The Elements of Innovation Discovered

Articles from the December 21, 2022 edition


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  • Redwood cinches US Battery Belt campus

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Feb 9, 2023

    As recycling becomes more prominent in the restructuring of basically everything toward decarbonization and electrification, Redwood Materials Inc. announced its biggest move yet, a new battery materials campus in the heart of the "Battery Belt" just outside Charleston, South Carolina. Currently, anode and cathode components are not produced in North America, and battery cell manufacturers must source them via a 50,000-mile-plus global supply chain. As a result, U.S. battery...

  • A mining truck loaded with rock being helped up a slope with an overhead trolly.

    ABB, Boliden closing the mining CO2 loop

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 20, 2022

    To lower the carbon footprint of its electric motors and other products that play a major role in allowing mining and many other sectors of the global economy to then lower their carbon footprint further, ABB is building a strategic partnership with Swedish mining and smelting company Boliden for low-carbon copper. Copper is a vital material for manufacturing the electrical equipment that is playing an increasingly important role in industrial applications that are...

  • Soldier fires a machine gun while lying in the snow during winter exercises.

    DoD supports Perpetua's antimony project

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 20, 2022

    In a move to break America's dependence on China and Russia for the antimony needed for ammunition, fireproofing compounds, night vision goggles, and other military hardware, the Pentagon is providing $24.8 million to help reestablish a domestic antimony mine at Perpetua Resources Corp.'s Stibnite Gold project in Idaho. While originally established as a gold mine, Stibnite shifted its focus to strategic metals to support the U.S. military during World War II. From 1941 to 1945...

  • Flat Martian landscape with dunes, small rocks, and Perseverance’s shadow.

    First extraterrestrial rock sample cache

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 20, 2022

    Perseverance is dropping off a batch of samples for Mars Sample Return robotic team to retrieve. While the impressive toolkit aboard the Perseverance rover provides earthbound scientists with a trove of data on the geological and biological history of Mars, the ultimate goal is to get rock and dirt samples collected by the robotic geologist back to Earth for closer examination. Toward this objective, Perseverance is wrapping up its prime mission by creating a depot of samples...

  • The outside of the sleek and sophisticated Bentely Mulliner Batur.

    Bentley showcases 3D printed gold Batur

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 20, 2022

    While additive manufacturing has thus far focused on the more industrial metals to produce components or parts, little attention has been paid to precious metal 3D printing, keeping to more traditional craftsmanship methods – until now. Though commemorative coins, statuettes, and even jewelry have been designed and printed, with the novelty of having something crafted with a new technology giving it a unique value, ultimately, the intangible element of having something made t...

  • Video intro to NASA's Break the Ice Lunar Challenge.

    NASA's Break the Ice Challenge semi-finals

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech Newsw|Updated Dec 20, 2022

    With 2022 coming to a close, NASA has announced the 15 teams moving forward to the semi-finals in the $3.5 million Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, an ongoing competition that puts research groups, robotics teams, and private companies in head-to-head trials to design future-tech rovers to harvest the most valuable commodity of all in outer space, water. "We're putting humanity back on the Moon with the Artemis missions, and this is a team effort on a global scale," said Amy...

  • Zinc-gallium snowflake structures created by University of Auckland scientists.

    Let it snow zinc-gallium nanostructures!

    A.J. Roan, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 20, 2022

    Intricate, unique, and beautiful, snowflakes are a crystalline symbol of the wintery season that inspire wonder in children and inspiration for scientists in New Zealand that have managed to replicate these wonderous constructs of nature with gallium and zinc. A closer look at snowflakes reveals that each piece of pristine powder is a one-of-a-kind ice crystal that is awe inspiring in its beauty and symmetry. More scientifically, these natural forming ice crystals are a...