Aluminium - Enriching A Billion Lives

Source: Getty A team of researchers at the US Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland made a chance discovery when they poured water on a new aluminium alloy they were testing. It began to give off hydrogen immediately! Exciting enough? Well, let us rewind this recent ground-breaking discovery and allow it to sink in slowly as you read on. Hydrogen stands at number one on the periodic table; it is the most abundant element in the Universe. It is found in the sun and most of the stars and the planet Jupiter is composed mostly of hydrogen. On Earth, Hydrogen is prevalent in the form of plenteously available chemical compounds such as hydrocarbons and water. Some see hydrogen gas as the clean fuel of the future – generated from water and returning to water when it is oxidised . Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are increasingly being seen as ‘pollution-free’ sources of energy and are now being used in some buses and cars. Alth...

The Government of Odisha hosted the Asian Athletics Championship, 2017 from 5 th – 9 th July this year. This came as a record ‘90 - Day Challenge’ to the State authorities who had an uphill task of transforming Bhubaneswar to hold such a prestigious international event.  Olly - The Mascot The State geared up for the preparations and took the challenge of organizing the event from end to end which involved renovating the infrastructure and setting up the facilities of the venue - Kalinga Stadium, making the necessary arrangements for the hospitality of more than 1000 athletes and their teams visiting from 45 countries, and carrying out other major activities like branding and promotion of the event. Odisha, a home to sports personalities like Dutee Chand, Sarbani Nanda, Amiya Kumar Mallick and Jauna Murmu has always observed sports as an important area for the holistic development of the state. Young athletes are provided necessary support so that they can cho...

Aluminium is called the ‘Metal of the Future’, and rightly so. It forms the basis of futuristic technologies and objects such as rockets and satellites which take human endeavours further. NASA’s LAGEOS satellites launched 41 years ago into space speak volumes about innovation and the passion of our species to go beyond in search of knowledge. LAGEOS - LAser GEOdynamics Satellite or LAser Geometric Environmental Observation Survey, are a series of two scientific research satellites designed to provide an orbiting laser ranging benchmark for geodynamical studies of the Earth.  The cannonball shaped satellites have transformed the area of precision measurement technique called laser ranging to measure the movement of Earth’s tectonic plates, detected irregularities in the rotation of the planet. Scientists have able to track small shifts in the earth’s centre of mass. The LAGEOS mission was created with these goals in m...

Aluminium is used excessively in the modern world with extremely diverse due to its several unusual combinations of attributes. No other metallic element can be used in so many ways across such a variety of domains like in the home, in transport, on land, sea and in air, and in industry and commerce. Aluminium's usages are not always as obvious as they may seem, with sizeable proportions of manufactured aluminium and aluminium oxide going into other separate processes, like the manufacture of glass, rather than towards the common consumer products that we most readily associate Aluminium with.  Over 95% of the Alumina manufactured globally is derived from Bauxite by the Bayer process. The Bauxite residue primarily consists of iron oxides, silicon oxide, titanium oxide and undissolved alumina together with a wide range of other oxides. This depends on the place of extracted bauxite and during refinery process, it leaves behind a residue known as Red Mud. It is composed of a ...

BharatBenz, a division of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles and a wholly owned subsidiary of the German manufacturer Daimler AG, is rolling out its new intercity coach buses in India. The 16-ton coach has been manufactured with an all-Aluminium body with an achievement of 90% localization for the manufacturing process of the buses. The coaches are manufactured in the company’s facility in Chennai. According to the company, the chassis was specialized for heavy duty interstate plying with much emphasis being given to higher fuel efficiency and safety of the passengers. This is what prompted them to go for an all-Aluminium body – always reliable and a better option than other heavy metals. The all- Aluminium body offers significant weight savings and allows for improved structural rigidity in the coaches. The 12-meter 16T bus model has been fabricated without any welded parts, and the lightweight structure not only gives extra strength to the body, it also pro...

Runaya Metsource, funded by Vedanta Group’s ‘principal shareholders’, and Russian aluminium billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s RUSAL are creating an equal joint venture for precision applications, such as rocket fuels, solar energy, and additive or 3D manufacturing.  Naivedya Agarwal, son of Navin Agarwal – Chairman of Vedanta Limited, will spearhead the joint venture in his independent capacity. Starting out with an initial capital of about $50 million, Naivedya’s maiden business venture Runaya Metsource will focus on material sciences and high-technology applications through global alliances and partnerships. The new company will produce high-end value-added aluminium pastes and powders to cater to applications primarily in additive technologies and solar energy, an executive said. Additive manufacturing refers to a process by which digital 3D design data are used to build up a component in layers by depositing material. The term ‘3D printing’ is increasingly used as a synonym ...

Remember the paper planes and the boats you used to make in your school days with your friends? A swan, a flower or a windmill maybe? Everybody has had a go at the art of Origami - the Japanese art of folding paper to create structures of beauty at some point in their lives. They are usually used as decorative pieces or showcase exquisite craftsmanship involving various forms and folding patterns. But a team of engineers at Brigham Young University (BYU) has created a lightweight bulletproof shield inspired by a Yoshimura origami crease pattern. The shield is made of 12 layers of bulletproof Kevlar with an aluminum core in the middle. It solves two very critical aspects of physical protection of law enforcement officers – This structure is extremely lightweight and compact unlike rigid shields which are cumbersome to deploy at times. The origami shield can be easily deployed in about 5 seconds and can be easily carried in the trunk of the police vehicles as it is fold...

It’s a no brainer that as land availability shrinks we are going to see a spurt in the construction of high-rise buildings in the future. One of the key challenges architects face here is to make them safe from fire hazards. This is where aluminium can step in big time if used as a cladding material. The aluminium composite panels are designed for exterior cladding that minimizes the risk of fire in the ci ty of modern high-rise offices and apartments. These aluminium panels are either 4.4 or 6mm thick, with a central fire-resistant core. What makes the panels different is that the 3 mm interior core doesn't melt or drip when exposed to the flames, but instead turns into a powder that keeps the fire from spreading. Aluminium, while it has a relatively high initial energy cost, offers unparalleled manufacturing flexibility, the broadest ranges of finishes, an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, unlimited recyclables and has a far better environmental profile than many...

“Sometime in late 2017, a tiny vehicle will blast into space from India on a 10-day journey to the moon. As it finally lands on the lunar surface some 238,900 miles later, its fate will rest entirely on four small aluminium parts in its shock absorbers. They need to work in a vacuum, with lubrication that doesn’t freeze or jam no matter what the angle. And if they fail, there’s no one to go up and fix it – meaning that eight years of work and $20m (£13.2m) in prize money will be lost in space.” - Late in the year 2015, The Guardian wrote about “Google Lunar XPrize: India's moonshot at the space race” and about Team Indus, India’s only representation at the prestigious competition. So, what is the Google Lunar XPrize and what is the big deal about it? For starters, it is one of the biggest competitions of robotic space exploration in the world in which any participating team has to: Successfully place a spacecraft on the moon’s surface Travel 500 meters Transmit hig...

Audi's latest project is to build a moon rover good enough to win the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition. Thanks to a sophisticated additive manufacturing process, they're well on their way. The wheels of the lightweight rover is made entirely of Aluminium alloy powder to cut down the weight and also help in navigating the harsh moon terrain. It has been calculated that a kilogram of payload to moon will cost 800,000 euros, and by using Aluminium, the rover’s weight can be reduced by 1.6 kgs which will allow additional 1.28 million euros worth of scientific equipment on board. The rules for the rover are straightforward but challenging. The rover has to successfully complete the 384,000-kilometer journey and land safely on the moon. Once there, the unit needs to complete at least a 500-meter drive on the surface, and send HD images back to earth that delivers new, never-seen views. They also have to launch before the end of 2017. That means the clock is ticking...