Sponsor: wTe Corporation

• Project duration: 10/1/2004 - 9/30/2007
• Total project (est.): $2,408,000
• Requested ATP funds: $1,998,000

Basic materials producers in the U.S. have been badly scarred by low-cost imports of steel, aluminum, other metals and glass from overseas, as evidenced by the bankruptcy of nearly 30 domestic metals companies over the past several years. To compete effectively against imports, U.S. producers need to make better use of recycled low-grade scrap metal, more efficiently produce products that meet exacting specifications, reduce energy costs and lower environmental emissions without raising costs. One key, missing technology that would address all these areas is a continuous, real-time, in situ system for analyzing the chemical composition of liquid metal. Such a system would be critical to increasing our ability to use scrap materials in production. Scrap is plentiful in the U.S., particularly lower-grade scrap that at present is exported to China and elsewhere. The problem with using scrap is the inability to produce high-grade finished products meeting tight material tolerances, because scrap has a variable and unpredictable composition. Currently, liquid-metal composition is analyzed "off-line" in a cumbersome, iterative process as alloys are added and the metl reanalyzed to meet a final chemical specification. The process is slow, adding as much as 15 percent to the production time, which translates to substantial increases in labor costs, energy use, and environmental emissions. wTe Corporation proposes an on-line optoelectronic sensing system that would provide complete liquid-metal chemistries in seconds, allowing rapid adjustments to the melt mix. The proposed system will integrate two different spectral analysis techniques, energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). These two techniques complement each other and will enable the accurate analysis of a broad range of alloy compositions. Combining the two analytical platforms and developing a system to protect the delicate instrumentation from the high temperatures of the liquid metal presents a major engineering challenge. The technology will be applied to the aluminum, copper, cast iron, and steel industries, and could be extended to glass. These basic materials industries produce roughly 150 million tons of products per year (combined), with annual revenues of $121 billion, and provide nearly 500,000 jobs. If the wTe sensor technology could achieve a 5-percent improvement in production and operating efficiencies industry-wide, in particular through the increased utilization of lower-grade scraps, the impact would be enormous - as much as $6 billion annually. The technology is aimed at increasing production capacity in some sectors within this industry by as much as 15 percent. wTe will work with major U.S. manufacturing and metal-casting companies to develop and demonstrate the technology for applications around the world. wTe is a small company and has been unable to secure outside funding for this project due to its high technical risk. ATP funding will allow the company to put together a team of subcontractors with collaborative expertise from many related industries, and will reduce time to market by three to five years.

For project information:

David B. Spencer, (781) 275-6400 x101
dbswte@aol.com

ATP Project Manager

Robert Vocke, 301-975-4103
vocke@nist.gov

This is the fact sheet for this project as it was announced on September 28, 2004.
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