From vehicles and airplanes to solid-phase processing of metals—how Curt Lavender and his team at PNNL solve industry problems with practical ingenuity.

Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) imparts significantly more deformation compared to conventional extrusion. The latest ShAPE system at PNNL, ShAPEshifter, is a purpose-built machine designed for maximum configurability.

Direct visualization of metal atoms during shear deformation has broad applications from battery design to vehicle lightweighting.

A new extrusion process eliminates pre-heating to provide significant energy savings during production of extruded aluminum alloys.

The first-ever simulation of aluminum conductivity offers a recipe for an inexpensive, lightweight alternative to copper.