft, an AI-driven software development company that works with several automakers including Ford and General Motors, “Most OEMs single source components for new vehicles and China is a large supplier of those. Thus, there is exposed risk. The automotive industry has been going through a ‘regionalization’ trend for the last 5 to 8 years . . . Even so, there is a ripple effect in other parts of the world. For example, Hyundai is one of the first automotive companies announcing closures outside of China, at its South Korean factories; France’s Renault also announced a shutdown in its South Korea facilities. Fiat Chrysler warned it may need to halt production in one of its European plants due to a shortage of parts. While we have talked a lot about the manufacturers themselves, the impact on the supplier base is significant as well.”
A small magnetic rose sitting between two copper coils in an Ohio State laboratory gives a demonstration of a new shape-shifting magnetic material developed by Ohio State researchers that will be used in biomedical devices, antennas, artificial muscles and robotics. The material can squeeze and grab objects and change its shape and temperature when electromagnetic fields are applied, according to the research paper published in December in the journal Advanced Materials.
Ruike Zhao, an author of the paper and assistant professor in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department, said the researchers embedded two types of magnetic particles into a soft material called a shape-memory polymer. At room temperature, the soft material is rigid, like acrylic. But when it comes within a magnetic field, the iron oxide particles heat up, softening the material so it’s like rubber, through a process called induction heating — the same technology used in some home cooktops.
Riuke Zhao, Assistant Professor in Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The Ohio State University
Previous generations of soft materials needed a constant supply of energy, Zhao said.
“Once we deformed the [earlier] material, if we wanted to lock its deformed shape, we have to keep the external stimulation, which is not energy efficient.” She added that Ohio State’s new material is more efficient and can lift an object 1,000 times its own weight.
Liang Guo, Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, The Ohio State University
According to Liang Guo, an assistant professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, soft materials have existed for several decades. However, this new type of soft material with embedded magnetic particles is the first to be controlled wirelessly by magnetic fields. Guo stated that soft devices cause less stress on the surrounding skin and muscle tissues than similar mechanical devices. They also require less energy than similar mechanical devices.
Guo and Zhao previously worked together to create an insulin pump using soft materials that is one-third the size of current battery-powered pumps. The Ohio State team worked with researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to develop the polymer material.
Titanium is a crucial component in aerospace and defense applications as well as in the biomedical field. The high ratio of strength to density of titanium and its alloys mean that it is as strong as some steels, but with a fraction of the density. However, titanium is more difficult than steel to prepare as a metallographic sample due to its ductile nature that renders it easily susceptible to damage.
In this HTTBest of the Web Technical Tuesday feature, Buehler’s Tech Notes explores efficient preparation of titanium grade 2 samples.
An excerpt: “Titanium and its alloys’ high strength to density ratio and good corrosion resistance make them invaluable in aerospace, defense, and marine applications. Good biocompatibility also makes it quite useful in biomedical applications. It is as strong as some steels but a fraction of steel’s density. When preparing metallographic samples, one quickly learns, titanium is more difficult to prepare than steel as it ductile and readily damaged, but also has a relatively slow material removal or recovery rate, which poses a challenge to sample preparation.”
Buehler takes readers through the methods of sectioning, mounting, grinding and polishing, and etching when preparing grade 2 titanium for a sample.
NASA Glenn Research Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, has partnered with Boeing to test how shape-memory alloys can be used in deployable vortex generators (VGs), the tiny fins on airplane wings that help control airflow during flight. Currently most VGs on airplanes are static. They are fixed devices always present to improve performance during takeoff, landing, and irregular conditions.
Materials Research Engineer and ASM International’s SMST Society President Dr. Othmane Benafan is part of the team at Glenn developing the shape-memory alloy parts. The alloy pieces are small metal rods that are inserted along the hinge line of a VG where it connects to the aircraft wing. The shape-memory alloy twists as it cools off, which pulls the fin down to lie flat against the wing. Then as the aircraft moves into warmer conditions, the alloy retracts to its original shape, lifting the fin into an upright position.
Dr. Othmane Benafan, Materials Research Engineer, Glenn Research Team
“There are no heaters, no coolers,” says Dr. Benafan. “The alloys are tuned exactly to environmental temperatures. They sense, and then they do their thing.”
Innovations with shape-memory alloys allow development of VGs that move when they sense a change in the environment, which will make future airplanes capable of adjusting in response to changes in temperature, altitude, and airspeed, just like birds.
Photo Credit for Dr. Benafan’s picture: the Moroccan Times
