WVU engineers received “the Oscar of innovation,” an R&D 100 Award for developing advanced manufacturing process

Statler College Chair for Research Xingbo Liu received the “Oscars of Innovation” — honoring the top 100 proven technological advances of the past year as determined by a panel selected by R&D Magazine. (WVU Photo/Paige Nesbit)

An advanced manufacturing process for aerospace industries, developed in part by West Virginia University researchers, received global recognition for its versatile capabilities in transforming the energy industry.  

Story by Paige Nesbit and Micaela Morrissette
Photos by Paige Nesbit

Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

The R&D 100 award was received by Professor Xingbo Liu, associate dean for research and Statler Chair of Engineering at the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources and colleagues in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering. The awards, known as the “Oscars of Innovation,” honor the top 100 proven technological advances of the past year as determined by a panel selected by R&D Magazine. 

Liu and his team led the development of SAM-J, supported by over $6 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and in partnership with collaborators including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, GE Vernova, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, and Carpenter Additive. 

Already patented and licensed by GE Vernova for use in the company’s new turbine systems, SAM-J will enable industries from energy to aerospace to use 3D printing to weld together metals to ensure the joints can withstand extreme stress. 

“‘SAM-J’ stands for ‘solid-state additively manufactured transition joints,” Liu said. “It's a significant advancement in joining science and a solution for reliably connecting dissimilar metals in extreme environments, with potential for revolutionizing the energy industry and the design of supercritical reactor boilers.” 

Liu explained that SAM-J solves problems of safety, durability and performance by addressing the problem of “creep,” or the gradual deformation that occurs when two dissimilar metals such as steel and nickel are joined together using conventional welding techniques. The 3D-printing process behind SAM-J solves these issues for products ranging from turbine engine parts, car bodies, reactor components and marine hulls. 

Creep isn’t the only concern SAM-J addresses. Liu explained that some metals are incompatible with each other, causing the seams or joints where the metals are welded together to form brittle compounds during the welding process. Disparities between how the different metals expand when they’re heated stress the composite material, causing it to fail at the heat-affected zone well before either of the original metals would have. Metals welded using the SAM-J process, however, do not experience these premature failures. 

“Compared to standard processes, SAM-J enables a remarkable improvement in the creep rupture life of the welded alloy, taking it from 214 hours to 1,420 hours. The multistep SAM-J process incrementally blends the alloys, creating a solid-state bond,” Liu said. “That smooth transition is what allows products manufactured with SAM-J to operate reliably in the high-temperature, high-pressure, corrosive environments where current welding approaches often fail.” 

The R&D 100 Awards span industry, academia and government-sponsored research organizations. This is the sixth R&D 100 Award won by researchers at WVU since 2011 and the fourth received by Statler College innovators. 

“At WVU, we believe great research should make a direct impact. This partnership with ORNL, GE, UNL, and Carpenter allows us to translate our cutting-edge findings in advanced manufacturing into practical, market-ready technology,” Xingbo explained. “It’s a powerful model that fuels industry innovation, creates high-value jobs, and demonstrates how a land-grant university serves as an economic engine for our state and the country." 

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