Plume attenuation under high power Nd:yttritium-aluminum-garnet laser welding

During high-power continuous wave (cw) Nd:yttritium-aluminum-garnet (YAG) laser welding a vapor plume is formed containing vaporized material ejected from the keyhole. The gas used as a plume control mechanism affects the plume shape but not its temperature, which has been found to be less than 3000 K, independent of the atmosphere and plume control gases. In this study high-power (up to 8 kW) cw Nd:YAG laser welding has been performed under He, Ar, and N2 gas atmospheres, extending the power range previously studied. The plume was found to contain very small evaporated particles of diameter less than 50 nm. Rayleigh and Mie scattering theories were used to calculate the attenuation coefficient of the incident laser power by these small particles. In addition the attenuation of a 9 W Nd:YAG probe laser beam, horizontally incident across the plume generated by the high-power Nd:YAG laser, was measured at various positions with respect to the beam-material interaction point. Up to 40% attenuation of the probe laser power was measured at positions corresponding to zones of high concentration of vapor plume, shown by high-speed video measurements. These zones interact with the high-power Nd:YAG laser beam path and, can result in significant laser power attenuation. © 2004 Laser Institute of America.

Deposition of c-axis orientation aluminum nitride films on flexible polymer substrates by reactive direct-current magnetron sputtering

Aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric thin films with c-axis crystal orientation on polymer substrates can potentially be used for development of flexible electronics and lab-on-chip systems. In this study, we investigated the effects of deposition parameters on the crystal structure of AlN thin films on polymer substrates deposited by reactive direct-current magnetron sputtering. The results show that low sputtering pressure as well as optimized N 2/Ar flow ratio and sputtering power is beneficial for AlN (002) orientation and can produce a highly (002) oriented columnar structure on polymer substrates. High sputtering power and low N 2/Ar flow ratio increase the deposition rate. In addition, the thickness of Al underlayer also has a strong influence on the film crystallography. The optimal deposition parameters in our experiments are: deposition pressure 0.38 Pa, N 2/Ar flow ratio 2:3, sputtering power 414 W, and thickness of Al underlayer less than 100 nm. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Reusing steel and aluminum components at end of product life.

Reusing steel and aluminum components would reduce the need for new production, possibly creating significant savings in carbon emissions. Currently, there is no clearly defined set of strategies or barriers to enable assessment of appropriate component reuse; neither is it possible to predict future levels of reuse. This work presents a global assessment of the potential for reusing steel and aluminum components. A combination of top-down and bottom-up analyses is used to allocate the final destinations of current global steel and aluminum production to product types. A substantial catalogue has been compiled for these products characterizing key features of steel and aluminum components including design specifications, requirements in use, and current reuse patterns. To estimate the fraction of end-of-life metal components that could be reused for each product, the catalogue formed the basis of a set of semistructured interviews with industrial experts. The results suggest that approximately 30% of steel and aluminum used in current products could be reused. Barriers against reuse are examined, prompting recommendations for redesign that would facilitate future reuse.

Mapping the global flow of aluminum: from liquid aluminum to end-use goods.

Demand for aluminum in final products has increased 30-fold since 1950 to 45 million tonnes per year, with forecasts predicting this exceptional growth to continue so that demand will reach 2-3 times today's levels by 2050. Aluminum production uses 3.5% of global electricity and causes 1% of global CO2 emissions, while meeting a 50% cut in emissions by 2050 against growing demand would require at least a 75% reduction in CO2 emissions per tonne of aluminum produced--a challenging prospect. In this paper we trace the global flows of aluminum from liquid metal to final products, revealing for the first time a complete map of the aluminum system and providing a basis for future study of the emissions abatement potential of material efficiency. The resulting Sankey diagram also draws attention to two key issues. First, around half of all liquid aluminum (~39 Mt) produced each year never reaches a final product, and a detailed discussion of these high yield losses shows significant opportunities for improvement. Second, aluminum recycling, which avoids the high energy costs and emissions of electrolysis, requires signification "dilution" (~ 8 Mt) and "cascade" (~ 6 Mt) flows of higher aluminum grades to make up for the shortfall in scrap supply and to obtain the desired alloy mix, increasing the energy required for recycling.