Process Engineering
This special field revolves around processes for modifying material properties (milling, cooling), composition (filtration, distillation) and type (oxidation, hydration).
Valuable information is available on a broad range of technologies including material separation, laser processes, measuring techniques and robot engineering in addition to testing methods and coating and materials analysis processes.
New technique has earthquake resistance all wrapped up
Highway columns of glass or carbon fibre help structures meet and exceed building code requirements
Just how trustworthy are disintegrating columns that bulge and expose bent, rusting steel on elevated highways? “They are sitting ducks that, in an earthquake, could crumble,” says Professor Shamim Sheikh of U of T’s Department of Civil Engineering. His team has devised a strong, cost-effective method of structural reinforcement that is already proving its worth on highways and ot
Future advances of 20,000-year-old coatings technology detailed in upcoming Science magazine
DuPont scientist identifies key issues in future coatings technology
Dr. Robert R. Matheson, Jr., one of the world’s foremost scientists on coatings – one of the oldest technologies known to humans – will have his scientific paper “20th- to 21st-Century Technological Challenges in Soft Coatings” featured in the upcoming edition of SCIENCE magazine.
As part of the Aug. 9 edition of SCIENCE, Dr. Matheson, a DuPont senior scientist, details the future of technological adva
`Artificial vision` for recycling copper
The technological centre Robotiker from Zamudio (Basque Country) has developed a system of artificial sight to separate metals that come with copper, in order to obtain high purity copper.
To recover copper from old cables it is not something new. However, the recycled copper is not pure, because it is mixed with other metals, such as lead, aluminium and tin. It is quite complicated to separate copper from those components by using mechanical, physical and other methods. Nevertheless it is
Atomic anchors to quicken computer boot-up
Simple method may improve catalysts, nanodevices
A way to help next-generation computers boot up instantly, making entire memories immediately available for use, has been developed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
The patented technique is able to deposit flat, ultrathin metallic layers on very thin oxide layers. The thinness of the deposition reduces material cost and requires less electricity to produce more rapid mag
No More Slaving Away Behind The Ironing Board
Ironing must surely be one of the most dreaded household activities. Local entrepreneur Jonathan Nwabueze from Guildford, got so fed up with ironing and being delayed in the morning because of last minute ironing that he invented an iron that works without the need for a board.
His invention, featured on Tomorrow’s World on 24 July 2002, takes the drudgery out of ironing by using a heated vacuum to remove the creases from clothes. The 30-year old entrepreneur said “it can even smooth out wri
NC State’s New Molecular Template Makes a Virtue of Variation
Why would an uneven coating of gold on a silica surface excite any interest, much less earn cover-story honors in a respected scientific journal?
This uneven coating – nanoparticles of gold in a layer that changes from very dense to very sparse across a surface of selected molecules – will allow improvements in a wide range of processes and devices. And it’s the decreasing concentration of the coating and overlaying particles, the designed-in gradient, that has chemical engineers and ph