Meet the Manufacturer

Eck Industries co-developed a cerium-aluminum alloy in partnership with the Critical Materials Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Ames National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The patented alloy is malleable, lightweight, corrosion-resistant, and exceptionally stable at high temperatures. These characteristics make the alloy ideal for automotive, aerospace, power generation, and other applications. The new material has been featured on the covers of two technical journals and was recognized with an R&D 100 Award. The research also won the Light Metals Award from The Minerals, Metals & Material Society. The rapid deployment of the material was recognized with a 2018 Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium.

Hydropower turbine manufacturer Amjet Turbine Systems, Inc. partnered with the Water Power Technologies Office, Advanced Manufacturing Office, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to 3D print and test lightweight composite materials and components in its hydropower units. By using nontraditional materials like carbon fiber, Amjet was able to reduce the weight of its design to one-fifth the typical weight of hydropower turbines. This is an important innovation because 3D printing can lead to reduced civil works construction requirements, more flexible site arrangements, and overall lower costs that enable industry to provide the flexibility and reliability services our nation’s grid needs.

The paint shop in automotive assembly plants typically accounts for more than two-thirds of energy consumed at the plant. Three quarters of that energy is consumed by the paint spray booths and paint curing ovens. With funding through the Advanced Manufacturing Office’s Innovative Manufacturing Initiative, PPG developed new automotive coatings and application processes to maintain performance and appearance while reducing the curing temperature and duration of the paint process. The new designs are compatible with PPG’s existing paint lines.

With funding from the Wind Energy Technologies Office’s Competitiveness Improvement Project, Bergey Windpower developed the new Excel 15 wind turbine. Bergey’s previous model – the Excel 10 turbine – was rated at 9.8 kW with a 7-meter rotor diameter, fiberglass blades, and a levelized cost of energy of $0.25/kilowatt-hour. The new design is rated at 15.6 kW with a 9.6-meter rotor diameter, carbon fiber blades, and a levelized cost of energy of $0.13/kilowatt-hour.

SFP Works developed and commercialized the Flash Bainite® process for producing Advanced High Strength Steel for the automotive industry with support from the Advanced Manufacturing Office through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. This innovation has the potential to make cars safer, lighter, and more fuel efficient. Its process uses a compact and low-cost induction heat treatment that creates steel that is uniquely light, strong, and weldable and also reduces material cost. Third party testing has demonstrated that Flash Steel is stronger than the best titanium, aluminum, and magnesium alloys at a small fraction of the cost. SFP Works was also recognized as a 2017 SBIR/STTR (Small Business Technology Transfer) Small Business of the Year.

With funding from the Solar Energy Technologies Office, ConnectDER created the original Simple ConnectDER and the advanced version called the Smart ConnectDER. These devices sit between the electric meter and the metering socket and enable the rapid installation of photovoltaic systems by eliminating the need to access a building’s breaker box, reducing installation labor costs and time. The Smart ConnectDER, the second generation device, includes an American National Standards Institute certified revenue-grade meter that has the ability to communicate directly with a utility, enabling utilities, installers, and energy consumers to have greater visibility of how the PV system is operating.

The world’s largest carpet manufacturer and leading floor covering provider, Shaw Industries Group, Inc. (Shaw), joined the Better Plants program in December 2009 with a pledge to reduce energy intensity over a ten year period. In 2015, Shaw achieved its initial energy intensity reduction goal ahead of schedule by improving energy intensity by 33% across 105 U.S. facilities. Additionally, Shaw completed the construction of a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant at its Columbia, South Carolina fiber production facility in 2018. The CHP plant reduces its greenhouse gas emissions by 26,000 metric tons per year – the equivalent of taking approximately 5,500 passenger vehicles off the road each year (Source: epa.gov).

With funding from the Wind Energy Technologies Office’s Competitiveness Improvement Project, Northern Power Systems designed a new blade and rotor assembly for its 100 kW wind turbine. The new rotor design increases blade length, and optimizes aerodynamics for reduced sound and greater efficiency without increasing cost. The newly developed, 100C-24 rotor yields an annual energy production increase of 15% over previous models.

In 2018, Texas Nameplate Company (TNC) joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Plants Program and made a commitment to reduce energy intensity in its U.S. manufacturing operations by 25% within the next ten years. True to its motto – “Our Nameplates Are Green” – TNC is committed to sustainability. It is a paperless facility and has developed its own patent-pending iScrubber machine, which enables them to reclaim old solvents and cycle them back through the machine for reuse. It has also reduced its water usage by 90% by reusing water during its processes.

A U.S. subsidiary of Irish-based Ocean Energy Ltd., together with Vigor, a Portland, Oregon-based shipbuilding and manufacturing company based, signed a $6.5 million agreement to design and construct the 35-meter hull of Ocean Energy’s wave energy converter buoy at Vigor’s fabrication facility. The OceanEnergy Buoy is a wave energy converter comprised of new reinforced composites, aluminum, and stainless steel to prevent corrosion and survive in uncompromising ocean environments. The buoy design requires expertise from a number of different engineering and manufacturing disciplines. Vigor brought together competencies in machining and highly complex fabrication from its work in the marine industry, the aerospace industry, and the electrical industry in order to build the complex structures of the 35-meter hull of Ocean Energy’s wave energy converter buoy.

TPI Composites partnered with the Wind Energy Technologies Office, Advanced Manufacturing Office, Sandia National Laboratories, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory to demonstrate innovations in additive manufacturing for wind turbine components and tooling. This innovative approach eliminated the need for a “plug,” or foam material machined to the shape of the final wind blade; increased the speed of innovation; and incorporated labor-saving forced hot air systems to cure the resin, all while still maintaining compatibility with subsequent steps in the existing blade manufacturing process.

With funding from the Wind Energy Technologies Office’s Competitiveness Improvement Project, Xzeres is designing a consolidated electrical system by bringing the turbine controller and inverter into a single modular enclosure, enabling simple installation and service. As part of the upgrade, Xzeres will add active rectification for better control, increased performance, and longer generator life as well as a system for easy integration with battery and solar technologies. Through these upgrades, Xzeres aims to reduce the 442SR’s levelized cost of energy by 25% and increase system compatibility.

SimpleFuel was announced in 2017 as the winner of the H2 Refuel H-Prize competition, which challenged America’s innovators to deploy an on-site hydrogen generation system, using electricity or natural gas, to fuel hydrogen vehicles that can be used in homes, community centers, small businesses, or similar locations. SimpleFuel's home scale refueling appliance can provide a 1-kilogram fill to vehicles in 15 minutes or less at 700 bar using hydrogen produced via electrolysis, with a cost-effective design that minimizes setback distances and reduces the physical footprint of the system. SimpleFuel is a collaboration of three companies: Ivys Energy Solutions (Massachusetts), McPhy Energy N.A. (Massachusetts), and PDC Machines (Pennsylvania). PDC Machines has broken ground on a new manufacturing facility located in Warminster, Pennsylvania which will have a dedicated production line for the SimpleFuel refueling appliance and will add 20 jobs to the local economy.

With funding from the Bioenergy Technologies Office, Forest Concepts, LLC developed the Crumbler® rotary-shear biomass pre-processing system which enables high moisture biomass to be milled to final size for direct delivery to biochemical conversion when green feedstocks are desired, and to be milled to final size before drying when dry feedstocks are desired.

With funding from the Vehicle Technologies Office, EnerG2 constructed a manufacturing facility to produce high-quality carbon materials for use in batteries and ultra-capacitors for electric drive systems. These materials could provide a low-cost method of reducing transportation-related emissions to meet 2040 target levels.