ASM International, in collaboration with the Metal Powder Industries Federation (MPIF), Thermal Spray Society, America Makes, the AMES Laboratory, the Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems, and the University of California Irvine Combustion Laboratory, has been awarded US$485,000 to establish an Atomization Technology Innovation Consortium (ATIC).
The aim of the group is to lead and coordinate development of an advanced technology roadmap for the atomization industry. The duration of this project is 24 months.
Other research institutions, manufacturers and end users have reportedly committed to ATIC, including medium or large-sized enterprises that play a critical role in the U.S. atomization industry. Industry partners have tentatively planned to meet at ILASS-Americas 2016 and POWDERMET2016, to enable a consensus technology roadmap.
Other objectives of the new consortium are to:
- Increase cross-sector engagement across the atomization technology value chain.
- Bring coherence to the R&D agenda for atomization technology and to enable accelerated technology transfer and application across a broad range of industries.
- Better connect the R&D activities that occur in academia and federal laboratories and activities across the industrial value chain that will the more accelerated deployment of innovations in U.S. industry.
Atomization is a technology widely used in a range of cross-industry applications. According to NIST Award Number: 70NANB15H062, approximately 19,500 U.S. companies, 94% of which are small and medium enterprises, manufacture or use atomized products resulting in US$1.46 trillion in goods and the employment of more than 2.2 million people. Atomization is a key technology employed in fuel injection for motorized vehicles, 3D printing, electric power generation, and thermal spray technologies.
This story is reprinted from material from MPIF, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
