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Steve Roy Release: 98-194 |
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Marshall Gets New Facility To Process Melted Metals in Mid-Air |
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A new lab tool doesn't exactly defy gravity, but researchers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., think it's the next best thing. Donated by Space Systems Loral in Palo Alto, California, this "no-touch" or containerless processing facility, called the Electrostatic Levitator, was recently given to the Marshall Center's Microgravity Research Program. Using static electricity to levitate molten metals, this new tool melts and measures the thermal and physical properties of metal alloys without their touching anything that could contaminate the mixture. The new metals levitator will help materials researchers determine how atoms are arranged in molten mixtures and may lead to discoveries of new, stronger, lighter alloys and metallic-electronic crystals with never-seen-before properties. "With the Electrostatic Levitator we can study a broad range of materials," said project manager Dr. Jan Rogers of Marshall's Space Sciences Laboratory. "By using the electrical forces of opposites attract and like charges repel, we can levitate, process and test a melted sample for several hours." Containerless processing -- when a mixture is suspended and manipulated without contacting another surface -- is important to researchers because the purity of the mixture can be spoiled if the melted material touches a container wall. "The levitator provides important thermophysical property measurements," said Rogers. "By using hands-off measurements, we get an unhindered look at the effects different processing temperatures have on experiment samples. The internal structure of materials -- like metals, alloys, oxides and semiconductors -- are greatly influenced by heating and cooling rates. The levitator is helping us learn what structures and what unique material capabilities may result from manipulating various metal-alloy samples." Having the Electrostatic Levitator at Marshall will complement the materials science research which scientists like Rogers do in space. Although experiment samples in the levitator are processed without touching anything for several hours at a time, they are still under the effects of gravity. And gravity can cause "flows" inside the melted mixtures to sink or settle to the bottom, oftentimes hiding what researchers seek to observe. However, researchers think use of this new levitation tool on the ground will help them better understand the behavior and structure of solidifying metal and may provide some insight into which experiments will be most successful in space. Materials research in low gravity has taken many steps toward making metal products used in homes, automobiles and aircraft less expensive, safer and more durable. Through this and other NASA research, new "metal-processing recipes" are being used by commercial industries -- such as Howmet Industries of Whitehall, Mich., and Ford Motor Company in Cleveland, Ohio -- to more precisely design and cast parts such as aircraft turbine blades, automobile and light truck engine blocks. The demand for new high-strength metals in the aviation, aerospace, power generation and propulsion industries is ever increasing and space research is helping lead the way to these new building materials and consumer products. Note to Editors: Interviews on this subject with NASA, industry and university researchers are available. Please contact Steve Roy of the Marshall Center Media Relations Office at (256) 544-6535. More information about NASA Microgravity Research Program's science experiments is available on the World Wide Web at: http://microgravity.msfc.nasa.gov/MICROGRAVITY/ For an electronic version of this release, photos or more information visit our new Virtual NewsRoom at: /centers/msfc/NEWSROOM/ |
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