Boosting Coercivity of 3D Printed Hard Magnets through Nano-Modification of the Powder Feedstock.

The demand for strong, compact permanent magnets essential for the energy transition drives innovation in magnet manufacturing. Additive manufacturing, particularly Powder Bed Fusion of metals using a laser beam (PBF-LB/M), offers potential for near-net-shaped Nd-Fe-B permanent magnets but often falls short compared to conventional methods. A less explored strategy to enhance these magnets is feedstock modification with nanoparticles.

Ecotoxicological soil risk assessment under the new soil exposure framework - an impact assessment.

For the European risk assessment (RA) for soil organisms exposed to plant protection products (PPPs) endpoints from ecotoxicological laboratory studies are compared with predicted environmental concentrations in soil (PEC) at first tier. A safety margin must be met; otherwise, a higher tier RA is triggered (usually soil organism field studies). A new tiered exposure modeling guidance was published by EFSA to determine PEC.

Effect of High-Pressure Torsion on the Microstructure and Magnetic Properties of Nanocrystalline CoCrFeNiGa (x = 0.5, 1.0) High Entropy Alloys.

In our search for an optimum soft magnet with excellent mechanical properties which can be used in applications centered around "electro mobility", nanocrystalline CoCrFeNiGa (x = 0.5, 1.0) bulk high entropy alloys (HEA) were successfully produced by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at 1073 K of HEA powders produced by high energy ball milling (HEBM).

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and the Need for a Meaningful Regulatory Plant Protection Product Testing Strategy.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) perform key soil ecosystem services and, because of their symbiotic relationship with plant roots, may be exposed to the plant protection products (PPPs) applied to soils and crops. In 2017, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released a scientific opinion addressing the state of the science on risk assessment of PPPs for in-soil organisms, recommending the inclusion of AMF ecotoxicological testing in the PPP regulatory process. However, it is not clear how this can be implemented in a tiered, robust, and ecologically relevant manner.

Investigating the role of soil mesofauna abundance and biodiversity for organic matter breakdown in arable fields.

Intact soil food webs are pivotal to maintaining essential soil functions, such as carbon recycling, sequestering, and biomass production. Although the functional role of micro- (e.g.

Holistic evaluation of long-term earthworm field studies with a fungicide.

Plant protection products to be placed on the market in the European Union need to meet rigorous safety criteria including the testing of lumbricid earthworms, the functionally most important soil organism group in Central European agricultural ecosystems. To address uncertainties and investigate the potential long-term in-crop effects of the fungicide Cantus containing 50% boscalid as an active substance, a series of standardized earthworm field studies with an overall duration of 5 years per study program was carried out in four German agricultural fields under realistic crop rotation conditions. A two-step approach was chosen to analyze the potential overall long-term effects on earthworms in agricultural fields: (i) an assessment of the earthworm abundance development in the course of the four study programs in relation to the determined actual content of boscalid in soil and (ii) an effect size meta-analysis of earthworm abundance 1 year after treatment for each consecutive year and study program.

3D X-ray Microscopy of Ultrasonically Welded Aluminum/Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Hybrid Joints.

Ultrasonically welded hybrid aluminum/fiber-reinforced PEEK joints were analyzed non-destructively with an X-ray microscope. The potential and limitations of the technology as a non-destructive testing method were investigated. For a quantitative evaluation, joints with suitable and unsuitable parameters were compared.

Ultrasonic torsion welding of ageing-resistant Al/CFRP joints: Properties, microstructure and joint formation.

Ultrasonic metal welding is a promising process for joining light metals with fiber-reinforced thermoplastics. The technique is characterized by high reproducibility, short process times, low energy input, no additional filler materials and finally the possibility of extensive process data logging. With this process, dissimilar aerospace materials are ultrasonically welded and the applied process parameters are optimized by statistical methods.