Formed Metal Products and Methods of Making the Same

Provided herein are methods of forming a metal product, including applying a water soluble formability film to the metal blank and/or applying a network polymer preprime (e.g., a hybrid organic-inorganic preprime, or a heat-resistant hybrid preprime) to the metal blank, forming the metal blank into a formed metal product, and optionally removing the formability film. A removable formability film and/or a preprime can improve the formability of an aluminum alloy and replace lubricants that used for forming processes by reducing the coefficient of friction of the metal product surface. Further, employing a water soluble polymer film eliminates lubricant removal for downstream processing. The formability film and/or preprime can include chemical additives that provide additional surface properties. The methods of processing the aluminum alloy products described herein provide a more efficient method for producing aluminum alloy products, as required by end users (e.g., original equipment manufacturers (OEMs))

Development of New Inorganic Luminescent Materials by Organic-Metal Complex Route

AbstractThe development of novel inorganic luminescent materials has provided important improvements in lighting, display, and other technologically-important optical devices. The optical characteristics of inorganic luminescent materials (phosphors) depend on their physicochemical characteristics, including the atomic structure, homogeneity in composition, microstructure, defects, and interfaces which are all controlled by thermodynamics and kinetics of synthesis from various raw materials. A large variety of technologically-important phosphors have been produced using conventional high-temperature solid-state methods. For the synthesis of functional ceramic materials with ionic dopants in a host lattice, (such as phosphors), synthesis using organic-metal complex methods and other wet chemistry routes have been found to be excellent techniques. These methods have inherent advantages such as good control of stoichiometry by molecular level of mixing, product homogeneity, simpler synthesis procedures, and use of relatively-low calcination temperatures. Supporting evidence for this claim is accomplished by a comparison of photoluminescence characteristics of a commercially available green phosphor, Zn2SiO4:Mn, with the same material system synthesized by organic-metal synthesis route.In this study, new inorganic luminescent materials were produced using rare-earth elements (Eu3+, Ce3+, Tb3+) and transition metals (Cu+, Pb2+) as dopants within the crystalline host lattices; SrZnO2, Ba2YAlO5, M3Al2O6 (M=Ca,Sr,Ba). These novel phosphors were prepared using the organic-metal complex route. Polyvinyl alcohol, sucrose, and adipic acid were used as the organic component to prepare the ceramic precursors. Materials characterization of the synthesized precursor powders and calcined phosphor samples was performed using X-Ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Photon-Correlation spectroscopy, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy techniques. In addition to the Fluorescence Spectrometer, and Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy, the Time Resolved Spectroscopy technique was also used to study the photoluminescence characteristics of the synthesized phosphors. Using these characterization techniques, and through careful comparisons with related studies in the literature, the mechanisms of luminescence for each of the new phosphor materials synthesized here was discussed in a detail

Aluminum Beverage Can Lid Testing Method Under Real Conditions with EIS Online Monitoring

The coatings on aluminum beverage can lid interiors can be prone to long-term degradation due to the high impact forces during fabrication and the corrosive nature of beverages. Multi-month tests are required to assess their resistance to this degradation. The purpose of this work is to introduce an accelerated can lid testing method with online Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) monitoring under real conditions and with real beverages that can imitate the lengthy pack tests typically employed. Twelve reactors were constructed and incorporated in a testing setup, EIS spectra were collected and analyzed using equivalent circuit models. The effect of test duration, pressure, temperature, and beverage on the degradation of the lids were investigated. The results showed that both temperature and pressure accelerate degradation. In addition, 10-day accelerated tests with EIS online monitoring were compared to 10-day and 6-month pack tests. Metal Exposure and aluminum concentration from the pack tests were correlated with the pore resistance, the charge transfer resistance, and the double layer capacitance of the lids extracted from the EIS spectra. The developed method has the potential to mimic the multi-month pack tests and offers a quicker, more insightful, and less laborious alternative for the lid degradation assessment. Ultimately, this method could help in improving the longevity and quality of aluminum beverage cans