FP7 is the natural successor to FP6, but is both larger and more comprehensive. A budget of E53.2b over its seven-year lifespan is the largest allocation yet for any such programme.
Energy proposals
As International Energy Solutions was going to press, the importance of energy considerations was being highlighted with the launch of a call by the European Commission (EC) for proposals under its FP7 ‘energy’ theme. With a budget of E147m, the key areas of interest identified by the EC are:
n Renewable electricity generation.
n Renewable fuel production.
n Clean coal technologies and activity energy.
n Smart energy networks.
n Energy efficiency and savings.
n High efficiency poly-generation.
The deadline for submitting proposal documents is 8th October.
However, as the EC was making its latest call, results were beginning to emerge from a multi-million Euro FP6 project that could have a significant impact on energy transfer and recovery technologies.
Custom-Fit is an industry led project with the aim of creating a fully integrated system for the design, production and supply of individualised products using rapid manufacturing technologies. It has developed a high-speed metal printing process (MPP) for the production of metal products with functionally graded materials.
One objective of the project is to develop new production systems based on additive manufacturing technology for the manufacturing of customised products. The MPP is one of the processes developed under the project by the Norwegian research institute Sintef, the largest independent research organisation in Scandinavia with over 2000 employees. Every year it supports the development of 2000 or so Norwegian and overseas companies via its R&D activities.
MPP aims to become the equivalent of a high-speed 3D-printer that produces
three-dimensional, solid metal, freeform objects directly from powder materials. This technique is based on the process principles of xerographic printers – such as for example laser -or LED- printers – and the proven technology of conventional powder metallurgy.
The MPP process approach uses the same fundamental principles to build solid objects on a layer-by-layer basis. Layers of powder materials are generated by attracting different metal- and/or ceramic powders to their respective position on a charged pattern on a photoreceptor by means of an electrostatic field.
The attracted layer is transferred to a punch and transported to the consolidation unit where each layer of part material is sintered onto the previous by pressure and heat. The procedure is repeated layer-by-layer until the 3D object is fully formed and consolidated.
MPP has the ability to print different powders within the same layer and progressively change from one material to another – producing a functionally graded material.
In addition to this, MPP has been developed to work with any commercially available powders. This ability to fabricate products with a wide range of materials incorporated opens the possibility to produce unique material combinations and microstructures.
This new technology opens up a whole new world for producing metal products with better mechanical structure, for example heat exchangers.
Roald Karlsen, senior scientist in Sintef who is heading the development of MPP, says, “The areas of application are only limited by our imagination. When the technology is fully available new applications and needs will arise.“
Surface re-engineering
Meanwhile, researchers in the US are also taking a novel approach to heat management.
A team led by a University of Michigan mechanical engineer has received a five-year, US$6.8m grant from the US Air Force to examine this problem, which is a barrier to more powerful, efficient devices.
Led by Kevin Pipe, an assistant professor in the department of mechanical Engineering, the team has received a multidisciplinary university research initiative (MURI) award from the Air Force office of scientific research. The research group includes nine scientists and engineers from three universities, including Brown University and the University of California (UC) at Santa Cruz.
“The processes by which heat is transferred at interfaces between different materials are poorly understood,” Pipe said. “But in many systems, the ability to either efficiently transfer or block heat flow from one material to another is critically important to performance and reliability.”
Inefficient heat flow is a main roadblock in the development high power components, while blocking heat exchange can dramatically improve the efficiency of thermoelectric energy conversion for compact power sources.
Pipe’s group will use ultrafast lasers in a special X-ray technique developed by David Reis, a team member and associate professor in physics at the university. The technique allows researchers to actually watch the vibrations of the atoms that carry heat energy across an interface.
Using nanotechnology, Pipe and his colleagues will reengineer the surfaces of materials to regulate the flow of heat. In addition to Pipe, the U-M team includes materials science and engineering professors Rachel Goldman and John Kieffer, and assistant professor Max Shtein, as well as physics professor Roberto Merlin and associate professor David Reis. Other members of the team include physics professor Humphrey Maris and engineering professor Arto Nurmikko of Brown University and electrical engineering associate professor Ali Shakouri of UC Santa Cruz.
The Air Force MURI programme is designed to focus on large multidisciplinary topic areas that intersect more than one traditional discipline, bringing together scientist and engineer with different backgrounds to accelerate both basic research and transition to application.
