Manufacturing

Bill Gates-backed startup Antora Energy is preparing to roll out a containerized, modular heat battery, designed to store renewable energy at the lowest possible cost – then release it efficiently as electricity or industrial process heat.

Nano-engineering happens all day long in our bodies, and California startup Aether is designing and testing millions of new enzymes to do a range of other useful tasks – like directly extracting battery-grade lithium from sources nobody else can use.

Paracetamol and ibuprofen are among the world’s most common painkillers, but manufacturing them requires crude oil. Now, researchers have developed a more sustainable method, creating the drugs out of waste products from the paper industry.

Despite its many advantages, glass has one major Achilles' heel – it’s brittle. Now, engineers at Penn State have developed LionGlass, a new form that's not only 10 times more damage resistant, but requires significantly less energy to manufacture.

Researchers in New Zealand and Australia have grown tiny metal snowflakes, cubes, rods and other shapes. The nanocrystals form like snow out of a liquid metal, demonstrated an intriguing new potential method for manufacturing nanoscale structures.

Engineers have developed a new 3D-printed titanium alloy with a unique microstructure that makes it ultra-strong. Not only is it stronger than other forms of titanium, but it has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any 3D-printed metal ever made.

Industrial heat consumes a huge proportion of global energy. Rondo Energy says its brick-toasting heat storage device is so cheap and efficient that it makes decarbonization an instant no-brainer across a huge range of industries. Bill Gates agrees.

Although 3D printing technology continues to improve, it's still limited by relatively long print times and low resolution. A new technology could help, by simultaneously utilizing multiple small print nozzles instead of a single big one.

A powerful new adhesive can grip strongly in extreme temperatures, from the deep freeze of liquid nitrogen to the sweltering heat of an oven. Better yet, it can be broken back down into its component parts and reused without losing strength.

Researchers at EPFL have demonstrated a light-based 3D-printing method that's about 30 times faster than conventional additive manufacturing, creating objects in 20 seconds that would normally take more like 10 minutes thanks to photocurable resins.

It’s an unfortunate truth that many important chemical reactions require rare and expensive metals as catalysts. But now, scientists have developed a device that actively tweaks plain old aluminum to make it behave like other metals on the fly.

3D printers may allow small companies to produce prototypes, but the machines aren't really suited to mass production. That's where the Mayku Multiplier is intended to come in – it's billed as being the world's first desktop pressure former.