Meet the Manufacturer

AK Steel Corporation, working in partnership with Regal Beloit Corporation and DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has created a new steel alloy that promises a significant decrease in energy losses in electric motors and power generators, resulting in a marked improvement in their efficiency. In this ongoing project with the Advanced Manufacturing Office, AK Steel and its partners have created a new steel alloy containing silicon (Si), aluminum (Al), chromium (Cr), and manganese (Mn) that results in the desired soft magnetic properties of high-silicon steel but without the resulting brittleness and degradation of mechanical properties. As a result, core losses can be reduced by ~37%, resulting in a 2 to 3% increase in efficiency. If brought to commercial-scale application, this could save significant amounts of energy in the American industrial sector. The alloy has already been created and presently, industrial-scale trial manufacturing testing is underway.

The Boeing Company, through its central research and development organization Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T), has successfully demonstrated a method for consolidation and molding of thermoplastic composites in complex components with a processing time of less than 60 minutes and a whopping 80% reduction in energy consumption compared to current manufacturing systems such as autoclave processing of thermoset materials. Working with partner companies Cytec (now part of Solvay), Temper, Inc., and Ajax TOCCO under a DOE grant, BR&T developed a scale-up fabrication system that allows for an accelerated production rate of airplanes. This processing technology has broad application outside the aerospace industry to include automotive, heavy trucking, marine, and wind energy.

Previously known as the maker of LEDs and related lighting products, today Cree is an innovator and developer in cutting-edge silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor technologies. In recent years, the company has created a host of products for the transportation, industrial, energy, and communications markets through its Woofspeed® line of power and radio frequency (RF) semiconductors products. Cree/Wolfspeed credits its close working relationship with PowerAmerica, one of 14 DOE-funded manufacturing institutes, for part of its success, most notably, for the accelerated development and reliability testing of its medium-voltage (3.3kV to 10KV) SiC power device technology. This relationship has enabled Cree/Wolfspeed to hasten the introduction of SiC power device technology products for use in electric vehicle drivetrains, industrial electronics, and grid-tied power electronics applications. Directly related to this is the company’s May 2019 announcement of a $1 billion, five-year investment to create an automated 200mm silicon carbide fabrication facility and a materials mega factory at its U.S. campus headquarters in Durham, N.C. The goal is generating 30-fold increase in both SiC wafer fabrication capacity and related materials production.

Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America (MEAA), part of the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, makes some of the ever-expanding array of electric and electronic components that go into today’s automobiles. Making these critical automotive supply chain components can require a lot of energy. Last year, MEAA joined the Better Plants program with its two plants and committed to the program’s voluntary goal of reducing energy intensity by 25 percent over 10 years. They are also participating in the 50001 Ready program to establish an energy management system and self-attest to the structure of ISO 50001. Through Better Plants, the company learned about an opportunity to receive no-cost energy assessments through the Industrial Assessment Center program. These assessments identified $250,000 estimated annual energy savings at the two facilities. This is just the beginning as MEAA uses these findings as a launching point and roadmap to find more such opportunities in other areas. The company also plans to use knowledge they’ve gained to train facility staff to find energy intensity reductions on their own.

Momentum Technologies, located in Dallas, TX, has licensed a new method involving the recovery of rare earth elements. Momentum Technologies has partnered with DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Critical Materials Institute , a DOE-funded Energy Innovation Hub, to commercialize this technology. Their membrane solvent extraction (MSX) process recovers rare earths using a limited amount of energy, labor, and chemical solvents. The MSX process recovers rare earth oxides from electronic waste at purities greater than 99.5% making them reusable in new magnets. Rare earth elements, such as neodymium and dysprosium, are considered critical materials due to their importance to energy technologies (like wind turbines and electric vehicles) and potential for supply risk. Permanent magnets are used in many applications such as electric vehicle motors, wind turbine generators, and hard disk drives.

Magnum Venus Products (MVP, a leading manufacturer of composites application equipment, collaborated with Polynt and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to deploy the first large-scale reactive polymer additive manufacturing system commercially available to industry. MVP’s Reactive Additive Manufacturing (RAM) machine, first announced in March, and Polynt’s Reactive Additive Deposition (PRD1520) material together are reimagining additive manufacturing to enable fabrication of thermoset materials at large-scale. While thermoplastic materials have become the norm in additive manufacturing, this thermoset technology has the potential to revolutionize additive manufacturing and meet demands for stronger, more cost-effective solutions while remaining energy efficient. The advantage lies in crosslinking polymers between printed layers, resulting in stronger, more thermo-tolerant products. By collaborating with ORNL, MVP was able to scale up the technology from a benchtop solution to a commercially ready machine. Polynt’s PRD 1520 is a specifically formulated reactive monomer material developed for use in the MVP RAM machine. The material boasts superior interlaminar adhesion, exceptional machinability, and high heat distortion temperature compatible with aerospace grade tooling application.

When Procter & Gamble (P&G), one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, wanted to improve its resiliency at two major facilities, it turned to Combined Heat and Power (CHP), an efficient and clean approach to generating on-site electricity and useful thermal energy from a single fuel source. P&G built a 64-MW CHP plant at its Mehoopany, Pennsylvania facility powered by abundant onsite shale gas and hosted a 54-MW CHP plant at its Albany, Georgia facility powered by renewable biomass. Power from the Mehoopany plant runs all facility operations with extra electricity sold back to the grid while providing process steam and compressed natural gas for other local businesses. The Albany plant, owned and operated by Constellation, meets the facility’s thermal load with excess steam provided to nearby Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany. What’s more, these projects are launching points for continued collaboration between P&G and DOE’s regional CHP Technical Assistance Partnerships (TAPs) to evaluate more CHP opportunities in the context of energy resiliency and regional economic development.

Starfire Industries, working in partnership with General Motors and the University of Illinois under a DOE research grant, is developing a new material coating system employing an innovative atmospheric cold microwave plasma jet for use on dissimilar material joints. This method provides a single, cost-effective, high-volume production process that meets the requirements of multi-material combinations used in the energy-intensive transportation industry. By eliminating what are known as “wet chemistry” steps used in current corrosion protection methods, this technique helps create a single coating substrate and single adhesive – enabling vehicle weight reduction. It also reduces energy consumption, wastewater effluent disposal, and offsite transportation costs associated with wet-chemical treatments.

ArcelorMittal USA was the first steel company to join DOE’s Better Plants by committing to a strategic, long-term energy intensity improvement goal. Through Better Plants, they have leveraged technical assistance through in-plant trainings, peer-to-peer networking and learning opportunities, and a connection to R&D and innovation at the DOE National Labs. Seeking to identify additional energy savings opportunities and maintain a high-caliber, well-trained workforce, Arcelor Mittal’s Cleveland plant earned 50001 Ready recognition by setting up an energy management system (EnMS) aligned with the ISO 50001 global standard. Through continued utilization of the 50001 Ready Navigator online software tool, the Cleveland mill has further improved its energy performance, reduced production costs, and increased competitiveness. What’s more, the 50001 Ready recognition generated positive press coverage and reinforced plant management’s commitment to energy efficiency.