The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has received $392,000 in funding to commercialize a gas-atomization nozzle design used to produce metal powders for manufacturing. The funding is part of the DOE’s Office of Technology Transition’s Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) announced recently by U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. The funding, totaling $19.7 million, will support 54 projects across 12 National Laboratories involving more than 30 private sector partners, and will help businesses move promising energy technologies from National Laboratories to the marketplace. In addition, Ames Lab will contribute in-kind matching funds of equal value for the project from private sector partner Ampal, Inc., Palmerton, Pa., a part of the United States Metal Powders group of companies.
Exciting news for those planning on attending the POWDERMET2018: International Conference on Powder Metallurgy & Particulate Materials and co-located AMPM2018: Additive Manufacturing with Powder Metallurgy conference, June 17–20, at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio. Registration information and a preliminary program is now available online. Due to the increased interest and overall success of these co-located conferences, registration fees have been reduced to encourage greater participation. Additionally, MPIF is taking steps to enhance the overall conference experience—including one fee for both conferences!
Höganäs AB has opened a new facility in Cary, N.C., that aims to improve water purification and soil remediation techniques. Höganäs has developed proprietary technology that uses highly porous iron particles to remove contaminants such as heavy metals from water and soil. This process has been shown to help rid groundwater and drinking water of contaminants like hexavalent chromium, arsenic, selenium, phosphates and radioactive isotopes.
Australia-based Amaero Engineering, in collaboration with a team of Monash University engineering PhD students, have designed, manufactured, and test-fired a rocket engine. Having successfully manufactured the world's first additively manufactured (AM) jet engine, Amaero approached the team with a challenge to design an engine that would fully utilize the near limitless geometric complexity of AM.
It was another successful year for the PM Parts Compacting/Tooling Seminar. The seminar, held about every 18 months, dates back to 1989 and continues to educate a variety of people throughout the industry, mainly catering to powder metallurgy parts and product fabricators.