Ames
Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa Ames
Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa
For release: Dec. 17, 1997
Contact: Larry
Jones, (515) 294-5236
Susan Dieterle, (515)
294-1405
AMES, Iowa -- If the scientific world were a theater, Larry Jones would be a stagehand. And he’s content working behind the scenes.
Jones is the director of the Ames Laboratory’s Materials Preparation Center -- a facility with a national reputation for producing high-purity metals and alloys for researchers investigating new uses for the compounds. If that research results in a revolutionary product, like faster computer chips or new medical technology, Jones and his staff take pride in their critical role in the overall effort.
"Our work enables technology to move forward faster than it would have otherwise, and we get a lot of satisfaction from playing a part in the process," Jones says.
The Materials Preparation Center (MPC) can prepare, purify, fabricate and characterize more than half of the planet’s naturally occurring metals. That means the MPC staff can develop a custom material; analyze its characteristics; and give it to the client in the form desired -- whether that entails growing it as a single crystal, crushing it into a powder, flattening it into thin metal sheets or casting it into solid bars.
While many large corporations have similar capabilities in their own research areas, the MPC is one of the few facilities worldwide that makes these kinds of services available to anyone -- from graduate students to private companies.
"What makes us unique is that we’re willing to try to make just about any kind of metallic material," says Jones, the MPC’s director since June 1993.
And if researchers didn’t have access to small quantities of high-grade materials, they couldn’t make crucial measurements and tests that would enable their work to move forward. Without pure uranium, for example, scientists wouldn’t have been able to develop atomic power.
The MPC was established in 1981 as an outgrowth of work at the Ames Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facility operated by Iowa State University (ISU). Technicians at the Ames Lab became adept at preparing high-purity metals and materials for research. As other researchers around the country began asking the Lab to prepare similar materials for them, it became apparent that a small market wasn’t being served.
"It’s a niche area," Jones says. "It’s not that industry couldn’t do it; it’s just that there usually isn’t a big enough market for them to produce a few pounds of a custom material."
Dr. Eric Gregory, manager of research and development for the advanced superconductors section of Intermagnetics General Corp. in Connecticut, can attest to that.
Gregory says researchers have few places to turn when they need small quantities of materials for testing. "If you’re not willing to place an order for at least 10,000 pounds of the material, (industry vendors) don’t even want to talk to you," he says.
He has used the MPC frequently over the years to melt alloys that are difficult to get melted anywhere else. "The big plus for the MPC is that they’re very flexible and Larry’s prepared to experiment," Gregory says.
Joe Paulus, who oversees research and development for a medical research company in Iowa, began working with the MPC while in graduate school at the University of Iowa. He says the MPC’s ability to provide high-grade materials in a relatively short time is invaluable.
Paulus can usually get materials from the MPC within a few weeks. When he once tried to get similar materials from a company on the East Coast, "it took six months, and the material was garbage because it wasn’t pure enough," he says.
Jones finds it somewhat daunting to be "the last hope" for researchers in search of exotic materials. "On one hand, it’s gratifying to know that you’ve made something that no other place could make," he says. "But if you can’t make it, you feel like you’re holding science back."
Fortunately for Jones, his staff doesn’t fail very often.
Removing impurities from materials is a painstaking process that can be as difficult as "separating Siamese twins," Jones says. "Sometimes we’re dealing with ‘sister’ elements in a material, and they like to be together. Separating the two of them can be extremely laborious and expensive."
The cost of the materials, which ranges from a few hundred dollars to several thousand, can be a prohibitive factor for some researchers. "Our work is very specialized, so the application has to warrant the cost of it. If the purity of the metal doesn’t make that much of a difference, they won’t come to us," Jones says.
Once the MPC staff has produced a sample, they send it to the client for testing. "The client is in the best position to tell us if we’ve gotten it pure enough because they’ve usually got a particular test they’re doing," Jones says. What’s more, he often doesn’t know what his clients plan to do with the material. Researchers generally prefer to keep their lips sealed until their work is finished, so Jones is given minimal information.
"They’ll usually come to us and say, ‘I need a certain amount of X and I don’t want any Y in it, and I want it in this certain form. Can you help me?’," Jones says. "We’re used to working blind."
After the sample has been approved, it’s essential that the MPC staff be able to replicate their efforts. "Sometimes it’s difficult to go back and reproduce what you made the first time," Jones says. "But our technicians are very good at doing consistent work. They know the slightest change in their procedures can have a major impact on the material they produce. It could certainly lead researchers down the wrong path if they didn’t have the exact same material this time that they had last time."
The MPC is a self-supporting facility that generates about $1.5 million a year in income. For the last three years, the MPC has also received an annual appropriation of more than $900,000 through the DOE to help cover the costs of replacing and updating equipment. Jones says the appropriation has been a godsend.
Ames Laboratory is operated for the DOE by ISU. The Lab conducts research into various areas of national concern, including energy resources, high-speed computer design, environmental cleanup and restoration, and the synthesis and study of new materials.
Last revision: 4/17/98 sd
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