What materials can we use to make a robust vibration sensor system for early fault detection and diagnosis of electric machines?

Bearing fault contributes to a majority part of the electric machine failure. Vibration monitoring and analysis has been widely used as a powerful tool for bearing fault detection. However, the application of such technology is limited to certain extent due to a few issues, such as lack of low-cost and reliable smart sensors for industrial application, MEMS based accelerometers are less costly compared to the piezoelectric sensors but suffer from high frequency errors, and complexity in data analysis. It is therefore desired to create a novel vibration sensing technology for fault detection and diagnosis with features that can overcome the abovementioned problems.

How should we design a pin-on-disk tribotest for sliding electrical contacts?

Background:
In tribology, when designing model tests such as pin-on-disk tests, it is common practice to match the surface pressure of the real application rather than the load. The surface pressure is calculated from the load in the real application divided by the apparent contact area. We are conducting pin-on-disk tribotests to evaluate the performance of sliding electrical contacts. In addition to measuring friction and wear, we are also measuring contact resistance during these tests. According to basic contact theories, contact resistance is inversely proportional to the square root of the applied contact force and the true contact area is only a small fraction of the apparent contact area. However, when we match the surface pressure to real-world conditions, the resulting contact load in our tests is sometimes very small, leading to significantly high contact resistance values.

Question:
Given the challenge of achieving realistic contact resistance values due to the small contact load when matching surface pressure, how should we design our pin-on-disk tests for electrical contacts? Are there alternative approaches or adjustments we can make to ensure that our test conditions accurately reflect real-world applications while maintaining reliable contact resistance measurements?

Battery cells optimized for cold temperatures

The Swedish Armed Forces need to operate in temperatures from -50 to +50 °C and lot of their equipment require batteries. But many cell chemistries have poor performance below 0 °C, for example capacity loss and issues with charging. At the same time, the batteries need to be energy dense and require minimal maintenance such as maintenance charging. Which cell chemistries handle cold temperatures well? What improvements can be made to lithium-ion batteries to enhance their low temperature capabilities?

Lithium-ion cell/battery design to mitigate fire risk

Military applications use a lot of lithium-ion batteries in their systems. Thermal runaway in lithium-ion batteries can cause fires that are difficult to extinguish, and since military systems need to operate under extreme conditions such as gunfire, adding lithium-ion batteries to these systems cause concern. How can lithium-ion battery systems be designed to minimize damage while withstanding mechanical and/or thermal abuse? Either on cell level or battery module level.

Fire prevention and suppression strategies for lithium-ion battery fires

Lithium-ion battery fires can be difficult to suppress. What extinguishing agents or fire suppression methods are the most effective? How should spaces for storage and/or charging of lithium-ion batteries be designed, for example regarding fire cells and ventilation?

Is it possible to describe the mechanical stresses in wound components?

Transformer bushings are produced by winding paper around a aluminum tube. Tensile force is used to guarantee good adhesion. However, little is known about the stress and strain conditions of the system during the production process.

What are the mechanisms that drive the propagation of a streamer in a dielectric liquid during dielectric breakdown or pre-breakdown?

The understanding of the basic mechanism of dielectric breakdown in dielectric liquids is fundamental for the development of power apparatus as for instance power transformers. Today, further understanding of the mechanism and properties of the breakdown and pre-breakdown process is required to improve the performance of the dielectric insulation system of such apparatus.

Can Time-Temperature Superposition be applied to cellulose?

Is there any fast characterization method available for cellulose based material to foresee long term behavior?

Use for rejected sheep wool fibres from wool washing process

During the drying process in our wool washing facility on Gotland, short fibres fall out. We have not yet found a good use for this fraction. The wool is clean (degreased) but short. It will come with some amount of sand, vegetable matters and longer wool fibers that fall out in the same process.

Integrated cast aluminium structures are developed in the Vehicle industry for efficient and flexible product development. Specific hardening of these complex components is not possible due to cycle times, part size and geometrical deformation

This implies increased demand for recycled aluminium alloys with combined high strength and ductility in the as cast condition. That requires efficient and ageing stable primarily solution hardening option controlled precipitation hardening to form in the cast aluminium alloy in the as cast condition, I e after the component has cooled down from the casting operation.

The challenge becomes to identify alloying elements that single or in combination can generate stable solution – or precipitation hardening without specific elevated temperature ageing treatment, and how the actual alloying elements can be efficiently dispersed in the aluminium matrix ?

Several currently used alloying elements ( e g Cu Mg Zn) create natural ageing by eg precipitation hardening that contribute to property changes over time risking unpredictable component behaviour, or give other undesired effects as e g corrosion.

Solution hardening is prioritized due to estimated higher combination strength & ductility, with stable precipitation hardening as option.”

What are the specific surface area differences and gas adsorption properties between ZnO nanostructures fabricated by different methods?

ZnO nanowhiskers with high aspect ratio can be used in gas sensing and field emission applications. Fabrication of the nanowhiskers is done by e.g. hydrothermal methods, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), thermal oxidation of Zn or CuZn (brass). Depending on the method and substrate used, properties such as length and growth density of the whiskers differ, which can affect the gas adsorption and field emission properties.

How can the packing density and area coverage of thin layers of micrometer particles be measured and characterized?

We are currently applying a thin layer of ceramic powder onto a glass surface. The challenge is that the particles are not uniform, which results in irregularities throughout the printed pattern which we suspect have an impact on the product performance. We believe that if we find a way to determine the layer thickness combined with the packing density and area coverage of the particles on the surface, we can increase the accuracy of connecting print quality to product performance. We are therefore looking for methods of characterizing these properties that could potentially be integrated into our process as a control.

Which AI tools could be used to automate extraction of measured material properties from published scientific articles?

When studying materials there is an often need to get values of specific material properties (density, electric conductivity etc) measured by different laboratories. Automated extraction can save time to overview the values obtained by different research groups. It could be interesting to compare and figure out the best available tool which enable automated extraction of specific material properties across large numbers of published articles. Possibility to digitize and extract information presented in graphical form (diagrams, graphs) are of big advantage.

Can AI help in measuring material properties which involve image processing?

Today several material properties are measured using manual measurements of features on images. Particular examples are hardness measurements where one need to measure the diagonal length of indentation left in material after Vickers indenter or fracture toughness measurement where both diagonals and crack length need to be measured. Is it possible to create a reliable tool for automated detections and measurements of specific features on images using AI?

Is it possible to separate individual carbides, which build up in high speed steel and other composite materials, by using selective electrochemical dissolution?

MC, M3C7 and M6C carbides are common in high-speed steels and other hard composite material. They differ from each other my carbide forming elements and stoichiometry or relative carbon amount. For example, MC could be VC, NbC, WC or TiC, M7C3 could be Cr7C3, M6C could be Mo6C and so on. Sometimes there is a need to isolate each individual carbides for more precise evaluation and analysis. One of promising methods could be electrolytical selective dissolution, which could use water solution of environmentally friendly chemicals at room temperature. In this investigation we would like to know if it is possible to achieve selective dissolution of different metal carbides by careful control of polarization potential in water-based ecologically-friendly solutions.

European universities & companies are working to increase the European chips/semiconductor competence through EU funded projects. We are working actively to be involved in such projects, focusing on advanced 3D structures and next generation transistor devices (e.g. GAA). How Can HAXPES complement other technologies to play a role for these scientific challenges?

The rapid vertical and horizontal expansion in chips applications means the market for semiconductors is expected to double from US$550 million presently to over US$1 trillion by 2030.
The EU’s share of global chip revenues has gone down from 20% in the 1990s to 10 % presently. Without rapid and significant investments, the EU’s global market share would drop to below 5 %, putting its industrial competitiveness and technological autonomy further at risk. The proposed European Chips Act aims to mobilize €43 billion in ‘policy-driven investment’ for the European semiconductor sector by 2030. The plan serves to enable immediate European coordination of strengthen and scale up innovation throughout the European semiconductor value chain, and enhance Europe’s technological leadership, practical applications and digital sovereignty in this field.
European research is a driving force behind the miniaturization of chips, which is key to rapid technological evolution within the sector. 3D structures and more advanced semiconductors (e.g. Gate All Around (GAA) technology) represents a significant leap in the evolution of silicon chip production, promising higher density, and enhanced performance. This innovative approach enables the fabrication of transistors with a gate encircling the channel from all sides, allowing for unprecedented control over the channel and significantly reducing leakage currents. The GAA technology marks a major advancement in the semiconductor industry, paving the way for more efficient, powerful, and miniaturized electronic devices.

Global-Semiconductor-Trends-and-the-Future-of-EU-Chip-Capabilities-2022.pdf

HAXPES_White_Paper_2024.pdf

Do you have any ideas or recommendations regarding machining of new metallic advanced materials for instance in electric vehicles or batteries? Specifically, how to manage challenges related to manufacturing strategies, material batch-to-batch variations, quality aspects e.g. surface integrity, component cleanliness requirements, cost-effectiveness of production, etc.?

Electrification will necessitate the development of advanced materials to be used in the manufacturing of key components for electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries. These innovative materials will bring new challenges and demands in terms of processing techniques, ensuring good machinability and meeting new component quality standards including cleanliness requirements on machined components . Additionally, the integration of these materials into production systems will require a deep understanding of their properties and behavior under different manufacturing conditions.

A discussion with academic and industrial partners in the field of materials science, in particular in establishing WISE Research Arenas (WIRAs).

To assure that WISE research is relevant and significant for sustainability, it is important that industrial prerequisites are considered. The WISE Research Arenas (WIRA) are important parts of the program, providing settings for materials scientists and engineers from academia and industry to jointly explore materials science for sustainability, aiming at bridging fundamental science with societal/industrial needs.