Topic Review
Mechanisms of Hydrogen Embrittlement
Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) is a broadly recognized phenomenon in metallic materials. If not well understood and managed, HE may lead to catastrophic environmental failures in vessels containing hydrogen, such as pipelines and storage tanks. HE can affect the mechanical properties of materials such as ductility, toughness, and strength, mainly through the interaction between metal defects and hydrogen. Various phenomena such as hydrogen adsorption, hydrogen diffusion, and hydrogen interactions with intrinsic trapping sites like dislocations, voids, grain boundaries, and oxide/matrix interfaces are involved in this process.
  • 156
  • 05 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing of Metal
Material extrusion additive manufacturing of metal (metal MEX), which is one of the 3D printing processes, has gained more interests because of its simplicity and economics. Metal MEX process is similar to the conventional metal injection moulding (MIM) process, consisting of feedstock preparation of metal powder and polymer binders, layer-by-layer 3D printing (metal MEX) or injection (MIM) to create green parts, debinding to remove the binders and sintering to create the consolidated metallic parts.
  • 3.1K
  • 02 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Low-Carbon Ti-Mo Microalloyed Hot Rolled Steels
Low-carbon Ti-Mo microalloyed steels represent a new generation of high strength steels for automobile sheet. Excellent indicators of difficult-to-combine technological, strength, and other service properties are achieved due to the superposition of a dispersed ferrite matrix and a bulk system of nanoscale carbide precipitates.
  • 469
  • 29 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Lithium-ion Battery (LIB) Recycling
The search for global CO2 net zero requires adapting transport vehicles to an electrification system for electric vehicles. In addition, the consumption of electric devices, and consequently batteries, has risen over the years. In order to achieve a circular economy, the spent batteries must be recycled. 
  • 288
  • 06 May 2023
Topic Review
Lithium Production and Recovery Methods
The first step of hydrometallurgical treatment is leaching, which is an effective method capable of transferring over 99% of the present metals to the leach solutions. Extraction of metals after leaching can be conducted using various methods, with precipitation being the most commonly used. The precipitation of other metals can result in the co-precipitation of lithium, causing total lithium losses up to 30%. To prevent such losses, solvent extraction methods are used to selectively remove elements, such as Co, Ni, Al, and Mn. Solvent extraction (SX) is highly effective, reducing the losses to 3% per extraction stage and reducing overall lithium losses to 15%. After the refining, lithium is precipitated as lithium carbonate. High lithium carbonate solubility (1.5 g/L) and high liquid to solid leaching ratios require costly and avoidable operations to be implemented in order to enhance lithium concentration. Therefore, it is suggested that more studies should focus on multistage leaching with lower L/S ratios.
  • 423
  • 14 Jul 2023
Topic Review
LD-Steelmaking
Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF) steelmaking is, worldwide, the most frequently applied process. According to the world steel organization statistical report, 2021, it saw a total production share of 73.2%, or 1371.2 million tons per year of the world steel production in 2020. The rest is produced in Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)-based steel mills (26.3%), and only a very few open-hearth and induction furnace-based steel mills. The BOF technology remains the leading technology applied based on its undoubted advantages in productivity and liquid steel composition control. The BOF technology started as the LD process 70 years ago, with the first heat applied in November 1952 in a steel mill in Linz, Austria. The name LD was formed from the first letters of the two sites with the first industrial scale plants, Linz and Donawitz, both in Austria. The history and development of the process have been honored in multiple anniversary publications over the last few decades. Nevertheless, the focus of the steel industry worldwide is significantly changing following a social and political trend and the requirement for fossil-free energy generation and industrial production to be in accordance with the world climate targets committed to in relation to the decades leading up to 2050.
  • 2.8K
  • 09 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Laser Ultrasonic in a Smart Manufacturing Production Site
The advancement of laser ultrasonics has increased rapidly, providing applications for materials characterization as well as for industrial utilization, as a quality control device. The wide-ranging capabilities for high-temperature in-situ analysis of a variety of microstructural characteristics offers a multitude of possibilities for usage in R&D. One possibility to investigate in a contactless manner, in-situ, and at high temperatures is the laser ultrasonic (LUS) method. This measurement technique has been developed over the last decades for many fields of application and can be used in various different configurations. This method can be applied to a variety of analyses known from the conventional ultrasonic technique. In particular, defect detection is one of the most common applications, especially the detection of defects in terms of pores, voids, or adhesion defects, especially in castings or welds. However, such defect detections are also of great advantage in additive manufacturing. 
  • 434
  • 28 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Irradiation-Tolerant Refractory High-Entropy Alloys
Along with the globalization of environmental problems and the rapid development of the field of nuclear technologies, the severe irradiation damage of materials has become a big issue, restricting the development of advanced nuclear reactor systems. Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) have the characteristics of a complex composition, a short-range order, and lattice distortion and possess a high phase stability, outstanding mechanical properties, and excellent irradiation resistance at elevated temperatures; thus, they are expected to be promising candidates for advanced nuclear reactors. 
  • 70
  • 18 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Intermediate-Temperature Embrittlement of Metals and Alloys
The intermediate-temperature embrittlement range was examined for Fe, Al, Cu, and Ni alloys. It was found that this embrittlement occurs in many alloys, although the causes are very diverse. Embrittlement can be due to fine matrix precipitation, precipitate free zones, melting of compounds at the grain boundaries, segregation of elements to the boundaries, and, additionally for steel, the presence of the soft ferrite film surrounding the harder austenite matrix. Grain boundary sliding and segregation to the boundaries seem to dominate the failure mode at the base of the trough when intergranular failure takes place. When cracking is due to the presence of hydrogen or liquid films at the boundary, then the dissociation along the boundaries is so easy, it is often independent of the strain rate and is always intergranular. 
  • 175
  • 06 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Innovative Application of Metallic PCMs in Metal Casting
Phase Change Materials (PCMs) are materials that release or absorb sufficient latent heat at a constant temperature or a relatively narrow temperature range during their solid/liquid transformation to be used for heating or cooling purposes. Although the use of PCMs has increased significantly in recent years, their major applications are limited to Latent Heat Storage (LHS) applications, especially in solar energy systems and buildings. Metallic PCMs appear to be the best alternative to salts and organic materials due to their high conductivity, high latent heat storage capacity and wide-ranging phase change temperature. Recent studies indicate that besides their conventional applications, metallic PCMs can be used in casting design to control the solidification microstructure as well as the feedability and defect formation in castings. Use of metallic PCM-fitted chillers is believed to open new horizons in smart control of the casting structure.
  • 729
  • 23 Jun 2022
  • Page
  • of
  • 9