Pick one of the projects. There will be three students/group. Research, brainstorming, and problem solving will be group activities, but each student should submit his own versions of the written work. Each student will make his own individual oral presentations.
Projects
1. Roping in Ferritic Stainless Steels
Flat-rolled ferritic stainless steels (type 400s) are used widely in the automotive and appliance industries. They are prone to a defect called roping. Roping, or ridging, is a shape defect which is caused during a drawing operation. Roping is possibly caused by the texture of the material from casting, and the texture can be manipulated through hot and cold processing. The project: can roping be controlled or minimized through chemistry and hot/cold processing? Target grades: T409, T439, T436, T441.
2. Formability of T409 stainless steel
Type 409 flat-rolled ferritic stainless steel is used widely in the automotive industry for emission control systems. In today's automotive production environment, it is important that T409 can be used to form complex parts such as expanded tubes, connectors, and deep drawn catalytic converter heat shield and muffler caps. Currently, our sister company in Brazil, makes a superior T409 product as far as mechanical properties and roping are concerned. The project: how do the chemistry, refining steps, and hot rolling process influence the formability and affect roping defects.
3. Localized Quench Strain Marks on Ferritic Stainless Steel
Flat-rolled ferritic stainless steels (type 400s) are used widely in the casket industry. They are prone to a defect called strain-yield point elongation, or Luders bands. This localized strain defect is an aesthetic defect which can be induced when quenching the material after the annealing process. Localized strain looks like small xxx's that can be seen through thickness and can not be ground out. The project: can strain be controlled or minimized through quenching modifications, or chemistry and hot rolling? Target grades: T409, T439, T441.
4. Surface Evaluation on Bright Annealed Stainless Steels
Flat-rolled austenitic and ferritic stainless steels (types 300s and 400s) with a bright annealed mirror finish are used widely in the automotive and appliance industries. There is no qualitative method of rating surface quality. Currently, the surface is inspected visually, and with a perthometer, which uses a stylus that measures surface roughness. The project: are there any other inexpensive techniques that can be used to define the surface quality? Target grades: T304, T434, T430.
5. High Speed Steels by Powder Metallurgy
BACKGROUND
You and your teammates work for Nittany Powder Products, a division of Nittany Specialty Alloys, in the R&D laboratory. Your company's primary product is high-speed steel (HSS) bar and plate that is produced via powder metallurgy (PM). Your current manufacturing route is to air induction melt and atomize using N2 gas. The loose powder is collected and screened to 100 mesh. The screened powder is then placed in mild C-steel cans. Lids are welded on the top and the cans are evacuated and degassed at 250F. Following the outgassing operation, the cans are shipped to Bodycote IMT in Andover, MA, for consolidation via hot isostatic pressing (HIP). The as-HIP'd cans are returned from your converter and then manufactured into long bar and plate product using the hot-working and finishing facilities of your parent company, Nittany Specialty Alloys. Your product is sold directly to your customer base using your own sales and distribution force, as well as distributors in regions where you do not have a presence.
PROBLEM
Your sales staff has been receiving feedback from your customers of problems with your PM HSS product. Specifically, the reports center on toughness issues with the material. As usual, the reports indicate that your competitors (Wolverine Metals and Buckeye Alloys) do not have this problem. Customers that purchase plate product and remove parts via wire electro-discharge machine (EDM) have indicated that your product must be cut at slower feeds and speeds compared to the competitors' material. There is also a much higher incidence of wire breaks with your product compared to your competitors' products. All of these issues result in reduced manufacturing efficiencies for your customers and ultimately in reduced sales for your product.
Your company has a goal to double its PM HSS sales over the next 3 years; however, the above referenced problem is viewed as an impediment to this corporate goal. You and your team have been charged with the task to understand what is causing the EDM machining problems with your product and to propose a solution that will allow Nittany Powder Products to overcome this technical obstacle and insure that the corporate sales goal is met. In addition, your team must develop a method to quantitatively monitor the process to assess the quality level of material once the root cause of the problem is identified. Any such testing or methodology should be incorporated into the process as early as possible, in order to minimize the impact of non-compliant material.
6. Hip Prosthesis Materials and Processing
BACKGROUND
You and your teammates are Product Development Engineers working in the R&D laboratory for Happy Valley Medical Products. Your company's primary product line is surgical needle wire and catheter packages. Sales for the past 2 years have been relatively flat. Your CEO, with the approval of the Board of Directors, has decided that it is time to offer a more diversified line of medical products. Market research has indicated that prosthetics for implant applications is growing at an annualized rate of 25% per year, and this trend is expected to continue as a result of the world's aging, but highly active population.
PROBLEM
Happy Valley Medical Products new line of prosthetic implants will focus on joints, and your team has been charged with developing the implementation plan for hip joint implants. The primary requirement for this new product line is a completely finished product that is ready for implantation in the human body. You will need to consider the material to use, the method of primary manufacture and any necessary secondary finishing operations. Your CEO has given you free reign with regard to choosing materials and processing as long as the product is competitively priced. You will need to consider the following materials-related issues (1) bio-compatibility, (2) mechanical property performance (i.e., strength, ductility, toughness and fatigue) and (3) ease of fabricability. In addition, you will need to determine method of manufacture. Your options include, but are not limited to, (1) 100% machining from a long-bar product, (2) machining of forgings produced from long bar product and (3) near-net-shape P/M processes. Part of your charge will be to work with your vendors to establish specification limits for all stages of manufacture.
7. Advanced Combat Mobility Concepts
This project involves a literature search, documentation of concepts (perhaps some ProE modeling) and tying in to an ongoing program (CVM).
8. Characterization of material flow around different Friction-stir Welding Pin tools
This project involves a detailed literature search, understanding material flow descriptions, and relating them to features on tools.
9. Heat Treatment of Titanium Alloy Forgings
Conduct a literature search of the various heat treatments used for titanium forgings to optimize the yield strength, ductility, and ballistic performance. The heat treatment concepts are to be applied to produce a microstructure that should yield balanced mechanical properties to reduce the spalling of titanium forgings during ballistic impact.
10. Heat Treatment of Titanium Alloy Castings
Conduct a literature search on the various heat treatments of investment cast and rammed graphite titanium castings to improve the yield strength, fracture toughness and ductility. Apply phase transformation principles to produce a cast microstructure with a reduced amount of intergranular primary alpha and a fine alpha-beta microstructure with balanced mechanical properties for aerospace applications.
11. Surface Modification of Magnesium Alloys for Wear and Corrosion Resistance
Investigate the various surface modification processes used to modify the surface of magnesium alloys used in aerospace applications, specifically, applied surface modification/coating technologies to modify the surface of magnesium alloy ZE41A.
12. Friction Stir Welding Process
Investigate all possible metallurgical phenomena involved during the friction stir welding process of aluminum alloys. This includes, metal behavior during deformation (stirring), interaction of tool material(s)/metal alloy, effect of the thermomechanical process on the microstructure of the material welded. Apply metallurgical concepts to develop tools and possible processing routes to friction stir weld low alloy high strength steels such as HSLA-100.
13. Shot Peening Effects and Residual Stress Measurement in Ti Alloys
In recent years, we have made many more critical components from titanium alloys to use on military rotorcraft platforms such as the RAH-66 and V-22. Traditionally, similar components have been fabricated from HSLA (high strength low alloy) steels that are shot peened to increase fatigue life, a critical design characteristic for rotorcraft components. Current coupon testing, along with industry reports, indicate that: 1) shot peening titanium alloys may decrease fatigue life, and 2) traditional x-ray diffraction techniques to measure residual stress surface profiles yield invalid results because of large grains characteristic of the surface of titanium parts (surface texture).
We are currently making efforts to 1) understand the technical reasons for our apparently invalid resiual stress data (there may be effects other than surface texture), 2) determine how (what method) to measure residual stresses on shot peened titanium (6Al-4V and 10-2-3 alloys), and 3) know how shot peening affects fatigue life of titanium alloys.