BYLINE: Tina Johnson
The Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering has named the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory because the recipient of the 2025 SAMPE Organizational Excellence Award. The nationwide award is offered yearly in recognition of extraordinary contributions throughout the superior supplies and processes neighborhood throughout industrial, educational and governmental sectors.
“ORNL is leading the way in carbon fiber and composites research, and we’re helping move these materials from the lab into real-world use. The breakthroughs our teams are making are changing the game for industries like aerospace, automotive, energy, defense and even the nation’s infrastructure,” stated Robert Wagner, affiliate laboratory director for the Energy Science and Technology Directorate.
ORNL is house to state-of-the-art DOE person amenities, such because the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF), the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility and the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, house to the world’s first exascale supercomputer, Frontier. These superior sources allow scientists to push the boundaries of supplies science by atomic-level analyses and AI-driven simulations, revolutionizing the sector of superior composite supplies.
The MDF, supported by DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, is a nationwide consortium of collaborators working with ORNL to innovate, encourage and catalyze the transformation of U.S. manufacturing. Learn more about working with the MDF.
Key ORNL contributions to composites analysis and business transformation embrace:
- Pioneering large-scale additive manufacturing of polymers and composites
- Developing low-cost carbon fiber for lightweighting and vitality effectivity
- Conducting revolutionary analysis in high-performance thermoset and thermoplastic composites
- Creating extreme-environment composites for aerospace and hypersonic functions
The award was introduced throughout a ceremony Sept. 8 on the Composites and Advanced Materials Expo on the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. Vlastimil Kunc, part head for composites science and expertise at ORNL, accepted the award on behalf of ORNL.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the only largest supporter of primary analysis within the bodily sciences within the United States. The Office of Science is working to handle among the most urgent challenges of our time. For extra data, please go to energy.gov/science. — Tina Johnson