TOP technologies of the year

A look back at some of the most significant technological innovations during the past year.

Craftsmen for centuries have improved the strength of metals with hammering. Today, aerospace manufacturers use shot peening to place similar strength-inducing deformations into metal components. Now, in a process that goes one better than shot peening, an industry/military team has made significant progress in the study and application of low-plasticity burnishing (LPB) for the mitigation of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and fatigue damage in high-strength steels.

The process of LPB was originated and patented by Cincinnati, OH-based Lambda Technologies. It previously has been demonstrated as an approach to substantially increase the foreign object damage (FOD) tolerance of turbine engine components. In their most recent investigations, researchers at Air Force Research Laboratory tested the use of LPB on 300M steel, which is widely used for aircraft landing gear. Like other high-strength steels, 300M is vulnerable to corrosion fatigue and SCC, which, if left unresolved, can lead to failure of the landing gear.