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Anderson, Iver

Publications and source records attributed to Anderson, Iver.

At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Defect and satellite characteristics of additive manufacturing metal powders

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) requires high-quality metal powders to three-dimensionally (3D) print metallic components with complex and customizable geometries. The lack of quantification of AM metal powders creates quality control challenges for 3D printed components, increases the uncertainty of printing reliability and net cost of inspected and certified printed components, and reduces the recyclability of used powders. However, critical characteristics of AM metal powders that are decisive factors for the 3D printing process, such as internal porosity, contamination, and satellite feature, remain ambiguous. In this work, we developed a novel approach to 3D quantify key characteristics of AM metal powders down to individual particles by using high-resolution synchrotron x-ray computed tomography. Empowered by the penetrative capability of high-energy x-ray, internal porosity and contamination within as-atomized metal powders from high-entropy alloys to nickel-based superalloys were evaluated. Additionally, the newly-developed dispersion method enables the homogeneous separation of individual particles, and consequently, results in the implementation of 3D particle shape analysis. To resolve a major challenge of identification and quantification of satellite-feature particles in as-atomized AM metal powders, the satellite features were quantitated by modeling and analyzing the shape parameter of local thickness variance. Furthermore, the 3D analytical methods of particle assessment in this study can be applied to other materials systems like rock, food, and pharmaceutical particles, and provide insights for process optimization across powder metallurgy, concrete, food and pharmaceutical manufacturing, and AM industries.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Improvements to the Powder Processing of near-Final Shape alnico Magnets

Alnico permanent magnets (PMs), a recent PM system of interest as an attractive rare earth-free PM alternative, have advantageous high operating temperature and magnetic saturation with the potential for utilization in electric machines, e.g. interior-PM motors found in electric vehicles, if current directional solidification methods can be replaced by a true mass production approach. Recently, two unique alnico compositions, termed Full-Co and Co-lean, with improved coercivity, were gas atomized, compression molded, and vacuum sintered (4h at 1240°C) to high densities of 97.8% and 99.3%, respectively. However, the Co-lean remained fine grained isotropic magnets and the Full-Co grains were not textured, lowering magnetic strength in spite of attempts to grow large textured grains by a stress-biased solid state grain alignment method to convert them to high energy anisotropic magnets. It was hypothesized that oxidation during de-binding in air left many prior particle boundary oxides within the sintered microstructure that hindered grain growth and texturing during the stress-biased texturing procedure and prevented the desired abnormal grain growth (AGG). Here we explored a vacuum de-binding step that was linked (in-place) to vacuum sintering and found that the Co-lean exhibited faster uniform grain growth that doubled the average grain size (40 μm to 80 μm). Linked vacuum de-binding and sintering of Full-Co produced some AGG after only 1 h of 1240°C sintering. A new direction for promoting AGG (and stress-biased texturing) in alnico is being explored that utilizes a fundamental analysis of systems with second phase particles that either inhibit or boost grain growth. This effort explores the influence of vacuum de-binding linked to a series of lower sintering temperatures at a fixed time (4h) to see if oxide particle size and volume fraction can be changed to promote AGG conditions in alnico. Surprising qualitative results indicate that AGG may be promoted for vacuum sintering at less than 1200°C.

Rinko, Emily↗
DOE OSTI2021

Concentric Ring Gas Atomization Die Design for Optimized Particle Production

In partnership with Linde plc (formerly Praxair, Inc.), Ames Laboratory will further develop and commercialize its concentric-ring high pressure gas atomization (CR-HPGA) gas-die technology with a goal to improve the precision of metal powder production in a desired size range and quality. The successful commercialization of this technology could reduce production cost of metal powders and improve reliability of this industrial process, increasing specialty alloy powder availability for new applications and adoption into additive manufacturing and multiple materials sectors. The project scope is to [1] utilize AMES compressible gas flow and melt break-up models to explore a wide swath of parameter space available for the CR-HPGA technology, identifying the most promising gas-die designs for fabrication, [2] verify and optimize the new gas-die design, fabricate it and select preferred operating parameters by gas-only flow imaging and aspiration pressure measurements, down-selecting gas compositions and atomization parameters for full scale testing, [3] perform pilot-scale atomization trials with Al and/or Cu alloys of a new CR-HPGA gas-die at selected parameters, [4] evaluate gas-die performance by comparing resulting powder size distribution and powder quality attributes with equivalent powders made by conventional close-coupled HPGA technology, and [5] assess (through Praxair partnership) reduction in operational costs of new CR-HPGA gas-die through the use of an inert gas recovery/recycling system. In partnership with Praxair, Inc., the team, led by Ames Laboratory senior metallurgist Iver Anderson, intend to demonstrate the performance of an optimized CR-HPGA gas-die design in a pilot scale atomizer and better understand the design and operational controls to increase overall benefits for precision metal powder production.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Instance Segmentation for Direct Measurements of Satellites in Metal Powders and Automated Microstructural Characterization from Image Data

In this work, we propose instance segmentation as a useful tool for image analysis in materials science. Instance segmentation is an advanced technique in computer vision which generates individual segmentation masks for every object of interest that is recognized in an image. Using an out-of-the-box implementation of Mask R-CNN, instance segmentation is applied to images of metal powder particles produced through gas atomization. Leveraging transfer learning allows for the analysis to be conducted with a very small training set of labeled images. As well as providing another method for measuring the particle size distribution, we demonstrate the first direct measurements of the satellite content in powder samples. After analyzing the results for the labeled data dataset, the trained model was used to generate measurements for a much larger set of unlabeled images. The resulting particle size measurements showed reasonable agreement with laser scattering measurements. The satellite measurements were self-consistent and showed good agreement with the expected trends for different samples. Finally, we present a small case study showing how instance segmentation can be used to measure spheroidite content in the UltraHigh Carbon Steel DataBase, demonstrating the flexibility of the technique.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Effects of Solidification Cooling Rates on Microstructures and Physical Properties of Fe-6.5%Si Alloys

Compared to the widely used Fe-3.2wt%Si steel, Fe-6.5wt%Si has superior electric and magnetic properties, including higher electrical resistivity, lower iron loss, higher permeability, and near zero magnetostriction. However, Fe-6.5wt%Si sheet is difficult to produce using traditional manufacturing processes as the high silicon content favors the formation of ordered phases that embrittle the material. Fortunately, these ordered phases can be suppressed if the alloy is cooled fast enough from a high temperature kinetically trapping the disordered solid solution or amorphous state. Planar flow casting is known for its rapid solidification rate. In order to consider it as a viable method to manufacture ductile Fe-6.5wt%Si sheets, the effect of cooling rate on physical properties of Fe-6.5wt%Si alloy are systematically investigated. In this work, various cooling rates are achieved by changing melt-spin wheel speeds, which significantly affect the solidification temperature profile and have profound effects on ordering, microstructures, textures, hardness, and magnetic properties. High cooling rates result in refined grains, reduced ordering, enhanced <100> out of the plane texture, decreased hardness, and increased coercivity. This study demonstrates a critical cooling rate at ~1.7 × 10 5 K/s, corresponding to a tangential wheel speed of 5-7 m/s, below which the hardness significantly increases in agreement with the sudden increase of the ordered phases that causes the material embrittlement.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Electrification Annual Progress Report (FY2019)

During fiscal year 2019 (FY 2019), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) funded early stage research & development (R&D) projects that address Batteries and Electrification of the U.S. transportation sector. The VTO Electrification Sub-Program is composed of Electric Drive Technologies, and Grid Integration activities. The Electric Drive Technologies group conducts R&D projects that advance electric motors and power electronics technologies. The Grid and Charging Infrastructure group conducts R&D projects that advance grid modernization and electric vehicle charging technologies. This document presents a brief overview of the Electrification Sub-Program and progress reports for its R&D projects. Each of the progress reports provide a project overview and highlights of the technical results that were accomplished in FY 2019.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Gas Jet Nozzles

The attached drawings and data points describe gas jet nozzles specific to the gas atomization system owned by the Ames Laboratory. This information is used for custom manufacture of these parts.

Anderson, Iver↗
DOE OSTI2019

Manufacturing of Advanced Alnico Magnets for Energy Efficient Traction Drive Motors CRADA Final Report

The primary theme of this Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) project was refining the pre-alloyed powder processing approach (with alnico 8, modified for higher coercivity) of that came out of the previous Development of Radically Enhanced alnico Magnets (DREaM) project to permit full size net-shape alnico magnets to be produced in a reproducible manner that could allow testing in an advanced Permanent Magnet (PM) drive motor. Previously, a lack of sufficient coercivity in alnico magnets limits their energy product and their application in automotive traction drive motors, despite their high temperature stability. Use of enhanced sintered alnico magnets, instead of rare earth (RE) magnets or larger cast alnico magnets, could lower costs and decrease cooling needs of these motors. Conventional production of the best (aligned) alnico magnets (alnico 9) involves costly directional solidification (DS) and achieves good alignment, but modest energy product (10 MGOe), because of low coercivity. Other limitations of cast alnico 9 magnets are poor mechanical properties and difficulty in scaling special casting molds to mass production. In spite of these problems with alnico 9, a commercial electric motor company, UQM, developed a fully capable traction drive motor that met many 2022 DOE-VTO performance targets, except full speed operation, due to brittle mechanical behavior. While UQM demonstrated an advanced drive motor that used alnico 9, they also encouraged the development of improved alnico, especially for greater coercivity (seeking 2X) and improved mechanical properties. While commercial sintered alnico magnets are less brittle and have improved coercivity, they have an inferior energy product due to their non-aligned, fine-grained microstructure. Thus, full development and up-scaling of well-aligned alnico magnets with a further increase in coercivity and good mechanical properties by a low cost powder processing route became the theme of this TCF project. The processing route for this project involved high-pressure gas atomization, at Ames and Carpenter, of modified alnico 8 compositions, compression molding of the resulting pre-alloyed powders into bulk samples, de-binding and sintering the samples to full density, and a final magneto-thermal treatment of the resulting bulk magnets, at Ames and Arnold Magnetic Technologies, to produce aligned magnets, which were intended for motor testing at UQM and Ford.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Processing of Alnico Magnets by Additive Manufacturing

Permanent magnets without rare earth (RE) elements, such as alnico, will improve supply stability and potentially decrease permanent magnet cost, especially for traction drive motors and other increased temperature applications. Commercial alnico magnets with the highest energy product are produced by directional solidification (DS) to achieve a < 001 > columnar grain orientation followed by significant final machining, adding to the high cost. Additive manufacturing (AM) is an effective method to process near net-shape parts with minimal final machining of complex geometries. AM also, has potential for texture/grain orientation control and compositionally graded structures. This report describes fabrication of alnico magnets by AM using both laser engineered net shaping (LENS)/directed energy deposition (DED) and electron beam melting powder bed fusion (EBM/PBF). High pressure gas atomized (HPGA) pre-alloyed alnico powders, with high purity and sphericity, were built into cylindrical and rectangular samples, followed by magnetic annealing (MA) and a full heat treatment (FHT). The magnetic properties of these AM processed specimens were different from their cast and sintered counterparts of the same composition and show a great sensitivity to heat treatment. The AM process parameters used in this developmental study did not yet result in any preferred texture within the alnico AM builds. These findings demonstrate feasibility for near net-shape processing of alnico permanent magnets for use in next generation traction drive motors and other applications requiring increased operating temperatures and/or complex engineered part geometries, especially with further AM process development for texture control.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Mechanical and Corrosion Properties of Additively Manufactured CoCrFeMnNi High Entropy Alloy

Here, this study investigates the mechanical and corrosion properties of as-built and annealed equiatomic CoCrFeMnNi alloy produced by laser-based directed energy deposition (DED) Additive Manufacturing (AM). The high cooling rates of DED produced a single-phase, cellular microstructure with cells on the order of 4 μm in diameter and inter-cellular regions that were enriched in Mn and Ni. Annealing created a chemically homogeneous recrystallized microstructure with a high density of annealing twins. The average yield strength of the as-built condition was 424 MPa and exceeded the annealed condition (232 MPa), however; the strain hardening rate was lower for the as-built material stemming from higher dislocation density associated with DED parts and the fine cell size. In general, the yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation-to-failure for the as-built material exceeded values from previous studies that explored other AM techniques to produce the CoCrFeMnNi alloy. Ductile fracture occurred for all specimens with dimple initiation associated with nanoscale oxide inclusions. The breakdown potential (onset of pitting corrosion) was similar for the as-built and annealed conditions at 0.40 V Ag/AgCl when immersed in 0.6 M NaCl. Pit morphology/propagation for the as-built condition exhibited preferential corrosion of inter-cellular Ni/Mn regions leading to a tortuous pit bottom and cover, while the annealed conditions pits resembled lacy pits similar to 304 L steel. Lastly, a passive oxide film depleted in Cr cations with substantial incorporation of Mn cations is proposed as the primary mechanism for local corrosion susceptibility of the CoCrFeMnNi alloy.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Investigation of Powder Processing, Heat Treating, and Texturing to Improve Gas Atomized alnico Magnets for use in Electric Drive Motors

Alnico permanent magnet materials have been proposed as a rare earth free permanent magnet alternative during an ongoing search to replace rare earth permanent magnets that are used for interior permanent magnet motors, a common motor found in electric vehicles. A powder processing approach was used to study two alnico alloys (Full-Co and lower cost Co-Lean, both with enhanced coercivity) to anticipate high volume manufacturing needed to supply millions of permanent magnets to interior permanent magnet motors. In this study the two alloys were gas atomized, compression molded, and solid-state sintered to fabricate near-final shape alnico magnets. The Full-Co displayed abnormal grain growth (resulting in >1 mm size grains) during sintering while the Co-Lean did not (~20 μm – 400 μm sized grains depending on the sintering hold times). Solid state grain alignment was used to promote a <001> textured (easy axis) microstructure to enhance magnetic properties, yet both alloys did not show predicted grain alignment behavior. Comparisons of the powder processing, microstructures, and magnetic properties of the two alloys will be discussed, as well as an evaluation as to why non-theoretical processing behavior of the Full-Co and Co-Lean alnico permanent magnets is occurring. Preliminary interior permanent magnet motor designs for alnico magnets are discussed, as this is the overarching objective for powder-based alnico permanent magnets.

Rinko, Emily↗
DOE OSTI2018

Liquid-Phase Diffusion Bonding and the Development of a Cu-Ni/Sn Composite Solder Paste for High Temperature Lead-Free Electrical Connections

The work performed in this project has generally consisted of research to design and experimentally prototype a Pb–free composite solder paste that is capable of use at high temperatures (150°C and up to 400 °C) while maintaining the acceptable electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties of a typical soldering material (particularly Pb–5wt.%Sn), even over long–term aging and thermal cycling. The research experiments completed have thoroughly investigated the requirements needed to transform the concept of using liquid–phase diffusion–bonding (LPDB) on a Cu–Ni/Sn–based alloy composite solder paste for use in die attach joining as a real and tangible product for use in industry.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Texture development and coercivity enhancement in cast alnico 9 magnets

The effect of Y addition and magnetic field on texture and magnetic properties of arc-melted alnico 9 magnets has been investigated. Small additions of Y (1.5 wt.%) develop a (200) texture for the arc-melted alnico 9 magnet. Such a texture is hard to form in cast samples. To achieve this goal, we set up a high-field annealing system with a maximum operation temperature of 1250 °C. This system enabled annealing in a field of 45 kOe with subsequent draw annealing for the solutionized buttons; we have been able to substantially increase remanence ratio and coercivity, from 0.70 and 1200 Oe for the Y-free alnico 9 to 0.90 and 1400 Oe for the Y-doped alnico 9, respectively. A high energy product of 7.3 MGOe has been achieved for the fully heat-treated Y-doped alnico 9. The enhancement of coercivity is believed to arise from the introduction of magnetocrystalline anisotropy from 80 nm Y 2 Co 17 -type grains, which are exchange-coupled to the main-phase alnico rods.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗