DOE funds energy-efficient sheet metals research

Graphic of sheet metal shaving process
The process the Purdue team will study involves shaving a single sheet of metal off a block in one go, as opposed to rolling it out repeatedly. (Courtesy: Srinivasan Chandrasekar, Kevin Trumble, and James Mann/Purdue University)
A multidisciplinary Purdue Engineering team received a U.S. Department of Energy grant to study ways to save energy in motorized machines that produce sheet metal. Purdue IE‘s Professor Srinivasan Chandrasekar and Research Engineer James Mann are part of the three-year project.

"This is an exciting project, with potential to enable new processes for producing electrical steels," said Chandrasekar and Mann. "Innovation in electrical steel sheet production is considered critical for commercialization of high-efficiency electrical power systems. In a broader context, it could also be a game changer for the sheet metals processing industry. The Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office award is a recognition of Purdue's research strengths in this area."

The project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between Purdue's School of Industrial Engineering and School of Materials Engineering.

Read the full WBAA article "DOE Funds Purdue Research On Making Energy-Efficient Sheet Metals", by Annie Ropeik, published June 5, 2017.