Developments in technology and processes,periodic systems of elements, environmental concerns and what the future holds herafter for metals and materials are important factors in the area of new discoveries.
A lot of development has taken place in metal extraction processes, production, and processing technology. Material development remains at the forefront of all technological innovation. Microalloyed steels with the addition of Ti, NB, Bi, Se, Ultra low carbon steels (ULCA), for high formability. Maraging steels are some of the product development in steels.
Considerable developments have taken place for improving and enhancing the properties of metals through heat treatment, on line utilisation of rolling heat. The development and production of ferroalloys received a boost to cater to the production of the wide variety of alloy steel.The technology roadmap for future is loaded with challenges for scientists, engineers, researchers and all other concerned.
Lux Research analysts assessed invention-to-commercialization pathways of 49 materials and identified three key variables that strongly influence commercialization paths. They then compared specific emerging materials with a mature material with the same classification to predict the next major commercial milestone for the emerging material. Among other major findings:
Quantum dots are ready for takeoff in 2014. Start-ups like QD Vision and Nanosys have developed scalable solution production processes and partnered with large OEMs to use quantum dots – nanometer-scale crystals of semiconductor materials – in displays. Comparing quantum dots' path to the piezoelectric material PZT suggests commercial takeoff is imminent.
Sheet magnesium is following PLA's trajectory. Magnesium is lighter than aluminum and cheaper than carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs), making it highly attractive to the auto industry. Today, Poscoand ThyssenKrupp are doing for sheet magnesium what Cargill and Dow did for polylactic acid (PLA) in the 1980s and 1990s – expect sheet magnesium to take off around 2017.
Graphene to peak in 2025. Graphene is attracting lots of attention, but faces challenges such as high production costs and dispersion issues. Comparing graphene to the high-performance polymer PEEK suggests that graphene's major commercial inflection point is still off in the future – expect graphene to begin to find widespread use in battery electrodes or conductive composites around 2025. http://www.luxresearchinc.com/news-and-events/press-releases/215.html
Led by a group at the University of Maryland (UMd), a multi-institution team of researchers has combined modern materials research and an age-old metallurgy technique to produce an alloy that could be the basis for a new class of sensors and micromechanical devices controlled by magnetism. The alloy, a combination of cobalt and iron, is notable, among other things, for not using rare-earth elements to achieve its properties. Materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) contributed precision measurements of the alloy's structure and mechanical properties to the project.
http://phys.org/news/2011-11-magnetic-field-sensitive-alloy-micromechanical-devices.html
MIT have designed and made alloys that form extremely tiny grains—called nanocrystals—that are only a few billionths of a meter across. These alloys retain their nanocrystalline structure even in the face of high heat. Such materials hold great promise for high-strength structural materials, among other potential uses.http://phys.org/news/2012-08-longstanding-goal-stable-nanocrystalline-metals.html
Reducing the energy required to heat-treat components is a key way of improving the process. Research that helped develop laser technologies to assist the NASA Mars Rover during landing is being adapted the help reduce CO2 and waste production at Tata Steel’s continuous casting plant.http://www.iom3.org/news/spotlight-heat-treatment-for-better-performance
The new report states that scientists at MIT and in Australia have discovered a method that will be used to transfer heat in cooling systems. This could be possible with the help of magnetic fields. This new technique will be beneficial to cool down the number of electronic devices like fusion reactors.. Scientists had passed fluid of magnetite nanoparticles through a long tube, which was covered by magnets.http://frenchtribune.com/teneur/1320791-magnetite-nanoparticles-used-increase-heat-transfer-cooling-systems
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