Video of the week – Corning’s ‘A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked. The Story Behind Corning’s Vision’

Edited By Peter Wray • February 3, 2012 • No Comments

A year ago, Corning published a promotional video, “A Day Made of Glass… Made possible by Corning” that provide an intriguing peek into some of the technologies the company is considering—and how it may affect our lifestyles. It proved to be a popular video, racking up well over 17 million views as of today.

As those of us old enough to remember Walt Disney’s movies about the future of communities, transportation and space, these visionary presentations are more informed guesswork than prophecy. Sometimes (most times?) these ideas just don’t work out for a number of reasons, but the exercise of compiling and publishing these visions helps bring excitement and motivation, especially to young people contemplating careers in science and engineering.

However, smart tech-oriented companies tend to be cautious about sharing their “visions” with the public (Steve Jobs was and Apple still is among those at the most secretive end of the spectrum) because they are both concerned about tipping their hand to competitors and, well, being embarrassed by being wrong about the future.

Corning, however, seems to be closer to the other end of the spectrum and has clearly decided that there is value in teasing the public with how high-tech glass products may disrupt a lot of technologies in our future. Now today, nearly on the anniversary of its first “A Day Made of Glass” video, the company has published an update,  ”A Day Made of Glass, Part 2″ that fleshes out more of Corning’s vision and also incorporates some of the market trends over the last year, such as the huge success of the iPad.

Some of the concepts illustrated in the new video include durable, multitouch screens; colossal- and large-scale edge-to-edge displays; ubiquitous electrochromic windows; entire dashboard surfaces made of soft, flexible glass displays; lightweight auto and sunroof glass; designer-friendly photovoltaic units; antimicrobial glass services for medical applications; and even advances in glass fiber optics.

Corning admits that a lot of these products aren’t right around the corner and acknowledges that there is still a lot of RD&D work that is needed to address existing problems with scalability and price.

To be clear, Corning is smart enough not to reveal all of its product and technology bets in this video. Furthermore, the Apple/Gorilla Glass story underlines how even Corning and other top-tier companies cannot always anticipate what external disruptions of the marketplace will rock their corporate world. Nevertheless, ADMOG Part 2 is an fascinating vision and I predict the number of views in the next year will easily exceed the 17 million of Part 1.


Categories: Biomaterials, Construction, Electronics, Energy & environment, Glass science, Manufacturing, Medical, Optics, Processing innovations, Transportation
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Ceramics and glass business news of the week

Edited By Peter Wray • February 3, 2012 • No Comments

Here is what we are hearing:

Integration of Hanse Chemie Inc. USA, into Evonik Goldschmidt Corp.

As of Jan. 1, 2012, the US Hanse Chemie business of Hanse Chemie AG and Nanoresins AG, has been merged into Evonik Goldschmidt Corp. At the same time, Hanse Chemie Inc. USA has been dissolved as a legal entity. The acquisition of the two firms by Evonik was finalized on May 12, 2011. Both companies are headquartered in Germany and produce raw materials and components for the manufacture of sealants, adhesives, molding and casting compounds, and other products. Most of the Hanse Chemie Inc. business is incorporated into the Interface & Performance business line whose activities surrounding the silicone specialties are directed at a variety of industrial markets. Activities in the paint and coatings industry, especially those concerning nanocomposites, extremely fine-particle silicas, are now part of the Coatings & Additives Business Unit of Evonik.

3M launches high density versions of its embedded capacitance material at DesignCon 2012

3M announced the initial availability of its high-capacitance Embedded Capacitance Material at DesignCon 2012, providing design engineers a new way to improve power integrity and reduce electromagnetic interference. Unlike previous 3M ECM versions, which have a maximum capacitance density of approximately 10 nF per square inch, and some existing commercial competitor offerings, which have a maximum capacitance density of approximately 6 nF per square inch, the 3M ECM high-capacitance density solutions offer a capacitance density range from 20 up to 40 nF per square inch, making it the one of the highest capacitance density, halogen-free ECM solutions on the market. This helps design engineers provide hi-fidelity signals, high-signal-to-noise ratio in radio frequencies and higher speed digital signals in a variety of high-performance applications such as small form factor computer hardware, high-performance RF boards, microphones, integrated circuit packaging and consumer electronics.

Mantec consolidates ceramic activities

Mantec, the British technology group with a portfolio of manufacturing businesses based in Stoke-on-Trent, has announced that with immediate effect the three companies previously operated as subsidiaries of the technical ceramic division have now merged into a single, business - Mantec Technical Ceramics Ltd (www.mantectechnicalceramics.com). The three companies involved are Taylor Tunnicliff, Ceramic Gas Products and Fairey Filtration Systems. They have in any case been operating under common management, from the same premises, for the past four years and so this a logical step to take. While the name of Mantec Technical Ceramics will now be the one associated with all administrative, legal, accounting and sales channels, leading brand names owned and manufactured by the group will naturally be retained.

Surmet: SEM of fracture reveals significant grain boundary weakness in lithium fluoride-doped, vacuum hot-pressed and HIPped transparent magnesia spinel

Polycrystalline ceramics with cubic spinel structure transmit well in the visible and mid IR wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. ALON and magnesia spinel are especially attractive, and are leading lightweight transparent armor candidates for future combat systems. These have enormous performance advantage over glass and justify their rapid development. Surmet achieves full density and transparency using the conventional sinter/hot isostatic Ppress process that includes green body formation and high-temperature sintering, followed by HIPping.

Molycorp to receive $390M strategic investment from Molymet; Investment slated to fuel growth and pursuit of vertical integration plans

Molycorp Inc. announced that Molibdenos y Metales S.A. (Molymet), the world’s largest processor of the strategic metals molybdenum and rhenium, has agreed to invest approximately $390 million in the company in exchange for 12.5 million shares of Molycorp common stock. The price of the Molycorp shares to be purchased were valued based on the 20-day volume weighted average share price as of the close of trading on Jan. 30, 2012 plus a 10% premium. Molycorp has agreed to appoint to its board of directors upon the closing of the proposed investment a nominee to be designated by Molymet.

Thermablok aerogel insulation strips installed in new ‘green’ US Border Patrol station in Texas

Crews working construction on the environmentally sustainable Fabens US Border Patrol Station in Clint, Texas have just completed installing 21,000 linear feet of Thermablok aerogel insulating strips on studs throughout the 51,000 square foot facility. The strips reduce thermal bridging, the prime cause of energy loss in buildings. When RVK Architects of San Antonio collaborated with Jacobs Engineering Group of Houston to design the eco-friendly structure already years in the planning, they included Thermablok in the original design. The strips went up easily since they have peel and stick adhesive already attached to the back of the product. The facility also is fitted with solar heaters, sky lights, glazed windows and energy efficient equipment for a low-carbon footprint.


Categories: Business, Construction, Electronics, Energy & environment, Industry headlines, International, Military, Processing innovations
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The ‘Pitch Drop’ experiment is one for the generations

Edited By Eileen De Guire • February 3, 2012 • No Comments

 

Screenshot from live webcam of the “Pitch Drop Experiment” at the University of Queensland in Australia. The experiment, begun in 1927, demonstrates the fluid nature of tar pitch at room temperature. Credit: U. Queensland, Australia.

Would you start an experiment that took three years to set up, yielded it’s first result eight years later and generated an average of one data point per decade? Botanists make the news now and then when something like the stinky “corpse flower” blooms once every ten years, but in the physical world, things tend to happen faster.

In 1927, University of Queensland’s first physics professor, Thomas Parnell, want to demonstrate that materials are not always what they seem. Tar pitch, for example, appears to be a brittle solid at room temperature and will shatter if struck with a hammer.

To demonstrate that tar pitch is actually a fluid, Parnell heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. He allowed three years for the pitch to settle into the funnel, cut the seal in 1930 and waited.

Parnell was a patient man.

The first drop of pitch fell from the funnel in 1938, and a drop has fallen about once per decade since then. The ninth drop fell in November 2000.

Nobody has ever seen any of the drops fall. According to a story in the Brisbane Times, efforts to record the 2000 drip were foiled when the webcam equipment failed. The current curator of the experiment, UQ physics professor John Mainstone, estimates that the next drop will fall sometime around 2013.

The Brisbane Times story reports that the Guinness Book of World Records has recognized it as the longest running experiment in the world. The record is unlikely to be broken. Mainstone estimates that there is enough pitch in the funnel for the experiment to last another century or so. That means a yet-to-be-born Parnell will have to finish the experiment that his great-great-great grandfather started.

And, for those who have lots of time on their hands, the experiment can be watched via live webcam at the university’s webpage about the experiment.

 


Categories: Materials mind candy
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National Research Council names 16 tech priorities for NASA

Edited By Eileen De Guire • February 3, 2012 • No Comments

Space Shuttle Atlantis at liftoff in Feb. 2001 on a mission to deliver the module, Destiny, to the ISS. Development of lightweight materials for spacecraft of the future will reduce fuel requirements and increase payload budgets. Credit: NASA.

“Success in executing future NASA space missions will depend on advanced technology developments that should already be underway,” according to a study by the National Research Council of the National Academies that was released yesterday.

However, the report continues, “it has been years since NASA has had a vigorous, broad-based program in advanced space technology. NASA’s technology base is largely depleted,” leaving the agency with “few new, demonstrated technologies” to conduct its mission.

Relevant to the materials community is a call for making lightweight and multifunctional materials and structures a priority.

The 2010 NASA Authorization Act required NASA to find a way to maintain its R&D in space technology. In response, the agency released a strategic plan in early 2011. Of the six points on the plan, five are relevant to NASA’s aeronautics mission and were evaluated in the NRC study. As part of the strategic plan, NASA drafted 14 space technology roadmaps “to identify a number of critical enabling technologies.” The NRC review committee used these 14 roadmaps as the starting point for its study.

Of the 14 draft roadmaps, two explicitly address materials science issues and four imply materials science. The rest address systems issues, such as propulsion, launch, landing, IT, etc. and human health issues.

The study committee teased out three technology objectives from the NASA strategic plan and roadmaps:

1. Extend and sustain human activities beyond low-Earth orbit,
2. Explore the evolution of the solar system and the potential for life elsewhere,
3. Expand our understanding of Earth and the universe in which we live.

Although each NASA roadmap identifies the technical challenges to meeting the needs of its technology area, and the committee attempted to add some focus: It made a list of which challenges applies to the three objectives above. The exercise revealed that there were groupings that cut across the three objectives (listed in the press release), which allowed them to identify five “unified technologies.”

In addition, working with the assumption that funding levels would be in the $500 million to $1 billion per annum range, the study committee determined 16 “highest priorities” for technology development.

Of the 16 high priority technology challenges, only one was listed under all three objectives: Lightweight and Multifunctional Materials and Structures. Within that section of the roadmap, nine technologies were identified as high priority, including “Lightweight Structure (Materials).” On the subject of lightweight materials the report says,

Advanced composite, metallic, and ceramic materials, as well as cost-effective processing and manufacturing methods, are required to develop lightweight structures for future space systems. Lightweight structural materials developed by NASA and other government agencies, academia, and the aerospace industry have found extensive applications in transportation, commercial aircraft and military systems. Continued NASA leadership in materials development for space applications could result in new materials systems with significant benefit in weight reduction and cost savings. This technology has the potential to significantly reduce the mass of virtually all launch vehicles and payloads, creating opportunities for new missions, improved performance and reduced cost.

The other eight items in this technical area have to do with testing, certification, manufacturing, systems and reliability.

The NRC report, “NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities,” is dense — 470 pages. It includes a comprehensive description of the committee’s methodologies and recommendations. All 14 of NASA’s technical area roadmaps are included.


Categories: Aeronautics, Materials & Innovations, Space
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Mechanism offered for how seawater could corrode nuclear fuel

Edited By Peter Wray • January 31, 2012 • No Comments

Damaged seawater pump used to cool cores of Fukushima-Daiichi reactors. Credit: IAEA Image Bank.

When Japanese officials acted out of desperation and used seawater to cool the cores at the Fukushima-Daiichi reactors last year, it looks like they made the right call. But, others that might be tempted to use seawater to cool fuel rods in the future might not be so lucky.

ACerS emeritus member and University of California, Davis professor, Alexandra Navrotsky, Notre Dame researcher Peter Burns and several of their colleagues have offered some cautionary food for thought. They say in a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that there does seem to be a mechanism for how nuclear fuel rods could be corroded by contact with sea water.

It should immediately be pointed out that the authors aren’t in any way suggesting that this type of corrosion happened during the Fukushima-Daiichi incident, and they say there is no evidence of uranium dispersion during that episode due to the seawater.

However, they say it appears there is a way for the fuel rod–seawater combination to form “uranium compounds that could potentially travel long distances, either in solution or as very small particles,” according to a UC Davis news release.

The release quotes Navrotsky, a distinguished professor of ceramic, earth and environmental materials chemistry, as saying, ”This is a phenomenon that has not been considered before. We don’t know how much this will increase the rate of corrosion, but it is something that will have to be considered in future.”

The uranium compounds in the fuel rods are thought to be generally insoluble in ordinary water. Nevertheless, she says it was previously known that if some of the water is converted to peroxide (radiation has the ability to do this conversion), the peroxide can then oxidize the uranium in the rods to uranium-VI, forming spherical uranium peroxide clusters that can dissolve in water.

The new wrinkle in this is that Navrotsky et al. discovered that if alkali metal ions are present — such as the sodium that is plentiful in seawater — the uranium peroxide clusters ”are stable enough to persist in solution or as small particles even when the oxidizing agent is removed.”

So, the worrisome scenario is one where seawater comes in contact with the rods and forms these clusters. The clusters dissolved in the seawater are then carried away. Because, according to Navrotsky, little is known about quickly these uranium peroxide clusters break down in the seawater, the clusters may hang around for months or years before being converted back into a common form of uranium that will precipitate out to the bottom of the ocean.


Categories: Energy & environment, International, Nuclear
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