The agreement is also being signed by DOE's Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago and DOE's Albany Research Center in Albany, Ore.
Secat is a University of Kentucky-affiliated for-profit newly formed company that serves as a technical forum for the aluminum industry. Secat has been a user in ORNL's Metals and Ceramics Division's MPLUS facility, which is funded by DOE's Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT). Programs currently under way with Secat and funded by the OIT Aluminum Vision Team include research into how to reduce stress cracking in aluminum ingots and how to reduce oxidative melt loss in aluminum and aluminum alloys.
ORNL Director Bill Madia signed the agreement for ORNL. Subodh K. Das signed for Secat. Other ORNL officials on hand were Gil Gilliland, associate laboratory director for Energy and Engineering Sciences; Everett Bloom, director of the Metals and Ceramics Division; Tony Schaffhauser, director of the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs at ORNL; and Jan Haerer, director of the Office of Technology Transfer and Partnerships.