What do coin mints, sheep farmers and carmakers have in common? All depend on metal tools that wear out sooner than they would like. Although sheep farmers can just pick up a new pair of shears, the down time required to switch tools in a factory can be among the most costly components of manufacturing.
That's why a 17-member consortium led by the General Motors Research and Development Center is pushing a new materials-hardening technology-plasma-source ion implantation. The automotive industry alone hopes to realize billions of dollars' worth of savings every year, mainly from increasing the time between tool changes, says Michael Dudzik, a physicist at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan and the general manager of the consortium. According to Dudzik, ion implantation can boost tool life from two- to tenfold.
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Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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