Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a recipe for a renewable 3D printing feedstock that could spur a profitable new use for an intractable biorefinery byproduct: lignin. The discovery, detailed in Science Advances, expands ORNL’s achievements in lowering the cost of bioproducts by creating novel uses for lignin—the material left over…
Keeping Santa Safe from Fireplaces with a Flame-Retardant Suit
Santa puts a lot of trust into people as he dives feet first into chimneys to deliver gifts each year. The warm crackling of the fire is a holiday tradition for some, but could be a deadly feat for poor St. Nick. But could a flame-retardant suit truly save him from the embers of the…
Creating Coffee-Inspired Filament from 3D Printed Waste
3D printing often produces a lot of plastic waste, since rarely something is perfect the first time it’s printed. This waste can be recycled and turned into creative, new printed-products by simply melting down the excess plastic. Felfil Evo’s filament extruder was made specifically for this recycling process. The device allows users to produce new…
Heat Treatment Promises Lighter and Stronger Aluminium Parts
The High Pressure Die Cast (HPDC) process of manufacturing works by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mold cavity. Most die castings are made from non-ferrous metals, such as zinc, copper, or aluminium. While equipment costs often limit its application to high-volume production, it does offer higher-speed of production for complex shapes than…
Developing New Materials for the Fusion Reactor
In the future fusion reactor, plasma is confined by using the magnetic field inside the doughnut-shaped vacuum vessel. The blanket is in a location where it almost touches the plasma, and as if to enfold the plasma the blanket is placed on the inner surface of the vacuum chamber. The blanket, by absorbing the high-speed…
The Future of Rhenium
Here, Dr Heiko Wildner, chief operating officer of materials comparison database, Matmatch, explains the applications for rhenium and why it is indispensable for the high-tech world. Saffron is said to be the most expensive and rarest spice of all. Its annual production is over 400,000 lbs. The metallic equivalent of saffron is rhenium with indispensable…
Write with Heat, Cool, and Then Repeat with Rewritable Paper
Even in this digital age, paper is still everywhere. Often, printed materials get used once and are then discarded, creating waste and potentially pollution. Now, scientists report in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces the development of an easy-to-make “rewritable” paper that can be drawn or printed on over and over again. The messages can last more than…
Building the World’s Largest Paper Ball
Made from cardboard, paper, and paper cord, the world’s largest paper ball has been created by Ideagen’s InspectionXpert, and has broken the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Paper Ball. Measuring in at 576 lbs, over 9 ft tall, and 33 ft around, the ball was created to reinforce the message to reduce paper…
Sheet Aluminium Machining Made Simple
Across industry, where numerous applications require strong but light-weight materials, aluminium and its alloys are often the metals of choice. Not only does aluminium exhibit excellent strength-to-weight ratios, but it is also naturally corrosion resistant, making it a perfect fit for use in extreme environments. Other attractive characteristics of aluminium — including the fact that…
New Material Could be the Answer to Infrastructure Woes
In the early 1990s, Victor Li, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Michigan, developed Engineered Cementitious Composites, also known as ductile or bendable concrete. More than 20 years later, researchers at LSU are close to bringing this material to mass adoption, producing a cost-effective ECC that utilizes readily available ingredients.…
A Bit of a Stretch…Material That Thickens as it’s Pulled
Scientists have discovered the first synthetic material that becomes thicker—at the molecular level—as it is stretched. Researchers led by Dr. Devesh Mistry from the University of Leeds discovered a new non-porous material that has unique and inherent “auxetic” stretching properties. Their findings are published today in Nature Communications. There are materials in nature that exhibit auxetic capabilities,…
Magnetic Materials for Motors of the Future
According to a statistic from the University of Chicago, 50 percent of U.S. power goes through a motor. Vehicles like cars and planes rely on motors to transform power, as do household appliances like vacuums and refrigerators. Because this space is so large, more efficient motors could make a significant difference in energy usage. When…
Caplugs acquires LoVen Special Products vinyl dip molding company
Buffalo-based Caplugs continues its global expansion with the acquisition of Dutch vinyl dip molder LoVen Special Products. Based in Oss, Netherlands, LoVen is a proven leader in vinyl molding, serving as a trusted supplier of protective parts and coatings for over 20 years. The company is equipped with comprehensive in-house capabilities from part design to…
Researchers Create ‘Smart’ Material with Environmental Uses
Brown University researchers have shown a way to use graphene oxide (GO) to add some backbone to hydrogel materials made from alginate, a natural material derived from seaweed that’s currently used in a variety of biomedical applications. In a paper published in the journal Carbon, the researchers describe a 3-D printing method for making intricate and…
Next-Generation Composites May Monitor Their Own Structure Health
Carbon fiber composites—lightweight and strong—are great structural materials for automobiles, aircraft and other transportation vehicles. They consist of a polymer matrix, such as epoxy, into which reinforcing carbon fibers have been embedded. Because of differences in the mechanical properties of these two materials, the fibers can detach from the matrix under excessive stresses or fatigue.…
Engineers Develop Ultrathin, Ultralight ‘Nanocardboard’
When choosing materials to make something, trade-offs need to be made between a host of properties, such as thickness, stiffness and weight. Depending on the application in question, finding just the right balance is the difference between success and failure Now, a team of Penn Engineers has demonstrated a new material they call “nanocardboard,” an…
3D-Knitted Shells Save on Construction Materials and Time
With just the press of a button, ETH researchers knit a textile that serves as the primary shaping element for curved concrete shells. Now they have used the new technology to create a five-tonne concrete structure for an exhibition in Mexico City. The heart of the four metre tall curved concrete shell is knitted. The structure’s…
Tiny Diamond Invention Could Help Launch Rockets Into Space
Scientists at ANU have invented tiny diamond electronic parts that could outperform and be more durable than today’s devices in high-radiation environments such as rocket engines, helping to reach the next frontier in space. The team has developed a new type of ultra-thin transistor, which is a semiconductor widely used to amplify or switch electronic…
Origami, 3D Printing Merge to Make Complex Structures in One Shot
By merging the ancient art of origami with 21st century technology, researchers have created a one-step approach to fabricating complex origami structures whose light weight, expandability, and strength could have applications in everything from biomedical devices to equipment used in space exploration. Until now, making such structures has involved multiple steps, more than one material,…
The Future of Cobalt
Since its discovery in 1735, there has been a growing interest in cobalt and its use in modern day applications. Here, Ben Stafford, Materials Science Expert at online materials search engine, Matmatch, explains why cobalt has become pivotal to the wide adoption of electric vehicles and the development of the next generation of electronic devices.…
Fully Metallic Furnaces with Tungsten Heating Elements
High-temperature furnaces must withstand high temperatures that melt materials, such as titanium, without damage. Usually made of graphite, these furnaces frequently cause contamination with reactive carbon which can cause damage to the manufactured products. Fully metallic furnaces and heating elements made of suitable materials on the other hand are a clean solution. Tungsten, for example,…
Exploring the Challenges Of Exfoliating Novel Two-Dimensional Materials
Ever since researchers at the University of Manchester used a piece of tape to isolate, or “exfoliate,” a single layer of carbon, known as graphene, scientists have been investigating the creation of and applications for two-dimensional materials in order to advance technology in new ways. Scientists have theorized about many different kinds of two-dimensional materials,…
Self-Healing Material Can Build Itself from Carbon in the Air
A material designed by MIT chemical engineers can react with carbon dioxide from the air, to grow, strengthen, and even repair itself. The polymer, which might someday be used as construction or repair material or for protective coatings, continuously converts the greenhouse gas into a carbon-based material that reinforces itself. The current version of the…
Innovative Products Made of Natural and Synthetic Rubber
dGw Gummiwerke AG based in Northern Saxony-Anhalt is a specialist in rubber mixtures of all kinds, and compounds of rubber and metal. The products are mostly developed in cooperation with the customer, and are used in many areas-from automotive to training equipment for athletes. Industrial park Tangermünde, production site of dGw Gummiwerke AG: in an…
Machine Learning Based Framework Could Lead to Breakthroughs in Material Design
Computers used to take up entire rooms. Today, a two-pound laptop can slide effortlessly into a backpack. But that wouldn’t have been possible without the creation of new, smaller processors — which are only possible with the innovation of new materials. But how do materials scientists actually invent new materials? Through experimentation, explains Sanket Deshmukh,…