Blog & Resources

Category Archive: Construction

  1. GAF Energy: New Manufacturing Plant in Texas Announced

    Jul
    28
    2022

    Expecting to grow the manufacturing capacity by 500%, the San Jose, California-based company GAF Energy announced that it will open its second factory in Georgetown, Texas, 30 miles north of Austin.  The 450,000 square-foot factory is expected to be completed in mid-2023, with a domestic production capacity of 300 MW per annum. The factory will […]

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  2. Nickel Set to Replace Palladium as a Greener and Cheaper Catalyst

    May
    05
    2022

    Palladium prices have exploded in the past decade, going from $5,300/kg in 2008, to $15,600/kg in 2016, $60,000/kg in 2020, and standing at $75,000 per kg right now. The valuable rare metal has been historically used in catalytic converters of cars, but it’s now also required by hydrogen fuel cell technology, an emerging technology that […]

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  3. World’s Largest Hydrogen Plant to Power SpaceX Launches

    Apr
    14
    2022

    US startup Green Hydrogen International (GHI) has unveiled its plans to build the world’s largest green hydrogen plant. The company is planning to build a 60 GW green hydrogen production facility in South Texas.  The project is called Hydrogen City. It will take account of integrated green hydrogen production, storage, and transportation capabilities. The company […]

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  4. Is The Ongoing Nickel Price Roller-Coaster a Cause for Concern?

    Mar
    24
    2022

    Nickel is undergoing a wild pricing ride lately, being one of the most heavily affected metals of the market turbulence caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting sanctions and shortages. The region of Krasnoyarsk in Russia is one of the world’s major production hubs of nickel, so closing that supply tap makes […]

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  5. New Laser-Based Welding Promises to Cut Energy Consumption In Construction

    Mar
    22
    2022

    Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have developed a novel laser-based system that can be used for precision and energy-efficient welding of construction metals. According to their measurements, the energy requirements of their system are roughly 85% lower than that of conventional welding methods, while the result is also typically of a higher quality […]

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  6. Giant ‘ArcelorMittal’ Steel Plant in Ukraine Shuts Down Amid War Crisis

    Mar
    11
    2022

    Steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal SA has closed its Ukrainian steel mill on Thursday after facing raw material supply disruptions and increasing risks associated directly with the Russian invasion of the Eastern European country. The company shut down blast furnaces gradually as the supply problems culminated and forced the production to a minimum, but the escalating situation […]

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  7. Engineers Figured How Fatigue Cracks Grow and What Stops Their Propagation

    Feb
    22
    2022

    The Cornell Fracture group has published the results of an ongoing study on the formation and propagation of fatigue cracks on metals and claims to have identified the mechanism that causes the cracks to grow. Their paper, titled “Atomic Mechanism of Near Threshold Fatigue Crack Growth in Vacuum,” explains that a molecular dislocation happens near […]

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  8. Doosan Bobcat T7X is the world’s first electric digger

    Feb
    17
    2022

    Doosan Bobcat has presented a new digger and truck loader model codenamed ‘T7X’, and it’s the world’s first fully-electric excavation equipment. The product was presented during the recent 2022 CES, and it won the “Innovation Award” in the category of vehicle intelligence and transportation. The T7X features a 62-kilowatt lithium-ion battery that can keep the […]

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  9. Why The New Bridge in Genoa is Among The World’s Most Advanced

    Feb
    15
    2022

    The San Giorgio bridge in Genoa, Italy, may not look like anything extraordinary at first sight, and it’s really nothing special when it comes to design and structural ingenuity, yet it’s considered to stand at the cutting edge of technology in the field. The way through which San Giorgio is pushing the envelope lies in […]

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  10. NIST updates earthquake standard for steel column used in buildings

    Jan
    18
    2022

    The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of California San Diego have proposed targeted updates to the AISC 341 standard on seismic provisions for structural steel buildings. The specialist engineers have identified certain deficiencies in the performance of steel beams that were otherwise compliant with the existing standard, which caused them […]

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  11. The Complexity of Re-Purposing The Steel Border Walls

    Dec
    28
    2021

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s vision for raising an impermeable border in the south has failed to realize, but not before a whopping $16.4 billion was spent in funding the barrier construction. Now, hundreds of thousands of steel bollards, each costing about $9,000, lie in piles at various locations, rusting, creating an environmental hazard, and […]

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  12. Researchers Presented Self-Healing Anti-Corrosive Coating for Steel

    Dec
    20
    2021

    Steel is a very resilient material in general, but when it comes to subjecting it to harsh environments like seawater, you need to apply an anti-corrosive coating or it will rust pretty quickly. Researchers at the Rice University in Houston have tested a novel insulating material made out of sulfur and selenium and found that […]

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  13. New Steel Alloy Can Kill The COVID-19 Virus in Under Six Hours

    Dec
    14
    2021

    Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have developed a novel type of stainless steel alloy that kills the COVID-19 virus within six hours. More specifically, the steel can deactivate 99.75% of the virus in three hours and reach a final 99.99% in six. This anti-pathogen steel would be ideal for surfaces that come into […]

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  14. Scientists Created a Novel Titanium Alloy By Means of 3D Printing

    Nov
    30
    2021

    3D printing or additive manufacturing may be generally known as a “shaping technology,” but as scientists at the City University of Hong Kong proved, it can be much more than that. The team of Chinese engineers successfully developed a novel titanium alloy by using a 3D printer to design the microstructures of the material, ending […]

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  15. New Testing Tool can Detect Thermoacoustic Combustion Oscillations

    Nov
    22
    2021

    Thermoacoustic combustion oscillations (TCO) are the peril of internal combustion engines, but detecting the phenomenon in time and taking targeted action to stop and reverse it has remained a complicated case. A team of engineers from the Tokyo University of Science and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have developed a promising tool that detects […]

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