Under a NIST-sponsored grant to promote the Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) approach to development of new materials, the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) was founded with a focus on developing the next generation of computational tools, databases and experimental techniques to accelerate virtual design of novel materials and their integration to industry as part of the US Government’s Materials Genome Initiative (MGI). The paradigm of computational design of material systems has been shown to significantly reduce time from ideation to component qualification.
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Despite the advantage of rapid prototyping via virtual simulation, testing and analyses of small quantities of candidate material systems are still required for model refinement. Initial testing of a candidate alloy typically involves production of cast buttons of the desired composition mainly to verify predicted phase fractions, chemical partitioning, and solidified microstructures. Large-scale processing of designed alloys introduces effects that greatly influence the final microstructural and thus property gradients. The CHiMaD Metals Processing Facility (CMPF) was developed with the intent of capturing the effects of large-scale metal working operations on final microstructures of a designed component in a highly-controlled small-scale research laboratory environment. Processed samples are analyzed with data used to refine computational models providing a more accurate representation of such effects on final component properties.
As a part of Northwestern University’s NUCORE system, the CMPF metal-processing capabilities are available to non-profit academics and for-profit commercial organizations. Cost structures are commensurate with established standards for each category of user although we can generally accommodate customers’ budgetary constraints. Our equipment is new or refurbished with data monitoring and acquisition systems built in depending on the specific unit. The equipment meets or exceeds all current governmental and societal safety guidelines. We have a cadre of highly trained personnel at your disposal to optimize successful metal processing efforts. A detailed description of equipment capabilities follows.