Solar Atmospheres announced that its facilities in Michigan and Western Pennsylvania were recently awarded Nadcap Merit status for vacuum heat treating and brazing by the Performance Review Institute (PRI). The Merit status acknowledges the company’s strict adherence to specification requirements, allowing them to reduce their audit frequency to every 24 months (rather than 18 months). All […]
By Andrew Halonen, Mayflower Consulting LLC. In automotive engineering, material selection is not a static activity. A decision made on today’s model could be reversed on the next one. This can be good or bad depending on one’s perspective. Materials manufacturers are continually innovating and bringing robust solutions to the market, providing vehicle OEMs with […]
Reliefed Technologies, headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, will receive a €2.5 million grant and €3.5 million in equity from the European Innovation Council (EIC). The company was selected out of 1,000 applicants. “This financial support is a very welcome contribution and confirms the strength of our business plan and the competency of our team,” said Mikael […]
Aluminum is increasingly being used to replace heavier and more difficult-to-machine steel in the rail industry. This is due to the material’s high strength-to-weight ratio and resistance to corrosion, which enables the production of lighter railcars, while also extending the life of those railcars to about 40 years. In response to this trend in the […]
The Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC) at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. completed a series of trials of smart machining processes. The trials involved the implementation of specialized sensor units on existing machine tools that are used to produce lightweight structural airframe components. The trial was focused on two main goals. First, the […]
By Andrew Halonen, Mayflower Consulting, LLC. Vehicle construction has always been a multi-material story. Instrument panels are comprised of plastic, foam, and metal, while seats are made from leather or fabric covering foam on a steel structure. Looking under the hood, the engine block is often made of cast iron with cylinder heads made of […]
By Andrea Svendsen, Managing Editor. Under the leadership of Momentum Manufacturing Group (MMG), Vitex Extrusion completed phase one of a $23 million capacity expansion project at its extrusion operation in Franklin, NH. This included the relocation of its fabrication department and the installation of a $13.5 million, 8 inch press line, which doubles the company’s […]
By Philipp Hettich, Laubinger + Rickmann GmbH & Co. KG, and Martin Hartlieb, Viami International Inc. Extrusions are increasingly used for complex parts in the transportation industry. They allow for very complex cross-sectional shapes and, therefore, integration of different parts and functions (like cooling channels) into a single extruded profile. The rapidly increasing electrification of […]
