Virgin Hyperloop tested human travel in a hyperloop pod for the first time in November 2020. Josh Giegel, co-founder and chief technology officer, and Sara Luchian, director of passenger experience, were the first people in the world to ride on this new form of transportation, which can reach speeds of 670 miles per hour using no-contact electromagnetic levitation.

Boeing is advancing its pledge to power worksites and manufacturing facilities using 100% renewable electricity with a multi-state agreement to purchase carbon-neutral power for its Chicago headquarters, along with other sites in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The 2021 Ford Bronco is getting its steel from a mill in Alabama. AM/NS Calvert – a joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel – is producing a new ultra-high-tech steel specifically for the vehicle. Fortiform 980 GI was developed by ArcelorMittal in conjunction with Ford.

Shankar Narayanan, an assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, aims to develop new materials that can protect objects from extreme radiation and temperature variations in space. Narayanan’s work, with the support from a NASA Early Career Faculty Award, is an important step toward enabling long-distance space exploration.

The European Space Agency (ESA) granted a development contract to Dawn Aerospace under the Future Launcher Preparatory Program (FLPP). ESA will support Dawn in developing 3D-printed combustion chambers for high-performance and high-combustion-pressure rocket engines.

According to a report in Metal AM, a team of researchers at Ricoh Company Ltd. developed a binder material that, when combined with a suitable debind and sinter stage, offers the potential to use typical aluminum powders in the binder-jetting process. In addition, the use of a liquid immersion technique developed at Ricoh for removing excess powder makes it possible to form complex internal channels during the process.

If you’re at all like me, you wonder which articles get the most attention on our website. Every year we publish around 45 feature articles, and at the end of the year we gather statistics to see which ones get the most page views. So, without further ado, here are the five most-viewed articles on www.industrialheating.com based on page views. This ranking applies only to articles published in 2020.

Whether for automotive, aerospace or heavy equipment, manufacturers using heat treatment, which can reach temperatures up to 2400°F and vary from a few seconds to over 60 hours, need conveyor belting that can withstand the rigors of the process. However, traditional round balance weave wire belting has changed little in 100 years and often requires annual replacement, causing costly production downtime.

NASA's Perseverance rover, which lands on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, will carry 11 metal parts made with 3D printing. Five of the parts are in the PIXL instrument, and the six other 3D-printed parts can be found in an instrument called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE).

According to a report, Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky and Bell have each begun to forge the aircraft that will compete to become the U.S. Army’s Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA). Sikorsky has pitched a design based off of its S-97 Raider that it is calling the Raider X. Bell has completed multiple design and risk reviews.