Industry in Neutron News
APRIL 13, 2020
Top: a mono-cylinder engine block made by 3D printing shows
crack due to residual stress built-up. Bottom: multiple “comb” structures
3D-printed using a matrix of printing parameters.
Scientific Achievement
Residual stresses in additively manufactured structures by different printing schemes were nondestructively measured by rapid neutron scanning.
Significance and Impact
Complex automobile structures are manufactured by additive manufacturing (3D printing) to reduce manufacturing costs for complex parts and improve fuel efficiency by reducing
APRIL 10, 2019
Heat resistant. Corrosion resistant. Castable. Lighter. Stronger. Stiffer. More flexible. When the properties and functionality of high-performance aluminum alloys are increased, so too is their market demand.
Spallation Neutron Source to examine iterations of their cerium-aluminum alloy.
The team, David Weiss (left), Orlando Rios, Hunter Henderson, and Zach Sims,
are using neutrons to probe the atomic structures to design the alloys
with optimal properties to meet industry demands.
(Credit: ORNL/Genevieve Martin)
JULY 26, 2017
In a first-of-a-kind experiment, researchers used neutrons to investigate the performance of a new aluminum alloy in a gasoline-powered engine—while the engine was running.
Researchers used neutrons to probe a running engine at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron
Source, giving them the opportunity to test an aluminum-cerium alloy under operating
conditions. From left, researchers Orlando Rios, Ke An, and Lt. Eric Stromme
show off a cylinder head made from the new alloy.
A team from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory worked with industry
MARCH 10, 2017
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 10, 2017—HTS International Corporation and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have signed an agreement to explore potential collaborations in advanced manufacturing research.
advanced manufacturing research such as conformal cooling. These specially placed
coolant lines allow parts to cool faster, which increases productivity for molding
and casting manufacturers.
The memorandum of understanding follows HTS’s recent decision to
FEBRUARY 23, 2016
Ensuring the stable structure of any vehicle requires strong welds. Researchers from many different fields have studied ways to avoid weaknesses in vehicle welds; however, for the military, ensuring strength in armored vehicles is especially critical.
Division, and U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering
Center, are studying welded armor and testing a new weld wire using neutron
diffraction at the HB-2B beam line of the ORNL High Flux Isotope Reactor.
Image credit:
DECEMBER 17, 2015
There’s a lot of buzz in the photovoltaic community over hybrid perovskites, a class of organometallic lead-halides that are revolutionizing the field by promising cheaper and more efficient means of converting solar energy into electrical power.
beam line 12, with hopes of influencing the development of better photovoltaics.
Image Credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL
But while these materials may be the next great advancement in the field, there’s a shortage of basic
SEPTEMBER 21, 2015
David Yarusso, a researcher with 3M, the global innovation company well known for their Post-It and Scotch brands of products, is getting down to the molecular level to study pressure sensitive adhesives at the Spallation Neutron Source. He is using the Liquids Reflectometer, SNS beam line 4B, to study how these adhesives interact with their substrates, or the thing they stick to, to ultimately improve their performance.
neutron scattering at the Liquids Reflectometer, SNS beam line 4B.
Image credit: Genevieve
JULY 6, 2015
Stainless steel is an alloy of steel used for a variety of industrial applications because of its resistance to corrosion and its mechanical and physical properties that are desirable for fabrication.
Tennessee, Knoxville, adjust a sample of stainless steel they are studying at VULCAN,
SNS beam line 7.
Nickel is a critical element in the stainless steel alloy to preserve its austenitic structure, or the microstructure that allows the material to be formed and welded, and
JULY 6, 2015
Yan Gao and Shenyan Huang from GE Global Research are using neutron diffraction to study nickel-based superalloys, metals that are commonly used in the hot sections of air and land-based gas turbines, on VULCAN, Engineering Materials Diffractometer, SNS beam line 7. Shown here is the research team’s experimental setup.
to study nickel-based superalloys, metals that are commonly used in the hot sections
of air and land-based gas turbines, on VULCAN, Engineering Materials Diffractometer,
SNS beam line 7.
OCTOBER 19, 2011
Neutron scientists are partnering with industry to enhance engine and commercial cooling technologies in hopes of making improvements that will optimize fuel and energy efficiency.
Hassina Bilheux, a physicist and the lead for developing ORNL’s neutron imaging capabilities, uses cold neutrons at HFIR's CG-1D beam line to image automobile engine system components, two-phase fluid components in commercial cooling systems, and electrodes used for lithium batteries.
Neutron imaging is just taking off at ORNL