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Category Archive: Metals

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  1. Nickel Set to Replace Palladium as a Greener and Cheaper Catalyst

    May
    05
    2022
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    Palladium prices have exploded in the past decade, going from $5,300/kg in 2008, to $15,600/kg in 2016, $60,000/kg in 2020, and standing at $75,000 per kg right now. The valuable rare metal has been historically used in catalytic converters of cars, but it’s now also required by hydrogen fuel cell technology, an emerging technology that […]

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  2. Is The Ongoing Nickel Price Roller-Coaster a Cause for Concern?

    Mar
    24
    2022
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    Nickel is undergoing a wild pricing ride lately, being one of the most heavily affected metals of the market turbulence caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions and shortages. The region of Krasnoyarsk in Russia is one of the world’s major production hubs of nickel, so closing that supply tap makes […]

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  3. New Laser-Based Welding Promises to Cut Energy Consumption In Construction

    Mar
    22
    2022
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    Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have developed a novel laser-based system that can be used for precision and energy-efficient welding of construction metals. According to their measurements, the energy requirements of their system are roughly 85% lower than that of conventional welding methods, while the result is also typically of a higher quality […]

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  4. Giant ‘ArcelorMittal’ Steel Plant in Ukraine Shuts Down Amid War Crisis

    Mar
    11
    2022
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    Steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal SA has closed its Ukrainian steel mill on Thursday after facing raw material supply disruptions and increasing risks associated directly with the Russian invasion of the Eastern European country. The company shut down blast furnaces gradually as the supply problems culminated and forced the production to a minimum, but the escalating situation […]

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  5. Engineers Figured How Fatigue Cracks Grow and What Stops Their Propagation

    Feb
    22
    2022
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    The Cornell Fracture group has published the results of an ongoing study on the formation and propagation of fatigue cracks on metals and claims to have identified the mechanism that causes the cracks to grow. Their paper, titled “Atomic Mechanism of Near Threshold Fatigue Crack Growth in Vacuum,” explains that a molecular dislocation happens near […]

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  6. Tata Steel Investigated in Netherlands for Excessive Air Pollution

    Feb
    11
    2022
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    The Dutch prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Tata Steel for intentional and unlawful pollution, a result of the operation of its Amsterdam-based steelwork facilities. The authorities have also launched a probe involving specialist investigators to determine the scale and type of pollution that is taking place to compare it with the legal emission […]

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  7. Selective separation could help retrieve rare metals that are costly to mine

    Jan
    10
    2022
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    MIT researchers have developed a new processing method to help retrieve rare metals that are costly to mine and are getting increasingly harder to find. The technique is called “solid selective separation”, and it could replace liquid separation for at least 56 elements, 15 of which have already been tested successfully. Compared to liquid separation, […]

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  8. The Complexity of Re-Purposing The Steel Border Walls

    Dec
    28
    2021
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    Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision for raising an impermeable border in the south has failed to realize, but not before a whopping $16.4 billion was spent in funding the barrier construction. Now, hundreds of thousands of steel bollards, each costing about $9,000, lie in piles at various locations, rusting, creating an environmental hazard, and […]

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  9. Researchers Presented Self-Healing Anti-Corrosive Coating for Steel

    Dec
    20
    2021
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    Steel is a very resilient material in general, but when it comes to subjecting it to harsh environments like seawater, you need to apply an anti-corrosive coating or it will rust pretty quickly. Researchers at the Rice University in Houston have tested a novel insulating material made out of sulfur and selenium and found that […]

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  10. New Steel Alloy Can Kill The COVID-19 Virus in Under Six Hours

    Dec
    14
    2021
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    Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have developed a novel type of stainless steel alloy that kills the COVID-19 virus within six hours. More specifically, the steel can deactivate 99.75% of the virus in three hours and reach a final 99.99% in six. This anti-pathogen steel would be ideal for surfaces that come into […]

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  12. Scientists Created a Novel Titanium Alloy By Means of 3D Printing

    Nov
    30
    2021
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    3D printing or additive manufacturing may be generally known as a “shaping technology,” but as scientists at the City University of Hong Kong proved, it can be much more than that. The team of Chinese engineers successfully developed a novel titanium alloy by using a 3D printer to design the microstructures of the material, ending […]

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  14. New Testing Tool can Detect Thermoacoustic Combustion Oscillations

    Nov
    22
    2021
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    Thermoacoustic combustion oscillations (TCO) are the peril of internal combustion engines, but detecting the phenomenon in time and taking targeted action to stop and reverse it has remained a complicated case. A team of engineers from the Tokyo University of Science and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have developed a promising tool that detects […]

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  17. Engineers Find a Speedy Way to Produce Aluminum 7075

    Nov
    01
    2021
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    A team of material engineers in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, in Washington, have developed a novel manufacturing method for aluminum 7075, an alloy that is highly valued in the industry but one that is notoriously hard to extrude and very costly to make. The high cost derives from the inadequacy of conventional extrusion methods, […]

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