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Materials scientists at the US Department of Energy‘s Ames Laboratory, Etrema Products, Inc. (EPI), and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division have developed new ways to form a high tech metal alloy which promise new ad- vances in sensing and energy harvesting technologies.
To look at it, a length of wire fabricated in the Ames Laboratory looks much like the kind of steel wire a do-it-yourselfer could pick up at the local hardware store. A sheet form of the material, fabricated by EPI, looks equally unassuming. But these materials are made of a high tech alloy called Galfenol, and the new forms of this “smart material” may be the key to future manufacturing breakthroughs like the creation of vibration free, quieter motors.
Galfenol, composed primarily of gallium and iron, was co-discovered in 1999 by the Ames Laboratory and the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Di- vision. Galfenol’s unique properties make it change shape when subjected to a magnetic field, and flexible enough for a variety of manufacturing processes.
FEI (NASDAQ: FEIC) announced new Helios Nano-Lab™ DualBeam™ systems for engineers that need to make vital process improvement decisions. The 450HP and 1200HP DualBeam systems include new capability that meets the critical requirements for semiconductor process development at the 28nm device geometry node and below. Moreover, the Company has approved payment of a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share of common stock. This is the second quarterly dividend paid by FEI. The initial $0.08 dividend was paid on July 24 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on July 11. The timing and amounts of future dividends are subject to determination and approval by FEI‘s board.
The University of Manchester and FEI are also pleased to announce the installation of one of the world‘s most powerful high-resolution microscopes – the Titan™ G2 80-200 scanning transmission electron microscope (S/TEM) – at the University‘s School of Materials. The procurement of the new S/TEM from FEI was funded as part of an £8 million ($12.8 million USD) UK government investment for nuclear materials research at Manchester‘s Dalton Nuclear Institute.
The Titan™ G2 80-200 S/TEM will enable researchers to study the structure and elemental composition of materials at the atomic level, assisting them in building a greater understanding of their behavior and modification under certain conditions.