Hitachi Donates $140,000 Worth of Equipment for New Engineering Lab
Posted April 13, 2000
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| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Thursday, April 13, 2000 | 2000-04-09-ENG
Hitachi Donates $140,000 Worth of Equipment for New Engineering Lab
"Creep" refers to the phenomenon of stretching that occurs when metals bearing heavy loads are exposed to very high temperatures. The new lab, located in the Engineering Building, will be used initially to test how steels perform when stressed at very high temperatures.
A key application of this research will be in the selection of materials and design of components used in steam turbines. This research could reduce the operational downtime of power utilities by extending the life of steel components, thereby improving the reliability of power generation.
Hitachi, a Saskatoon-based supplier of parts and services to the power generation industry, will also contribute $15,000 toward the lab's first research project - a study of the creep behavior of alloy steels used in steam turbines.
"In addition to benefitting the power generation industry, the new lab and research funding will further faculty research and enable our students to be trained on the latest high-tech equipment in a leading area of engineering research," said U of S president Peter MacKinnon. "This partnership with Hitachi will help make U of S a Western Canadian leader in this industrially important area of engineering."
"We're proud to contribute to the U of S which has graduated 10 of the 12 engineers we've hired," said Hitachi president Hiroshi Yamaguchi. "In fact, a key reason Saskatoon was selected as the base for our Canadian operations was because of the quality of the engineering graduates here."
He said the research to be done at the new lab will enable Hitachi to determine whether commercially available steels can meet performance tests for use in the company's steam turbines. "At present, we use custom-made materials which are more expensive and difficult to source," he said.
Spiro Yannacopoulos, professor and head of the department of mechanical engineering, said he intends to seek matching funds from NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) for the steel alloy research.
"The creep behavior of steels used for steam turbine applications is of great importance due to the high operating temperatures to which these steels are subjected," he said.
"As industry seeks to improve the efficiency of steam turbine processes by increasing the operating temperature, the high temperature behavior of materials becomes of increasing importance."
He noted that two graduate students will be working in the new lab by the fall.
For more information, please contact:
Prof. Spiro Yannacopoulos
U of S Department of Mechanical Engineering
(306) 966-5449
Kathryn Warden
Research Communications
Office of the Vice-President Research
(306) 966-2506
