When Nokia design engineers wanted a dramatic new design for mobile phones, they turned to two standby metals: aluminum and stainless steel. They loved the look and feel of metal even though it blocks the wireless signals. The compromise was a half-metal, half-plastic phone, with the antenna in the plastic section. Another big new win for aluminum is the hood in the highly styled Buick Enclave crossover.
New Alloy Boasts Magnetic Properties
Carpenter Technology introduced a new controlled-chemistry, free-machining, ferritic 13 percent chromium alloy for use in magnetic components. The new alloy offers improved corrosion resistance and good magnetic properties. Chrome Core 13-XP alloy can be considered for fuel-injection components and other electromechanical devices where corrosion resistance must be better than that of pure iron, low-carbon steel and silicon-iron alloys. This new grade offers magnetic properties equivalent to those of the company’s well-known Chrome Core 13-FM alloy.
Each Nokia Classic has a Unique Look
Nokia put a premium on design with its new 6500 classic mobile phone, which features 3G support in a 0.37-inch aluminum “loop” structure. The anodized aluminum surface is polished individually so no two phones are exactly alike. It uses the Nokia Series 40 interface and comes with a 2-megapixel camera with dual LED Flash, 1 Gbyte of internal memory and the obligatory multimedia player for $430. The Nokia 6500 slide uses stainless steel with a unique hard coating to prevent scuffs, scratches and even fingerprints.
Styled Hood Boosts Buick Enclave
The hood of the 2008 Buick Enclave will be made from aluminum sheet, allowing weight savings and the recyclability of aluminum. The Enclave is Buick’s first luxury crossover SUV and is a cousin to GMC’s Acadia crossover vehicle, which also features an aluminum hood made with Novelis sheet. Both vehicles are built on GM’s all-new Lambda unibody architecture.
Tiny Metal Lights Shine Brightly
Thin lightweight panels built of aluminum and developed at the University of Illinois could be used for lighting and certain types of biomedical applications. Each lamp is approximately the diameter of a human hair. A plasma panel consists of a sandwich of two sheets of aluminum foil separated by a thin dielectric layer of clear aluminum oxide (sapphire). At the heart of each lamp is a small cavity, which penetrates the upper sheet of aluminum foil and the sapphire. Values of the efficiency — known as luminous efficacy — of 15 lumens per W have been recorded. Values exceeding 30 lumens per W are expected when the array design and microcavity phosphor geometry are optimized. A typical incandescent light has an efficacy of 10 to 17 lumens per W.
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