Every industry has defining moments. Often, those moments are affected by technological innovation. But sometimes political, social or environmental events determine an industry’s direction. The imminent completion of the European Union’s nickel risk assessment is one such event.
In a related thought, we recently received a request from a customer to map out the development of nickel alloys over the past sixty years. So we turned to Don Tillack, one of our metallurgical consultants in the U.S., who responded with a personal chronological summary:
1940s -- Probably the most significant nickel alloy development of the 1940s was N07750, which enabled early test airplanes to withstand the high temperatures and stresses inside the jet engines required for supersonic flight.
1950s -- The 1950s saw the development of N08800, a lower nickel alloy which was developed because of the scarcity of nickel during the Korean War. It was subsequently used in many diverse applications across a wide range of industries.
1960s -- The biggest development of the 1960s was N07718, an age-hardenable superalloy which was quickly specified by gas turbine manufacturers for the demanding high-temperature engine components. The alloy is still widely used in these applications and accounts for about a third of the engine weight of all gas turbines manufactured in North America.
1970s -- The 1970s saw the introduction of mechanical alloying. The most successful alloy to evolve from this process was N07754, which was used in gas turbine engines for fighter jets because of its high strength at high temperatures.
1980s -- In the 1980s, the further refinement of the nickel-chromium-molybdenum alloys for corrosive service continued with the introduction by Haynes of alloy N06022.
1990s -- The 1990s saw the continued fine-tuning of many alloy systems and the further refinement of alloys developed for advanced melting techniques, such as single crystals.
The above is how one high-temperature alloy specialist sees the industry. It illustrates how early alloy innovations were driven by military requirements. What is encouraging is that today the drivers include environmental and the quality of life considerations. The announcement on page five of a new superalloy, for example, makes clear that nickel alloys have a role to play in extending the utility of a finite resource and reducing pollution. Therefore, the present decade may well be remembered as a time when regulatory requirements began to affect technological innovation. If we were to go back to Don Tillack five years from now, his summary for this decade might read as follows:
2000s – Alloy developments in the early part of the 21st century were influenced by careful attention to how human activity affected the planet and the health of populations. Whether it was the Kyoto Protocol or the nickel risk assessment in the European Union, the climate in which alloys were developed changed. Market-driven rewards and regulation-driven challenges co-existed.
One expected result of the EU risk assessment will be new occupational health regulations. To ensure that a balance is maintained, the entire nickel supply chain will need to ensure that the benefits of nickel-containing materials are understood by society. This will require a concerted and co-ordinated communications effort on the part of the entire nickel supply chain.
To help you learn more about this important issue, the Nickel Institute maintains a web site on this topic which we encourage you to visit:
www.nickelforum-eura.org
