INDUSTRY NEWS METALS POLYMERS CERAMICS Carbon fiber and aluminum honeycomb chassis enhance safety BRIEFS The chassis of this CCX Edition Koenigsegg AGY has developed sports car consists of carbon fiber and alu- ThermoBallistic composite minum honeycomb with an integrated fuel armor system laminates that combine continuous tank to optimize weight distribution and structural S-2 Glass, safety, says Koenigsegg Automotive AG, E Glass, or aramid fibers to Sweden. The body is made of pre-impreg- form X-ply sheets or nated carbon fiber/Kevlar and lightweight unidirectional tapes that sandwich reinforcements. The chrome-moly can be molded to create stainless steel subframe has integrated crash members. thermoformable ballistic The cast aluminum V-8 engine has a carbon-fiber intake manifold and a TIG-welded, ceramic- and blast protection. coated stainless steel exhaust manifold. Forged aluminum wheels are stopped by ventilated ceramic www.agy.com brake disks with aluminum calipers. Allegheny Technologies Inc. has ArvinMeritor Inc. For more information: Koenigsegg Automotive AB, An- reached an agreement with Gulf Petro- announces that its Light gelholm, Sweden; www.koenigsegg.com. chemical Industries Co. to supply ATI Vehicle Systems business group has been OmegaBond advanced tubing for GPIC’s Shape-memory polymers awarded a multi-year fertilizer production complex in the make implantable stents contract to supply Kingdom of Bahrain. OmegaBond enables Hyundai North the use of dissimilar metals in the same Shape-memory polymers that can be temporarily stretched America with an tube or pipe by advanced joining tech- or compressed into forms several times larger or smaller innovative plastic door nologies such as extrusion bonding or in- than their final shape have been developed by Georgia Insti- module and accompanying tute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga. Heat, light, or the local chem- ertia welding. ATI Wah Chang devel- corporate latch product for ical environment triggers a transformation into its perma- the Hyundai Sonata. oped an OmegaBond tube made of nent shape. www.arvinmeritor.com Zircadyne 702 and Titanium Grade 3. Prof. Ken Gall’s research group has designed a shape- GPIC is the first company to adopt the memory polymer stent that can be compressed and fed GEO2 Technologies technology for a full-scale plant applica- Inc. introduces a new through a tiny hole in the body into a blocked artery, just tion. www.wahchang.com silicon carbide substrate for like a conventional stent. Then, the warmth of the body trig- diesel particulate filtering. gers the polymer’s expansion into its permanent shape, resulting in natural deployment without Its patented cross-linked auxiliary devices. microstructure removes In addition, by changing the chemistry of the polymer backbone to include special side groups, 99% of pollutants from the amount of strain the polymer can withstand before failing could be increased without sacri- diesel exhaust. The SiC ficing stiffness. This discovery enables polymers designed to stretch farther and also push harder substrate achieves high during recovery. porosity and high strength. For more information: Ken Gall, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30308; tel: 404/894- www.geo2tech.com 2781; [email protected]; www.gatech.edu. High Modulus, a boat builder in New Zealand, Rolls-Royce coupe features aluminum frame and panels has begun the structural An all-aluminum spaceframe provides engineering design of the an exceptional base for the Rolls-Royce largest all-composite Phantom coupe, says Rolls-Royce, Eng- motor yacht ever built, land. It offers strength, torsional rigidity, measuring 186 feet long. and low weight. The body structure is The yachts are made of comprised of box sections of welded alu- vacuum-infused fiberglass composites. minum; in all, the spaceframe includes www.high-modulus.com more than 130 meters of welds. With the exceptions of the picnic boot, the steel bonnet, and the A-pillar sur- round, all the body panels are made of aluminum. The large single-piece front ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES/APRIL 2008 7 BRIEFS Metallized Carbon Corp. has de- wings are made by superplastic forming. The tires are 21-inch Goodyear run-flat tires veloped the Resistox family of high- on forged aluminum wheels. temperature materials for bearings that For more information: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, West Sussex, England; tel: 44-1 243- are self-lubricating, non-galling, and 384918; www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com. dimensionally stable. www.metcar.com Ni-Mn-Ga shape memory foam Nippon Piston Ring Co. is fabri- changes shape with magnetism cating prototypes of steel cylinder liners and valve sheets of new low-cost, high- A new class of materials known as “magnetic shape-memory foams” has been devel- strength alloys that contain smaller oped by two research teams headed by Peter Müllner at Boise State University and amounts of rare metals such as molyb- David Dunand at Northwestern Uni- denum and nickel, yet provide wear versity, both funded by the National Aluminum nanocomposite has resistance and corrosion resistance. Science Foundation. high ductility, low density www.npr.co.jp The foam consists of a nickel-man- Aluminastic nanocomposite is a lightweight, ganese-gallium alloy whose struc- high-strength, highly ductile composite formulated with Quest Product Development ture resembles a piece of Swiss a mixture of recycled aluminum and organic teamed with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. to complete a cheese with small voids of space compounds, says Aluminastic Corp., Ironton, Ohio. NASA research program for new between thin wavy “struts” of ma- The specific formula is varied to produce a wide range thermal insulation called Integrated terial. The struts have a bamboo-like of products to address individual industrial applications. Multilayer Insulation. It is made through grain structure that can strain up to In addition to being stronger and more corrosion micro-molding, which builds engi- 10% when a magnetic field is ap- resistant than other comparable materials, the neered polymer structures with low plied. The alloy retains its new shape composites can be tailored to exhibit extraordinary mass and low thermal conductivity. when the field is turned off, but the technical properties. Composite 356 shows a 30% www.quest-corp.com magnetically sensitive atomic struc- increase in flow rate; 3005 is extruded at temperatures ture returns to its original structure SAE International has approved between 400 and 500°F, vs. 900°F for conventional an Aerospace Material Specification if the field is rotated 90 degrees, a aluminum. Composite 6061 has a 25 to 40% increase in for QuesTek’s new alloy Ferrium phenomenon called “magnetic throughput extrusion, with a 30% reduction in the force S53. It is designed to be a drop-in re- shape-memory.” needed to extrude. placement for 300M steel, which is The researchers create the new For more information: John Seitz, Aluminastic Corp., commonly used for landing gear. AMS material by pouring molten alloy P.O. Box 134, Ironton, OH 45638; tel: 740/352-5970; 5922 covers the procurement of bars into porous sodium aluminate salt. [email protected]; and forgings of S53 as a double- After the material cools, they leach vacuum-melted aerospace grade. www.aluminastic.com. out the salt with acid, leaving behind www.questek.com large voids. The researchers then expose the porous alloy to a rotating magnetic field. The The Timken Co. is developing ad- level of strain achieved after each of the over ten million rotations is consistent with vanced turbine engine bearing ma- the best magnetic actuators. terials that can survive hotter environ- For more information: David Dunand, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL60208; ments at higher speeds for a longer tel: 847/491-5370; [email protected]; www.northwestern.edu. time under the Versatile Affordable Ad- vanced Turbine Engine program, a joint initiative involving the Depart- Quick-drying polymer cuts costs for semiconductors ment of Defense, the Depart- An inexpensive, quick-drying polymer that could lead to dramatic cost savings and ment of Energy, NASA, and the efficiency gains in semiconductor manufacturing and computer chip packaging has U.S. aerospace industry. been developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Tory, N.Y.; and the Polyset Co., Me- www.timken.com chanicville, N.Y. The new material, called polyset epoxy siloxane (PES), should also enable a new generation of lower-cost, on-chip nanoimprinting lithography. It will U.S. Steel Corp. and JFE Steel Corp. have entered into a technical allow chip manufacturers to trim several steps from their production and packaging exchange agreement under which processes. they share expertise in the general Photolithography involves a mix of light and chemicals that generate intricate micro- areas of steelmaking practices, bench- and nano-scale patterns on tiny areas of silicon. As part of the process, a thin polymer marking, and other areas of mutual film — called a redistribution layer — is deposited onto the silicon wafer, to ease the interest. signal propagation delay and to protect the chip from environmental and mechanical www.ussteel.com factors. The new PES material is one such thin polymer film, and it offers several advan- tages over the incumbent materials. In addition, PES can be function as a thin polymer film for ultraviolet on-chip nanoimprinting lithography, which is still in the early phases of development. For more information: Toh-Ming Lu, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180; tel: 518/276-2979; [email protected]; http://www.rpi.edu/~lut; www.polyset.com. 8 ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES/APRIL 2008 Nanotech methods designed to engineer solar cell materials Thin films of metal oxide nanoparticles and nanosize crystals that strongly absorb visible light are under development for solar cell materials at the University of California, Santa Cruz. These tiny semiconductors inject electrons into a metal oxide film to increase solar energy conversion. Both doping and quantum-dot sensitization extend the visible light absorption of the metal oxides.