Making Better Billets
Before the plasma arc lamp was installed at ORNL, Craig Blue developed an infrared heater containing tungsten halogen lamps. He showed Komtek, Inc., of Massachusetts that this technology could extend the life of dies used to make artificial joints, such as hips and knees. Now, Komtek researchers and Blue are experimenting with using the device for rapid heating of aluminum billets—extruded bars of aluminum—before they are forged into parts that will experience high-cycle fatigue.
“We found that we can process the billets in five minutes, compared with the several hours now required using conventional heating, thus saving time, energy, and money,” Blue says. “We can decrease the grain size in forged parts, making them less likely to experience fatigue failure from cyclic loading than conventionally processed billets.”
 Beginning
of Article
|
