Please join us for the kick off meeting that brings together materials science colleagues, students from campus member affiliates, and industry representatives.

Program includes :
a student poster session,
networking opportunities,
research and industrial talks.

Discussions will include how the RM2N network can better engage Wisconsin industry/manufacturers and the UW system schools and put us in a better position to take advantage of local expertise, instrumentation and other resources, and how this can work to benefit all

Susann Ely

parties.

More details to come! Please contact Susann Ely  ( [email protected]) if you have further questions or visit wiscmat.org

The SBIR Road Tour is a national outreach effort to convey the non-dilutive technology funding opportunity provided through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The SBIR/STTR programs annually provide $2.5 billion in funding to small advanced technology firms to spur new technological discoveries and facilitate the commercialization of innovations. Together they represent America's Largest Seed Fund.

Local innovation supporters in communities who have historically underutilized the opportunities provided through the SBIR/STTR programs have invited representatives of America's Largest Seed Fund to engage the small advanced technology community, including women and minority-owned research and development businesses. Every SBIR Road Tour stop represents a coveted opportunity to meet directly with Federal and State Program Managers who seed a wide spectrum of innovative ideas, while learning about your state sponsored innovation support infrastructure.

So, if you're an Innovator, Entrepreneur, Researcher, or Small Technology Firm, don't miss this opportunity, register today.

Chemical phase map shows how the electrochemical discharge of iron fluoride microwires proceeded from 0% discharge (left), to 50% (middle), to 95% (right). Image: Linsen Li

Chemistry Professor Song Jin

"Iron fluoride has the potential to triple the amount of energy a conventional lithium-ion battery can store," says Song Jin, a UW-Madison professor of chemistry and Wisconsin Energy Institute affiliate. "However, we have yet to tap its true potential."

Graduate student Linsen Li worked with Jin and other collaborators to perform experiments with a state-of-the-art transmission x-ray microscope at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven. There, they collected chemical maps from actual coin cell batteries filled with iron fluoride during battery cycling to determine how well they perform. The results are published in Nature Communications.

"In the past, we weren't able to truly understand what is happening to iron fluoride during battery reactions because other battery components were getting in the way of getting a precise image," says Li.

By accounting for the background signals that would otherwise confuse the image, Li was able to accurately visualize and measure, at the nanoscale, the chemical changes iron fluoride undergoes to store and discharge energy.

Thus far, using iron fluoride in rechargeable lithium ion batteries has presented scientists with two challenges. The first is that it doesn't recharge very well in its current form.

"This would be like your smart phone only charging half as much the first time, and even less thereafter," says Li. "Consumers would rather have a battery that charges consistently through hundreds of charges."

By examining iron fluoride transformation in batteries at the nanoscale, Jin and Li's new x-ray imaging method pinpoints each individual reaction to understand why capacity decay may be occurring.

"In analyzing the x-ray data on this level, we were able to track the electrochemical reactions with far more accuracy than previous methods, and determined that iron fluoride performs better when it has a porous microstructure," says Li.

Through his work with Teel Plastics, which manufactures plastic profiles, pipes and tubing, Tim Osswald and his graduate students have solved sophisticated problems and developed a broader understanding of the plastics industry.

For University of Wisconsin-Madison plastics engineer Tim Osswald, the Wisconsin Idea is about taking the extra step: taking research out of the lab.

Through his work with Baraboo, Wisconsin company Teel Plastics, which manufactures a variety of plastic profiles, pipes and tubing, Osswald, the Kuo K. and Cindy F. Wang professor of mechanical engineering, and his graduate students have solved sophisticated problems and developed a broader understanding of the plastics industry.

Specifically, they've helped Teel develop new polymer blends and optimize pipe manufacturing practices.

Mechanical Engineering Professor Tim Osswald

Osswald, who is also on the company's technical advisory board, says Teel is an ideal example of how companies in Wisconsin have used the university as a resource. Yet their relationship is far from a one-way street: Teel's challenges allow Osswald and his students to confront relevant and contemporary issues in industry.

"We want to keep our feet on the ground and we do that by knowing exactly what the needs are of the industry," he says. "So I think that keeps us in the forefront, because we know what's needed out there."

Thermal Spray Technologies uses a supersonic spray process to deposit a coating just a few thousandths of an inch thick at temperatures in the thousands of degrees. Here, the coating will alter the electrical properties of an innovative surgical device. Photos: David Tenenbaum

SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. - A company spawned by an experiment on lawn mower blades has mushroomed into a national leader in high-temperature coatings that alter the surface properties of metal.

The coatings can change the electrical conductivity of metal or make it resist corrosion or wear. Instead of hardening an entire part that sorts wheat from chaff in a farmer's combine, Thermal Spray Technologies (TST) sprays on a layer just a few thousandths of an inch thick at temperatures in the thousands of degrees. This can, in some cases, raise a part's lifetime from 200 hours to 1,000 hours.

Thermal spray refers to several technologies used to heat and spray fine particles onto a surface where they congeal to form, in effect, a ceramic or metallic skin.

Ceramics can be tough and corrosion resistant, which means they can solve myriad problems in manufacturing. TST serves manufacturers of oil, gas and agricultural equipment, motorcycles and surgical instruments. The firm also coats valves and pumps for the food industry, parts for bicycles, and air cleaners at power plants.

TST traces its roots to Dick Wilkey, president of Fisher-Barton in Watertown. In 1984, Wilkey contacted Frank Worzala, a professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, looking for a graduate student to develop a new coating technology.

A new film of carbon nanotubes cures composites for airplane wings and fuselages, using only 1% of the energy required by traditional, oven-based manufacturing processes. Image: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

Aerospace engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now developed a carbon nanotube (CNT) film that can heat and solidify a composite without the need for massive ovens. When connected to an electrical power source, and wrapped over a multilayer polymer composite, the heated film stimulates the polymer to solidify.

The group tested the film on a common carbon-fiber material used in aircraft components, and found that the film created a composite as strong as that manufactured in conventional ovens-while using only 1% of the energy.

The new "out-of-oven" approach may offer a more direct, energy-saving method for manufacturing virtually any industrial composite, says Brian L. Wardle, an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.

"Typically, if you're going to cook a fuselage for an Airbus A350 or Boeing 787, you've got about a four-story oven that's tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure that you don't need," Wardle says. "Our technique puts the heat where it is needed, in direct contact with the part being assembled. Think of it as a self-heating pizza. ... Instead of an oven, you just plug the pizza into the wall and it cooks itself."

Researchers use numerical simulations to predict different patterns that may form as viscous threads fall onto a moving belt. Image: P.T. Brun

The patterns created by such viscous fluids can be reproduced experimentally in a setup known as a "fluid mechanical sewing machine," in which an overhead nozzle deposits a thick fluid onto a moving conveyor belt. Researchers have carried out such experiments in an effort to identify the physical factors that influence the patterns that form.

Now a group of mathematicians at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge Univ. and elsewhere have developed a simple model to predict patterns formed by viscous fluids as they fall onto a moving surface.

The researchers looked at four patterns-sinusoidal waves, repeating and alternating loops and straight lines-and observed that the pattern formed depends on the ratio between the fluid's speed on impact and the speed of the conveyor belt. The team found that this ratio influences a fluid's shape, or curvature, just before hitting the surface, which in turn determines the pattern that forms.

The team used its model to create simulations of viscous flow; these simulations matched the patterns produced in previous experiments by others.

The simple geometrical model may be easily integrated into computer graphics simulations to create realistic videos of viscous liquids like honey and oil. The model may also be used to optimize manufacturing processes for products such as nonwoven materials-synthetic fabrics that are manufactured through an injection process that sprays polymers onto a conveyor belt, in patterns meant to resemble woven textiles.

Researchers have demonstrated a new process for the expanded use of lightweight aluminum in cars and trucks at the speed, scale, quality and consistency required by the auto industry. The process reduces production time and costs while yielding strong and lightweight parts, for example delivering a car door that is 62% lighter and 25% cheaper than that produced with today's manufacturing methods.

In partnership with General Motors, Alcoa and TWB Company LLC, researchers from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE)'s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have transformed a joining technique called friction stir welding, or FSW. The technique now can be used to join aluminum sheets of varying thicknesses, which is key to producing auto parts that are light yet retain strength where it's most needed. The PNNL-developed process also is ten times faster than current FSW techniques, representing production speeds that, for the first time, meet high-volume assembly requirements. The advancement is reported in the May issue of the Journal of Materials.

"We looked at the barriers preventing the use of more lightweight alloys in cars, picked what we felt was a top challenge, and then formulated a team that represented the entire supply chain to tackle it," said Yuri Hovanski, the program manager at PNNL and lead author. "The result is a proven process that overcomes the speed, scale and quality limitations of FSW that previously were showstoppers for the auto industry."

The two-phase, six-year project is funded by the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy with in-kind partner contributions from each of the participating companies.

Aluminum can't take the heat
To create door frames, hoods and other auto parts, sheets of metal are welded together end-to-end into a "tailor-welded blank" which is then cut into appropriate sizes before being stamped into the final shape. This process allows a high degree of customization. For example, a thicker gauge of metal can be used on one side of a car part, where extra strength is needed, joined via a weld to a thinner gauge on the side where it's not.

Conventional laser welding works great to join varying thicknesses of steel, but can be problematic when applied to aluminum due to the reactivity of molten aluminum to air. Instead, manufacturers today must create several components from single sheets that are then riveted together after being stamped, resulting in additional production steps and more parts that drive up cost and weight.

"Reducing the weight of a vehicle by 10% can decrease fuel consumption by 6%-8%, so the auto industry is very interested in a welding technique such as FSW that is aluminum friendly," Hovanski said.

Mixed, not melted
A friction-stir welding machine looks and acts like a cross between a drill press and a sewing machine. Lowered onto two metal sheets sitting side-by-side, the "drill bit," or in this case pin tool, spins against both edges. As it travels along, the pin creates friction that heats, mixes and joins the alloys without melting them. By auto industry production standards, however, the process was too slow-just one-half meter welded per minute-which is why the technique has been used only in niche applications, if at all.

Crack prevention
Although concrete is the world's most used building material, it has a serious flaw: it can easily crack when under tension. If these cracks become too large, they will lead to corrosion of the steel reinforcement, which not only results in an unattractive appearance, but also jeopardizes the structure's mechanical qualities. That is why engineers often use a larger than necessary amount of steel reinforcement within a concrete structure in order to prevent the cracks from becoming too large. This extra steel has no structural use and is an expensive solution as steel prices are high. Another way to deal with cracks is to repair them, but this can be extremely difficult in underground or liquid retaining structures. The ultimate solution would be self-healing concrete, which is exactly what TU Delft researchers are working on.

Bacteria
By embedding calcite-precipitating bacteria in the concrete mixture, it is possible to create concrete that has self-healing capacities. As the pH value of concrete is very high, only the so-called alkaliphilic bacteria are able to survive. We have mixed several of these bacteria into a cement paste and after a month found the spores of three particular bacteria where still viable.

Practical use
The use of bacterial concrete can in theory lead to substantial savings, especially in steel reinforced concrete. It will also mean durability issues can be tackled in a new and more economical way when designing concrete structures. Bacterial concrete is ideal for constructing underground retainers for hazardous waste, as no humans would have to go near it to repair any occurring cracks. For residential buildings, however, it does seem the traditional repairing of cracks will remain the most economically attractive solution for now.

Currently, our research focuses on creating the right conditions for the bacteria to produce as much calcite as possible and on optimizing the distribution of food for the bacteria. In addition, we are also looking at the self-healing ability of bacterial concrete and how this is affected by the various deterioration mechanisms involved, such as sulfate attacks or temperature fluctuations. All of our research is done at the TU Delft's Microlab, where fracture testing equipment as well as numerical tools for structure information and fracture modeling are available.

The Self Healing Concrete project is part of the TU Delft wide Self-healing Materials research programme at the Delft Center for Materials (DCMat). Furthermore, we collaborate with the Biotechnology section at the Faculty of Applied Sciences and the South Dakota School of Mines in the United States.