Powdermet, Inc. NanoMatters - July 2011
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July 2011 NanoMatters
July 2011: VOLUME 1, ISSUE 7
In this issue:
Powdermet Celebrates 15th Anniversary
Powdermet’s EnComP™ Energetic Composites
Powdermet Spinoff MesoCoat Wins 2011 R&D 100 Award!
Powdermet Celebrates 15th Anniversary
Who we are...
The core of Powdermet
technology is a hierarchically
structured nanocomposites
building block platform.
Powdermet’s technology is
based on the design and
production of engineered
particle building blocks that
incorporate nano-, micro-, and
meso-scale structural features
engineered into safe, free
flowing particle delivery system.
What we do...
2011 marks 15 years of rapid progress for Powdermet. Confident that our
advanced technologies would be recognized for their unsurpassed
capabilities, we ventured into partnerships with corporations Kennametal, Inc.
and Abakan, Inc., while having our products validated through contracts with
NASA, the U.S. Armed Forces, the Department of Defense, the Department of
Energy, and the National Science Foundation.
These engineered particles
incorporate metals, ceramics,
and polymers with compositions
and phase distributions
engineered and controlled on
three length scales
simultaneously.
How we do it...
The past 15 years have been nothing
but growth for our 20+ person firm. It
was founded by Andrew Sherman, the
inventor of the R&D 100 award-winning
“Fast Fluidized Bed Chemical Vapor
Deposition (FFBCVD)” process that
enables the production of metal-coated
fine powders. Mr. Sherman purchased
this technology from Ultramet in 1996
in the startup of Powdermet as a spinoff of Ultramet.
Powdermet started in a Los Angeles warehouse with the grand idea of
building the revolutionary performance of coated nanoparticles into functional,
low-cost “building blocks” that could be converted into real-world components
via current manufacturing processes.
http://powdermetinc.com/nanomatters/powdermet-July-2011.html
Using advanced powder
metallurgy and polymer
fabrication techniques, these
engineered building blocks are
turned into components with
exceptional levels of
performance and value, solving
some of the toughest materials
challenges.
Core technical
competencies...
Powdermet’s core technical
competencies include particle
size reduction and
agglomeration, spray drying,
mechanical alloying, fluidized
bed processing, particle
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Powdermet, Inc. NanoMatters - July 2011
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encapsulation, chemical vapor
deposition, and much more! To
see more of what we can do,
visit our website at
www.powdermetinc.com.
Contact Us
Powdermet Inc. is located in
Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of
Cleveland. Our address is:
24112 Rockwell Drive
Euclid , Ohio 44117
Tel: 216-404-0053
In 2003, after six years in California, Powdermet relocated and expanded into
its new 54,000 square foot production plant in Euclid, Ohio, acquiring and
renovating it from a former brownfield industrial site. We opened our Stage I
nanoengineered powder production facility with the assistance of a brownfield
redevelopment loan from the county. The Euclid plant has the capability to
produce two to three million pounds of powder per year.
Brian Doud,
General Manager
[email protected]
James Chew,
VP Business Development
[email protected]
In 2007, Powdermet opened its 24,000 square foot Nanomaterials Research
and Manufacturing Center, containing research facilities for thermal analysis,
mechanical testing, and a coating wear and performance testing laboratory.
The entire Powdermet campus includes an 18,000 sq. ft. high bay
manufacturing building, and a 36,000 sq. ft., three-floor R&D Center with over
26 individual labs. These labs focus on a variety of technologies, including
high-temperature thermal analysis and XRD; furnace development and
sintering; foam processing; and refractory metals development. A coating
development/thermal spray laboratory is currently being installed. The facility
also includes ten R&D, pilot, and commercial-scale reactors for producing up
to 100,000 pounds/year of nanoengineered particulates.
Today, Powdermet is a nationally recognized nanotechnology and advanced
materials research and development organization. We develop, mature, and
transition breakthrough materials innovations that enable reduced weight,
resource consumption, environmental footprint, and life-cycle costs.
Powdermet’s three revolutionary technology platforms include:
•
SComP™; family of hierarchically structured syntactic metal and
ceramic composites known for their light weight properties and ability
to absorb energy, and (in the ceramic versions), their high temperature
structural and insulation values.
•
MComP™; a family of micro-nanocomposite, hierarchically structured
metal composites having extremely high strength-to-weight ratios while
retaining high toughness.
•
EnComP™; hierarchically structured nanocomposites for energy
applications, including advanced materials for hydrogen production and
storage; high surface area structures for fuel cells, hydrogen
production membranes, and advanced filtration; and reactive materials
solutions for improved active defense systems to protect U.S. military
personnel.
http://powdermetinc.com/nanomatters/powdermet-July-2011.html
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Powdermet, Inc. NanoMatters - July 2011
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Powdermet’s EnComP™ Energetic Composites
Energetic composites are a class of
materials that engineer the storage and
release of energy. Called EnComP™, they
are designed to release high amounts of
stored energy, or change the rate that
energy is released, or increase or
decrease the sensitivity of a compound to
shock and impact.
Despite the wide range of potential markets, use of energetic materials is
often limited by safety concerns associated with material sensitivity and longterm storage. Powdermet has addressed these concerns by developing
methods to coat reactive materials with non-reactive materials, and vice
versa. Furthermore, our processing methods allow us to tailor EnComP
functionality by choosing the appropriate formulation and coating, as well as
by adjusting/controlling the energy release rate, burn time, and burn
temperature.
Variations of these energetic composites include propellants, nanothermites,
explosives, thermobarics, materials for hydrogen storage, battery annodes
and cathodes, fuel cell components, and pyrotechnic compositions.
Further projects involving energetic materials that Powdermet is pursuing are
chemical storage of hydrogen in a liquid, improved insensitive munitions, and
improved bi-spectral obscurants.
Contact Brian Doud, General Manager for more information on this
exciting product line.
Powdermet Spinoff MesoCoat
Wins 2011 R&D 100 Award!
MesoCoat won for its CermaClad™ coating
technology, and no wonder! CermaClad
metal/ceramic powder is applied 15 to 100 times
faster than competitive weld or laser cladding
processes, is cheaper, and offers better
metallurgical properties. It provides excellent
resistance to corrosion, wear, and erosion, and
serves as a direct replacement for hard chrome
plating.
How it works is the reason: CermaClad™ utilizes a high-intensity light source
to rapidly fuse corrosion and wear-resistant metal and ceramic powders onto
steel pipes, plates, and bars.
To speed commercialization of the technology, this past April, MesoCoat
began construction of a new 11,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant at its site in
Euclid, with completion expected by September. This facility will have a
CermaClad™ line set up to produce about 10,000 square meters of clad
tubes, pipes, and plates. It also includes state-of-the-art equipment for
blasting, application, and testing.
For more information, contact Mario Medanic, MesoCoat General
Manager, CermaClad™ at [email protected].
http://powdermetinc.com/nanomatters/powdermet-July-2011.html
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