Forging the Future with Finesse in Metals Manufacturing

When you think about it, humans would probably still be living in caves and using rocks to hunt if it weren’t for early-day metallurgists. 

We can’t thank these early innovators directly for their contributions to our modern life, but we can thank those who carry on their legacy. And there are few who deserve those accolades more than the 2024 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Inventor of the Year—Curt Lavender. He was honored for a lifetime of invention and collaborations that led to patents, licenses, awards, and national impact.

It would almost be easier to make a list of metal-driven industries in the United States that he hasn’t influenced than those he has. For over 40 years, Lavender has been a problem solver and inventor for a long list of domestic vehicle manufacturers, aircraft makers, and industrial aluminum companies. He even invented a titanium dental tool. 

“He has a unique skill set,” said Darrell Herling, a one-time Lavender-protégé at PNNL who is now a PNNL program manager for vehicle technologies, as well as a frequent collaborator and friend. “He can take a very deep dive into metallurgy, materials science, and materials processing, talk about the science and how that translates into engineering solutions, but then, most importantly, relay all of that to industry in a way where they get it almost immediately.”

Lavender deflects credit for the Inventor of the Year award, preferring to heap praise on his colleagues. He insists on attributing his successes to the remarkable teams he has worked with and the synergistic nature of his collaborations. Yet this humble approach reflects his deep respect for the disciplines involved in his projects and his tendency to avoid interfering in others' expertise to promote positive outcomes. 

“It’s exciting—you walk down the hall, and you’re surrounded by world-class experts. Bringing all of that together for multi-discipline projects is when you really see the power of the Laboratory in action,” he said. “Part of the reason I am here at PNNL is that we can leverage a diverse talent pool to address complex challenges. We have solid fundamental metallurgy, mechanical and mathematical modeling expertise, and some of the most advanced imaging and characterization available anywhere. If you come to us with a problem we are going to draw on this talent pool that really can’t be found in many other places.”

From the lab to your car’s hatchback

Lavender reaches back to his early work with General Motors as an example where PNNL innovation had real- world impact.   

He led the team that made superplastic forming of aluminum into a breakthrough with national implications for the automotive industry. The innovation involved an advanced understanding of aluminum metallurgy and forming processes to achieve high volumes of production necessary for automakers. PNNL’s role was to validate the technology, which involved perfecting the process that allowed aluminum to flow and recombine into finished parts for vehicle doors, latches, and other specialized parts. Once commercialized, the process allowed vehicle makers to make lighter weight vehicles without sacrificing safety. Lavender noted that among the long-term impact of this work included training graduate students who went on to become leaders at several automakers. 

“Seeing the superplastic-formed aluminum at high volumes—it was really satisfying because it had a national impact,” he said. 

His work expanded over the years to developing, patenting, and licensing nano-structured materials and powder metallurgy innovations for high-performance uses in the aerospace industry. 

Metals taking ShAPE™

Lavender’s career reflects a deep understanding of the challenges faced by major corporations in scaling innovations. His experience in translating research into production is evident in his previous work with Sandvik Special Metals (now Alleima), a large global specialty metals company, where he successfully transitioned dozens of research projects into scalable industrial applications. This practical experience imbued in him a rare asset: the ability to operate at the interface of science, engineering, and business. 

“The transition to production is even more difficult—particularly for big companies like General Motors—but I managed to do it dozens of times while I was at Sandvik. That was a really tough environment,” he said. 

Implementing change into mature manufacturing facilities is very difficult, he added.

Lavender is quick to point out that all of his early career experiences—from his years as a manager leading teams that made titanium products, to his work with sheet aluminum for automakers—all of it informed his input into an entirely new PNNL-patented metal-forming process now known as ShAPE™.  

While the technology has evolved greatly since its early R&D era around 2004, it had its genesis in a project that Lavender led with Alcoa aluminum company in the 1990s. The company, he explained, wanted to reduce time and costs by eliminating some processing steps. In signature Lavender style, he listened to the ask and then came up with an even better idea. He knew that metal could be formed without heating and melting it using high temperatures. His work with GM showed that extreme friction created by a rotating die could produce an incredibly strong welded seam without melting the metal. 

In the early 2010s, he began exploring the ability of extreme deformation to make automotive metals absorb more energy during crash events. This collaboration with Magna International opened the scientists’ eyes to what high-shear solid state processing could do to enhance metal properties.

His dedication to not just solving existing problems but creatively exploring uncharted territory led to the technology known today as ShAPE™, and an advanced manufacturing test bed with multiple commercial partners helped to unlock its potential for industrial applications. 

“His foundational work and continued advisory role has blossomed into an entire research field where 34 distinct projects and dozens of staff are using three variations of the ShAPE™ machines to understand scalability, make scientific discoveries, and develop new materials,” said Scott Whalen, a chief scientist in PNNL’s Applied Materials and Manufacturing group and co-inventor of ShAPE™. 

PNNL’s Office of Collaboration and Commercialization has pursued partnerships to align ShAPE™ technology development with real-world needs while demonstrating its potential to scale for industrial use in metal recycling, ultra conductors, transportation, energy, construction, and national security.

“It was always great—a bit crazy—but honestly exciting to see how this lab curiosity has started finding real-world applications,” Lavender said.

Transitioning away from weapons-usable nuclear materials

Today, Lavender focuses most of his time on matters of national security, ensuring that the weapons-usable materials in decommissioned nuclear weapons can be transitioned to peaceful uses while preventing misuse by bad actors. At first it may not be simple to connect his career in metallurgy to one in nuclear non-proliferation, but to him it’s a straight line. 

“There are many businesses that exist because of aluminum composites we made decades ago,” he said. “And now, forty years later, here we are making aluminum composite for nuclear fuel.”

Lavender’s deep knowledge of metal powder behavior and friction stir welding led to an innovative process that starts with depleted uranium mixed with weapons-grade enriched uranium to form what’s called high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)—a form considered safe from exploitation as a weapon. The team then reacts the HALEU with silicon to make uranium silicide that is subsequently crushed to make fuel powder. The team compacts aluminum and silicide powders using high-pressure water to form it into a small brick. That brick gets encased in an aluminum pouch and is welded together using PNNL’s friction stir welding process.

“This is a great story for solid phase processing,” he said. “The weld we create doesn’t melt the fuel and doesn’t increase the temperature, which is very important for the integrity of the uranium plate.” 

Ultimately, the team rolls out the brick into a thin plate that will fit into a nuclear reactor core at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), the strongest reactor-based neutron source in the United States. The thermal and cold neutrons produced by HFIR are used to study physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, and biology. The HALEU research is supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration. 

“Curt has extended the frontiers of nuclear materials processing and built that capability within our laboratory,” said Vineet Joshi, a PNNL metallurgist and a close collaborator. “From casting and rolling, to heat treatment and hot isostatic pressing, we’ve integrated all these processes along with our modeling and advanced characterization capabilities for uranium-based alloys. Over the past decade, this work has resulted in more than 50 high-impact publications on uranium metallurgy.”

While the team is still several years away from placing a full element in a nuclear reactor, this is the kind of research that can only be done at a national laboratory as part of its mission, Lavender said.

It’s a fitting capstone to a career that has been a testament to the transformative power of teamwork, curiosity, and commitment to innovation.

Learn more about how PNNL works to transfer technology to industry applications.