Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Temperature Materials Laboratory routinely works with industries toward solving challenging problems. In a recent case, ORNL played matchmaker between a firm with a problem and another with a solution. A North Carolina company, Porvair, came to ORNL for help in evaluating a metallic foam that the firm has developed. About the same time, the paper producer Weyerhauser approached ORNL for help with a problem with stress cracks in some of its heat-recovery equipment. ORNL researchers decided to apply the metallic foam to the problem with the heat-recovery equipment in an attempt to accommodate swelling that causes the cracks. The two companies were introduced and the result is one company with a new customer and another company with a much-improved process.
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