RICHLAND, Wash. – Scientists and researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have discovered a new way to help with manufacturing car parts.
In the past few years, PNNL worked on developing a machine designed to take leftover aluminum scrap and turn it into brand-new car parts.
Scott Whalen, the Chief Scientist of the Solid Phase Processing group says they have numerous applied projects, but says this one is the biggest.
“We were approached by industry companies with problems that need solved,” said Whalen. “We teamed up to solve their challenges.
According to Whalen this process will reduce the amount of mining for aluminum ore and decrease the amount of energy and carbon emissions by 90%.
He told me the machine they’ve invented is called Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion or ShAPE.
“We are using that process to take aluminum scrap from automotive manufacturing plants and convert them directly into new, pristine components.,” said Whalen.
The whole process takes just under a minute. The machine operators put the scrap in the machine. It takes about 30 seconds to warm up and gradually the machine speeds up and the part comes out of the side of the machine.
Scott Taysom, a research engineer for PNNL is one of the machine operators. He says during COVID he made a way for their partners to see live what the ShAPE machine was doing. The display also provided data for the machine.
“The video output on the screen shows us the forces and what the tool is doing,” said Taysom. “Also what the extrusion is doing.”
Taysom runs the machine with another operator.
He says like every new experiment there were some challenges at the beginning.
“In the beginning, we didn’t clean our scrap,” said Taysom. “As it turns out, oil in the scrap makes it hard to extrude it well. So we had to make sure things were a little bit cleaner.”
Taysom told me this project is fun for him because he loves research.
Whalen says the best part is to be involved in moving technology forward.
“You get to be at the level of interacting with industrial partners,” said Whalen. “To help move technology out into the market. It’s really rewarding and satisfying.”
Whalen says in early fall a new and bigger ShAPE machine will be coming to the laboratory.
According to Whalen, right now it’s car parts but, the process as a whole will benefit the aerospace and solar industry.
It would also help with infrastructure.