Search Results for composite components

This article explains how coating technology originally developed for use in nuclear power generating equipment is helping automotive engineers solve heat, wear, and performance challenges using new materials and design approaches.

Field assisted sintering technology (FAST) enables hybrid components for aerospace to be designed with reduced weight and without sacrificing performance. FAST can be used to produce metal, ceramic, and composite components with tailored properties via a powder metallurgy approach. In many cases, it is a one-step, cost-effective manufacturing process for production of net-shape components.

Field assisted sintering technology (FAST) enables cost-effective manufacturing of metal, ceramic, and composite components with sub-micron grain microstructures and tailored properties.

This article discusses the capabilities of two software tools, one optimized for design the other for FEA, and explains how they work together to optimize airframe structures incorporating metallic and composite components.

Consumer demand for greater fuel efficiency and a changing regulatory environment have stimulated substantial interest in alternative materials for passenger vehicles. Automotive manufacturers now have a wide variety of choices available, ranging from various grades of steel and aluminum to the most advanced lightweight composite materials. This article describes testing innovations introduced to keep pace with the use of new materials in automobiles.

This article discusses the capabilities of a compression test system developed to evaluate composite coil springs for automotive suspension systems.

To learn about the important connection between mechanical engineering and materials science, we turned to five experts with backgrounds in both fields for insight. The panelists share their perspectives on how the two disciplines informed their careers, which types of design challenges can be solved with materials information, and how ASM can improve that connection by leading with a “unity of disciplines” approach. The panelists are Scott Carpenter, Vactronix Scientific; Bertrand Jodoin, University of Ottawa; Vistasp Karbhari, The University of Texas at Arlington; Marina B. Ruggles-Wrenn, Air Force Institute of Technology; and Judith A. Todd, The Pennsylvania State University.

With the opening of Testbed 80, the largest engine testing facility in the world, Rolls-Royce plans to use its unique capabilities to accelerate the journey toward sustainable aviation technologies supported by the intelligent use of materials.

Metal-matrix composite (MMC) materials are being developed at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for a diverse range of automotive applications from pistons and cylinder liners to exhaust manifolds and chassis sections. The ability to tailor not only the properties but also the functionality of MMCs gives automotive engineers a powerful new tool in dealing with increasingly strict fuel economy standards.

This article compares two nondestructive test methods that are widely used to assess impact damage in carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites. Infrared line scanning thermography (LST) and immersion ultrasonic testing (UT) are shown to be equally capable of detecting delaminations and internal cracking caused by low-velocity impacts, although LST was easier to use and provided results more quickly that were easier to interpret.

This article reviews additive manufacturing technologies that can be used for manufacturing ceramics and ceramic-based composites. Stereolithography and associated techniques offer the possibility of producing ceramic components with finer resolution. Powder-based techniques like binder jetting and indirect selective laser sintering can be used for designing porous ceramics. Selective laser melting offers practitioners the option of manufacturing ceramics with minimal post-processing requirements, although further research is needed to decrease its cost.

Materials testing systems must be robust and flexible, capable of determining the mechanical properties of a broad range of materials and components ranging from metals to composites and from plastics to natural, bio-based materials. This article provides an overview of electromechanical testing systems, servohydraulic systems, and vibrophores for high cycle fatigue testing.

Powder metallurgy offers distinct advantages for the production of certain alloys. The degree to which contents of the alloy may be prescribed represents tremendous potential and supports alloy use in new applications. However, robust testing of powder metallurgy alloys is required to assess their potential and quality. Fatigue testing via the resonance principle enables metallurgists to achieve greater throughput in testing programs, while novel hardness testing platforms support analysis of individual phases in porous powder metallurgy specimens.

Lockheed Martin and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are working on an additive manufacturing (AM) system (Big Area Additive Manufacturing, or BAAM) capable of producing components measured not in terms of inches or feet, but multiple yards in all dimensions. The highly automated system has the potential to manufacture parts completely unbounded in size.

A powder metallurgy and hot isostatic pressing technology offers a new way to manufacture high pressure-retaining components for use in the power-generation industry.

During the past 30 years, enormous research has been devoted to developing titanium-base intermetallics for use in gas turbine engines as lightweight alternative to nickel-base superalloys. This article presents a brief history of Ti 2 AlNb and efforts to mature this material for commercial component production. The article includes processing experience insights gained from a current R&D program in China.

Custom equipment designed for the deposition of exotic materials allows advanced coating solutions and ceramic matrix composites to be utilized for applications in automotive, aerospace, defense, energy, and the farthest reaches of space. This article describes custom systems for chemical vapor deposition and advanced materials processing.

Direct write technology is an innovative and economical materials deposition process that integrates conductive traces, antennas, circuits, and sensors onto components or embeds them within structures. The process has been in development since 2002 for use in aerospace, military, and energy markets. This article describes its use to print thermocouple sensors, heat flux sensors, heaters, conductors, and antenna patterns.

A look at how the high energy breaks, conductive debris, and ergonomic issues unique to composites testing can be resolved with proper equipment set up.

This case study describes how electron-beam melting, a powder bed additive manufacturing technology, helped reduce the cost and material scrap associated with the production of Ti-6Al-4V brackets used in the hot side of the engine on Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter.