03/09/2018
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PEEK polymer pioneer Victrex is preparing newly developed materials for Additive Manufacturing (AM). The first of these is a high strength material for laser sintering (LS) which attains lower refresh rates, resulting in improved recycling for unsintered powder. The second is a filament with better Z-strength than existing PolyArylEtherKetone (PAEK) materials and better printability for filament fusion (FF). The detailed technical results are expected to be presented at the bi-annual Additive Manufacturing conference of the University of Exeter Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM), in September 2018.
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11/06/2018
Ford C-segment cars, such as the Focus, could become more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly thanks to a lightweight rear suspension component designed by the CLASS (composite lightweight automotive suspension system) research project team.
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11/06/2018
In many senses, titanium fulfils the criteria one might expect of a ‘wonder material’. It is significantly stronger than most commonly-used grades of steel, but is approximately half the density (and thus weight), meaning it is of huge value in any application where robustness, corrosion resistance or weight reduction are critical factors. These attributes mean that titanium has seen extensive use in applications such as aerospace, defence and motorsport.
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11/06/2018
As with all industries, digitisation is transforming the materials sector. The ability to identify, specify and source the right material for the right task without having to wade through endless documentation is one way that digitalisation is having an effect.
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11/06/2018
The increasing incidence of sophisticated additive manufacturing applications means that better and more sophisticated material and bonding technologies are having to be developed in order to keep up.
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11/06/2018
Another successful Engineering Materials Live event was held in May, with visitors able to access some hugely valuable information to aid them in their materials selection.
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12/03/2018
The automotive industry is on the cusp of some drastic changes. According to a recent report by analyst IHS Markit, changes in personal transportation over the next 20 years will be more profound than anything experienced over the past century. The signs are clear as electric vehicle (EV) production increases, ‘mobility-as-a-service’ – such as ride-hailing app Uber – continue to disrupt and autonomous vehicles (AVs) begin to emerge.
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09/03/2018
Nasa has successfully applied a new technology in flight that allows aircraft to fold their wings to different angles while in the air.
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08/03/2018
The buzz around metal replacement and lightweighting has become synonymous with automotive developments, with carmakers now spending millions to strip out excess kilos. The ultimate driver is, of course, efficiency and the push to meet impending EU tailpipe emission limits of 95g of CO2 per km across a manufacturer’s fleet. It is, and continues to be, a mammoth challenge.
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07/03/2018
The German Bobsleigh and Sled Sports Federation (BSD) athletes had a score to settle at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, last month. Four years ago, the bob athletes came away without a medal. But, at the three world championships that followed, Germany returned to winning ways and appears to be ready for the Olympics. So, what’s changed?
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06/11/2017
Whether bonding metal to plastic, silicon to glass, polymers to other polymers of different durometers, biological content to polymeric microtiter plates or even bonding to polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), plasma can be used to promote adhesion.
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06/11/2017
According to the European Commission, cars are responsible for around 12% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions. However, by 2021, phased in from 2020, the fleet average of all new passenger cars needs to produce no more than 95g of CO2 per km, which is a 40% reduction in comparison to the 2007 fleet average of 158.7g of CO2 per km. This demands a fuel consumption of around 4.1L per 100km (65mpg) for petrol and 3.6L per 100km for diesel (57mpg).
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06/11/2017
The plastics industry is one of the UK’s largest sectors with strong links to the EU. Here, James Bakewell finds out from the British Plastics Federation about what Brexit means and if manufacturers should be worried.
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06/11/2017
For every engineer, specifying a new material for a product – especially if the product’s already in production – can be a daunting task. There is a worry of the unknown, that phone call to tell you about unforeseen production problems, or even worse, of a potential product recall. For that reason, material selection can be, somewhat, of a conservative process that’s slow going and largely driven by pragmatism. This is no truer than in the medical sector where a justifiably stringent amount of regulation restricts many materials and outlines all kinds of tests and requirements beyond simply strength or density, for example.
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05/09/2017
When it comes to electric vehicles, keeping weight down is paramount in ensuring long range. In addition to the bodywork, drive components such as the housings, typically used in double reduction gearboxes, are of interest in terms of materials substitution and metal replacement.
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05/09/2017
The recycling of carbon fibre-reinforced plastics (CFRPs) not only makes sense from environmental and economic perspectives, it could also be key in increasing the penetration of these lightweight but expensive materials in high-volume markets such as automotive.
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05/09/2017
The International Prototype Kilogram (IPK) is a physical block weighing as close to 1kg as is physically possible to engineer. It is used as the primary standard for virtually all units of mass and is the mass upon which the weight of a kilogram is based and all traceability mass measurements are measured. However, a strange phenomenon has been observed – the IPK is getting lighter. The reason, however, is unknown.
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05/09/2017
If you dig a little deeper into composite material application, you’ll soon uncover a hugely diverse range of less obvious uses in equipment for patient treatment and diagnosis, sometimes even beneath the skin of the patients themselves.
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06/06/2017
Carbon fibre is making a slow but seemingly inevitable move into the automotive industry. But can engineers crack the throughput difficulties that have dogged uptake? James Bakewell reports.
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02/06/2017
Maintaining a creative culture whilst ensuring commercial success is an ongoing dilemma for many engineering and materials firms. So how can inventions be used more effectively to exploit commercial advantage and open up new opportunities?
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07/03/2017
As Europe's automotive industry grapples to lightweight structures and meet impending emission regulations, manufacturers are still reluctant to use carbon fibre composites. So, can a recent UK project bridge the divide? James Bakewell finds out.
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06/03/2017
The medical industry is a field in which innovation and new technologies have a direct impact on improving processes, operation results and saving lives. Stratasys’ additive manufacturing technology is a key enabler to this.
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23/02/2017
The smartphone market has grown on average 32% a year for the last decade, making it one of the fastest growing areas of consumer technology on the planet. The impact of the smartphone has fundamentally changed how we interact socially and has become the technology interface for everything from cars to thermostats to wearables.
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23/02/2017
All powertrain solutions demand that every part of the vehicle is as light as possible to maximise vehicle range, performance and efficiency. What is essential in vehicle design, with strict safety targets and narrow profit margins, is balancing weight, with the performance of the materials, and the cost of the process.
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23/02/2017
Materials for nuclear applications have a certain mystique. Like the quantum world, the normal rules don’t quite apply and those that do are, as yet, not exactly known. Categorising properties and defining behaviour is vital to both next generation nuclear fission power plants and future nuclear fusion reactors. This is why the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has decided to bring about fresh focus on materials for nuclear applications in its all-new £10 million Culham Materials Research Facility (MRF), part of the Culham Science Centre.
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