High-Risk Technologies in Metallurgy with Commercial Potential

JOM, Apr 2005 by Apelian, Diran

The symposium titled "High-Risk Technologies in Metallurgy with Commercial Potential" was held at the 2004 TMS Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, and was organized by Jean-Louis Staudenmann of the National Institute for Standards and Technology Advanced Technology Program (NIST ATP) and Diran Apelian of the Metal Processing Institute (MPI) of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The organizers selected five papers to be featured in this issue of JOM because they exemplify innovative technologies that have the potential for making a significant impact in their respective industries. These papers are:

* "The Development of a Fluidized Bed Process for the Heat Treatment of Aluminum Alloys" by Jay Keist

* "Friction and Wear Reduction via an Ni-B Electroless Bath Coating for Metal Alloys" by Y.W. Riddle and T.O. Bailer

* "The High-Speed Identification and Sorting of Nonferrous Scrap" by David B. Spencer

* "Nucleated Casting for the Production of Large Superalloy Ingots" by William T. Carter, Jr., and Robin M. Forbes Jones

* "Rapid Plasma Quenching for the Production of Ultrafine Metal and Ceramic Powders" by Alan Donaldson and Ronald A. Cordes

The MPI is an industry-university alliance dedicated to advancing the state of the art in the metal-processing industry. The institute's mission is to carry out research projects identified and planned in collaboration with its 110 industrial partners in its three centers-metal casting, powder metallurgy, and heat treating. Accordingly, MPI faculty, research staff, and students are quite cognizant of the technological gaps facing the industry and are thus catalysts in the innovation process. As an example, the concept of reducing cycle time during heat treatment of cast components by an order of magnitude was borne out of MPI research projects (see the article by Jay Keist). Similarly, the article by Y. W. Riddle et al. is an excellent example of surface engineering of metallic components for some formidable applications in cast as well as powdermetallurgy-processed components.

The other three articles by David B. Spencer, William T. Carter et al., and Alan Donaldson et al. address topics that are quite critical to the metallurgical industry as well as society at large-high-speed sorting during recycling; superalloy material for the gas turbine industry; and the production of ultrafine powders. These three, along with the article by Jay Keist, represent companies that have received ATP funding.

The NIST ATP was established to foster new and innovative technologies, and by design, ATP invests in programs and technologies that have risk, are challenging, and have the potential to significantly impact their respective industry via world-class products/ processes/services. The mission of ATP, according to NIST, is "to accelerate the development of innovative technologies for broad national benefit through partnerships with the private sector." Furthermore, "By reducing the early-stage research and development risks of individual companies, ATP enables industry to pursue promising technologies that would have been ignored otherwise or developed too slowly to compete in rapidly changing world markets."

The timeframe to realize the return on the investment for investment companies and venture capital is much less than traditionally needed for commercialization of materials-related technologies. Thus, early-stage development resource is a critical vehicle for the materials science and engineering community.

The common point among the five featured articles is innovative thinking and development of new technologies that will dramatically change the present situation.

DiranApelian is Howmet Professor of Engineering and Director of the Metal Processing Institute, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA and the advisor to JOM from the Public and Governmental Affairs Committee of TMS.