Do you ever think much about paint and coatings? Or the fact that pretty much everything in the built environment has some sort of protection on it? Paint and coatings are a $200 billion global industry, according to the American Coatings Association. Engineers are constantly developing new and innovative protections to ensure structures can withstand the elements and even improve a building’s energy savings or carbon footprint. Paul Lavallee joins ASME TechCast to share some insights into the coatings industry. Lavallee is global market manager of Kynar Coatings at Arkema, where he has spent 27 years in a variety of engineering, manufacturing, research, supply chain, and business roles. He holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Business Administration Executive Certificate from University of Notre Dame.
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A New Generation of Rebar
If you see a concrete structure of any kind, be it a building, road, or maybe piece of art, in all likelihood it’s supported by rebar. While there are a few varieties of steel rebar, from the standard steel to epoxy coated, they all suffer from corrosion issues. Two doctoral graduates from MIT launched a startup called Allium Engineering a few years ago that’s taking aim at that issue by manufacturing steel that's able to resist corrosion through an innovative stainless steel cladding process. The company says this technology can more than triple the lifetime of key infrastructure such as bridges, which would allow for significant cuts to steel and concrete production, two of the largest carbon dioxide emitting industries. To share more about Allium, how the company got started and the technology behind it, Allium’s co-founder and CTO Sam McAlpine stopped by for a chat with ASME TechCast.
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Setbacks are Part of the Engineering Process
Multiple setbacks haven’t stopped engineering student Michelle Delk from embracing opportunity and pursuing a graduate degree.
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Engineering and Design Justice
When it comes to engineering and design, no matter the end goal, be it a device or structure or sweeping plan of action, the idea that engineering is done for the betterment of humanity is a constant, whether it can be tangibly quantified or not.As Sita Syal and Julia Kramer, assistant professors in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, recently wrote in their study, “Design and Justice: A Scoping Review in Engineering Design,” there is “a growing priority in the engineering design research community to incorporate justice into design and to do so meaningfully and intentionally.” This paper was recently published in ASME's Journal of Mechanical Design. Both professors joined ASME TechCast to some insights into the interconnections between engineering and social justice, some of the lingering issues, and their hopes for the discourse moving forward.
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Sweaty Rockets, Robot Embryos, and Recession-Proof Engineers
What do rockets, robots, and a looming recession have in common? They're all part of the August issue of Mechanical Engineering magazine, and our top picks for today’s podcast.Reusable Rockets Don’t Just Fly, They Sweat by Nicole Imeson looks at a surprising new idea for spacecraft design. Robots as Materials? by Nancy Kristof showcases research where biology and robotics meet in unexpected ways. And Bracing for Uncertainty by Kayt Sukel asks what economic turbulence could mean for engineers and their careers.
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