Prototyping in Glass: Two-years of Collaboration with the Corning Museum of Glass

This paper documents two years of collaboration with the Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG), where two groups of graduate architecture students lead by a team of two faculty members, were able to develop projects – architectural glass components – in consultation with glassblowing experts and the resident material scientist at CMoG, and ultimately participate in the fabrication of the prototypes at CMoG’s world class glassblowing facility, GlassLab."

Investigating the Microstructure of a Newly Developed Aluminum Alloy Through X-ray Microanalysis

The distribution of components, or microstructure, within a material is critical to its mechanical properties. For example, if a material has too many particles of one particular phase it may become too brittle, yet if there are too few particles it could lose strength. Every material exhibits different and unique characteristics. The goal of a material scientist is to analyze a material's microstructure and to optimize the manufacturing process. Electron microscopists observe this distribution on a very small, but critical, scale. The electron microscope can demonstrate specifically where the particles are distributed and then X-ray microanalysis can be used to identify what the particles are composed of.This article will discuss the microstructure of an aluminum alloy with copper and iron additions. At the point of development, the mechanical properties of this new alloy were believed to be superior to that of previous materials; however, a number of subsequently conducted heat treatments did not support this theory, producing extremely unsatisfactory properties. In order to understand these results and rectify any problems, X-ray microanalysis was used to analyze the alloy's microstructure and assess the distribution of copper and iron particles within the metal.

Prospects for scanned-probe microscopy

In the last 50+ years the electron microscope and allied instruments have led the way as means to acquire spatially resolved information about very small objects. For the material scientist and the biologist both, imaging using the information derived from the interaction of electrons with the objects of their concern, has had limitations. Material scientists have been handicapped by the fact that their samples are often too thick for penetration without using million volt instruments. Biologists have been handicapped both by the problem of contrast since most biological objects are composed of elements of low Z, and also by the requirement that sample be placed in high vacuum. Cells consist of 90% water, so elaborate precautions have to be taken to remove the water without losing the structure altogether. We are now poised to make another leap forwards because of the development of scanned probe microscopies, particularly the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The scanning probe instruments permit resolutions that electron microscopists still work very hard to achieve, if they have reached it yet. Probably the most interesting feature of the AFM technology, for the biologist in any case, is that it has opened the dream of high resolution in an aqueous environment. There are few restrictions on where the instrument can be used. AFMs can be made to work in high vacuum, allowing the material scientist to avoid contamination. The biologist can be made happy as well. The tips used for detection are made of silicon nitride,(Si3N4), and are essentially unaffected by exposure to physiological saline (about which more below). So here is an instrument which can look at living whole cells and at atoms as well.

An Automated Laboratory Apparatus for the Production of Rapidly Solidified Submicron Powders

ABSTRACTThe Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) method of spraying fine liquid droplets from a liquid state, in a vacuum environment, was developed and used to produce amorphous, microcrystalline, single crystal, bicrystalline and tricrystalline powders. Studies of these powders have contributed towards increasing the knowledge of extended solubility, nucleation, metastable phases, undercooling effects, etc. Coatings and films have been produced by collecting the liquid droplets before solidification. An automated instrument based upon the EHD method, the Micro-Particle Processor, is computer operated and allows a material scientist not completely acquainted with the EHD process to perform sophisticated experiments on materials of his choosing. Electron transparent powders close to 3μm and large powders up to l00μm have been collected and observed. Cooling rates above 107K/s have been achieved. Applications using powders include: new alloy compositions, use as AEM standards, in-situ remelt experiments in the electron microscope, etc.