LIFT and Materion Launch Project to Identify New Efficiencies in Transportation Component Production

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact:
Joe Steele
313-309-9132
jsteele@lift.technology

DETROIT – LIFT – Lightweight Innovations For Tomorrow and Materion Corporation (NYSE:MTRN) have teamed with industry experts and university researchers on a two-year project to develop more cost-effective means to manufacture lightweight aluminum metal matrix composites (MMCs) for use in large-scale automotive and aerospace platforms. The initiative will examine the consolidation and metalworking methods necessary to fabricate advanced mechanically alloyed powder metal derived MMC’s.

To help reduce current costs of producing MMCs, the project team will explore alternatives to the hot-isostatic press (HIP) manufacturing process in which powders are compressed into solid materials by simultaneously applying isostatic high pressure and temperature. The team expects alternative processes to reduce production time and costs while still meeting high specific modulus and strength-to-weight ratio required by today’s aerospace and automotive industries. One component of the project will be the investigation of several product forms, including extrusions, 3D near-net-shape HIP, press and sinter parts and thin sheet.

“Right now, too much time and money is tied up in a production process which we believe can be improved upon through other methods,” said Keith Smith, Vice President of Technology and Government Business development at Materion, a global leader in innovative advanced material solutions and services. “By pulling this team of experts together through LIFT, we will explore and refine those new methods to benefit not only our work, but that of the entire industry.”

As a result, reduced production costs should allow these MMCs to be a more viable choice for additional industrial automotive and aerospace products in the short term and additional transportation platforms in the future.

Along with Materion Corporation, the primary investigator, the project team includes industry members: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GKN. Academic research partners include: Case Western Reserve University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Tennessee and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and governmental partner Oak Ridge National Labs.

“As a global engineering company serving both aerospace and vehicle manufacturers, we see real potential in Powder Metal Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites for lightweighting in many transportation applications”, said Alan Taylor, vice-president of light weight technology for GKN Powder metallurgy.

LIFT, one of the founding members of Manufacturing USA, is a Detroit-based, public-private partnership committed to the development and deployment of advanced lightweight metal manufacturing technologies, is managing the project.

“Helping our members take a lightweighting idea that has had some success on a small scale and helping ramp it up to be mass produced on a large scale is at the core of what we do at LIFT,” said Alan Taub, Chief Technology Officer at LIFT. “This project will help us deliver a new way of consolidating powder to the marketplace for use in a wide array of industrial products.”

At the end of the project, slated to run through 2018, the team will validate the new manufacturing processes through a series of production trials for the components as defined by the industry partners. The initiative will also work to develop the capacity for high-volume production to meet the demands of the aerospace and automotive materials markets.

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ABOUT LIFT
LIFT is a Detroit-based, public-private partnership committed to the development and deployment of advanced lightweight metal manufacturing technologies, and implementing education and training initiatives to better prepare the workforce today and in the future. LIFT is one of the founding institutes in the National Network of Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI), and is funded in part by the Department of Defense with management through the Office of Naval Research. Visit www.lift.technology to learn more.

ABOUT MATERION
Materion Corporation is headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. Through its businesses, the company supplies worldwide markets with alloy products, beryllium products, electronic products, precious metal products, and engineered material systems. Around the world, the company’s engineered materials can be found in technically demanding end-use products within the telecommunications and computer, automotive electronics, appliance, industrial components, plastics tooling, optical media, oil and gas, aerospace and defense, and off-highway and mining equipment markets. Visit www.Materion.com for more information.

About GKN PLC
GKN plc is a global engineering group. It has four divisions; GKN Aerospace, GKN Driveline, GKN Powder Metallurgy and GKN Land Systems, which operate in the aerospace, automotive and land systems markets. Over 55,000 people work in GKN companies and joint ventures in more than 30 countries. GKN is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: GKN) and recorded sales of £7.7 billion in 2015.