The francophone village of L’Orignal, Ontario hosts an expanded steel plant operated by IVACO Rolling Mills with 500 employees, and is now one of North America’s largest producers of hot rolled wire rod and continuous cast steel billets. At the time of the expansion in 2013, which increased its steel billet capacity by over 50% and added about 75 jobs, IVACO’s general manager, Dr. Nicholas Nickoletopoulos, attributed part of its success to research and development with neutron beams:
“That research helped us build a stronger scientific reputation that was needed to compete in the world market,” said Dr. Nickoletopoulos. “Having detailed, fundamental knowledge of the strain and stress states in our customer’s deformed steel parts allowed us to add value to our products and gain an edge over our competitors.”
Today, research using neutrons for innovation in manufacturing continues to be needed in Canada’s automotive and aerospace as well as metallurgical manufacturing sectors.
