Keep ‘Em Flying Laser Peening Keeps Aircraft Turbine Blades in Action

How many times in the past year have I heard the word " syn-ergy " ? And of those times, how many were at home with my wife or out at a restaurant? I would guess that the ratio is something like 10:0, because like so many other management clichés or buzzwords, " synergy " lives only at the office. Things like " cooperation, " " give-and-take, " and " understanding " live at home. Why does this matter? Honestly, it probably doesn't, but aren't we all just a little overloaded with how many catch-phrases come along? I recall having lunch with the CEO from one of the nation's largest manufacturers of industrial carbon products a few years back. He said that there were three kinds of organizations in business: there were those that resist change, those that accept change, and those that seek change. He wanted his company to be the latter. It is assumed in there somewhere that CHANGE… is GOOD, but I digress. In the early 1900's, the main use for oil in this country was for lighting. This application however, was quickly being supplanted by electrically energized lights, and things looked pretty bleak for the oil industry in the US. But then, out of the blue came a new application for oil and refined fuels: the automobile. Right around the time one application was dying, another came along and saved an industry. (The rise of the automobile practically wiped out the saddle and horseshoe businesses of course, as every change has consequences.) In our business, we see change all the time. Sometimes it is legislative change, such as Acquisition Reform, other times it is simply a shift in thinking or technology. Most changes are for the better, like when we learned about duc-tile-to-brittle transition temperatures in steels for Liberty Ships, or machining larger radius fillets in crankshafts to reduce stress concentration. Like Helmut Panke (current Chairman of BMW A.G.) has said, any organization that does not adhere to the triple-A strategy of adaptivity, agility and anticipation will not survive long in today's climate. Changes in technology, legislation, innovation, and even thinking will always alter the landscape for materials and their applications. As such, change is inherent in all we do, because we are forever pushing our own boundaries with innovative development of new materials or clever re-application of existing materials. Materials engineers, by our very nature, …