Items such as drinking mugs, missile heads, thermal barrier coatings on engine blades, auto parts, electronic and optic components are commonly made with ceramics. The ceramics are mechanically strong, but tend to fracture suddenly when just slightly strained under a load unless exposed to high temperatures. Now, a team led... Read more →

Researchers at ORNL, in partnership with FCA US and Nemak USA, have developed a new suite of aluminum-based alloys that could give automakers a boost in achieving ambitious fuel economy goals. (Earlier post.) The aluminum-copper-manganese-zirconium alloys—ACMZ—were developed in just under four years, lightning speed when it comes to developing a... Read more →

Material scientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have developed a novel process for analyzing, for example, the temperature and oxidation resistance of complex alloys that are made up of a number of different elements. Previously, such analyses used to take months. A paper on their work is published in the journal... Read more →

The high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and high thermal conductivity of aluminum alloys have made them important for the automotive and aerospace industries—and even more so now due to the promise of improved performance and fuel economy from lightweighting. However, while aluminum alloys offer outstanding castability, excellent mechanical properties, and... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new high-performance computing (HPC) initiative to help US industry accelerate the development of new or improved materials for use in severe environments. The High Performance Computing for Materials (HPC4Mtls) program will will initially focus on challenges facing the development of new or... Read more →

Researchers at Purdue University have created a new type of non-liquid lubricant—a novel graphene-zinc oxide composite—that has been shown to reduce friction and wear significantly under the extreme conditions found in various applications, from air compressors to missile systems. The new liquid-free composite is made from a slurry of graphene,... Read more →

Federal-Mogul Powertrain will debut new materials for valve seats and guides with improved thermal conductivity at the 2017 IAA Show in Frankfurt, Germany next month. Suitable for series production, the new High Thermal Conductivity (HTC) materials and Thermal Interface Material (TIM) coating can reduce valve head temperatures by up to... Read more →

A team from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has worked with industry partners to use neutrons to probe a running engine at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source (earlier post), giving them the opportunity to test an aluminum-cerium alloy under operating conditions. The feat was a first for the... Read more →

Eck Industries has signed an exclusive license for the commercialization of a cerium-aluminum (Ce-Al) alloy co-developed by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory that is ideal for creating lightweight, strong components for advanced vehicles and airplanes. Aluminum alloys at present are limited to applications below 230 °C due... Read more →

As automakers strive to improve fuel economy, they have turned increasingly to lightweight materials to reduce overall vehicle weight—even though the average weight of materials in North American light vehicles has increased from 3,694 lbs (1,675.57 kg) in 1995 to 3,994 lbs (1,811.65 kg) in 2014, according to figures from... Read more →

Researchers from Stanford University and the University of Tennessee report that high pressure could be the key to making advanced high-entropy alloys (HEAs, near-equiatomic solid solutions of multi-principal-elements that are promising for high-temperature applications, earlier post) that are lighter, stronger and more heat-resistant than conventional alloys. In an open access... Read more →

A team led by researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is developing a lower-cost cast aluminum (Al) alloy capable of at least a 50 ˚C temperature increase over the current cylinder head alloys 319 and 356 for use in light duty engines. The new alloy is also targeting a... Read more →

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have discovered an ultra-durable, self-lubricating tribofilm that regenerates in the presence of oil, heat, and pressure—meaning that it will not wear away over the life of an engine. The film, reported yesterday in the journal Nature, develops when a new catalytic coating that can be... Read more →

Federal-Mogul Powertrain has become the first company to bring ultra high-strength iron cylinder liners into series production. Made of a special form of compacted graphite iron (CGI), the latest formulation—designated GOE330—reduces the typical bore distortion under maximum piston side thrust by up to 27%, compared to existing iron materials. It... Read more →

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and partners Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Eck Industries have developed aluminum-cerium (Al-Ce) alloys that are both easier to work with and more heat tolerant than existing products. ORNL scientists Zach Sims, Michael McGuire and Orlando Rios, along... Read more →

An improved titanium alloy—stronger than any commercial titanium alloy currently on the market—gets its strength from the novel way atoms are arranged to form a special nanostructure. For the first time, a team led by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have been able to see this alignment and... Read more →

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announced the formation of a new consortium in partnership with leading castings solutions provider Grainger & Worrall (G&W) to advance automotive cylinder head designs. The Aluminum Head Evaluation, Analysis, and Durability (AHEAD) consortium seeks to reduce the weight while improving the durability of aluminum cylinder heads—an... Read more →

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory, in partnership with Caterpillar, have used high-energy synchrotron X-ray tomography to perform quantitative 3D-characterization of the distribution of graphite particles in high-strength compacted graphite iron (CGI). The size and morphology of graphite particles play a crucial role in determining various mechanical and thermal properties of... Read more →

A team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is developing a new low-pressure process for hardening steel using methylamine. The new low-pressure carbonitriding (enriching low-alloy steels with carbon and nitrogen) process saves time and process gas. Steels hardened in this way are suited for use in components subjected to... Read more →

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, FCA US LLC, and Nemak, a specialist in the production of high complex aluminum components for the automotive industry such as cylinder heads and engine blocks, are partnering to create lightweight powertrain materials that will help the auto industry meet the mandated... Read more →

Ford revealed another of its promised performance models (earlier post), the all-new Focus RS, a high-performance road car that debuts Ford Performance All-Wheel Drive with Dynamic Torque Vectoring Control. The all-new Focus RS is equipped with a new 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine producing in excess of 315 horsepower. Developed by a... Read more →

US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced a new Vehicle Technologie program-wide funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0001201) for $55.8 million. DOE also announced up to $35 million to advance fuel cell and hydrogen technologies, including enabling the early adoption of fuel cell applications, such as light duty fuel cell electric vehicles. This new... Read more →

Ashby plot of strength vs. density for engineering materials. (Yield strength for metals and polymers, tear strength for elastomers, compressive strength for ceramics, and tensile strength for composites.) The low-density HEA is indicated with the star. Youssef et al. Click to enlarge. Researchers from North Carolina State University and Qatar... Read more →

UK automotive engineering consultancy Drive System Design (DSD) suggests the next breakthrough in CO2 emissions reduction will come from more aggressive weight reduction in major powertrain components. Analysis by the company has identified both near-term and medium-term solutions for the manufacture of items such as transmission casings using advanced composite... Read more →

A heavy-duty exhaust valve guide with thermal deformation and temperature color scaling demonstrates high side load at high temperatures in contact with the exhaust gas. Federal-Mogul is developing powertrain materials to address conditions such as these. Source: Federal-Mogul. Click to enlarge. Federal-Mogul Holdings Corporation’s Powertrain Division has expanded its range... Read more →