News

July 8, 2026

3 MIN READ

ORNL earns five DOE Transportation Technologies Office awards

ORNL received five of nine awards from the U.S. Department of Energy's Transportation Technologies Office at the 2026 Annual Merit Review for innovations in transportation efficiency, vehicle technologies, and advanced manufacturing. The honors included two individual Distinguished Achievement Awards and three team awards recognizing advances in commercial vehicle modeling, fuel economy resources, rare-earth-free electric motors, advanced truck materials, and computational welding technologies.

April 23, 2025

1 MIN READ

Feng honored by American Welding Society

August 28, 2024

3 MIN READ

Marine engineering group to award ORNL researchers for innovative welding software

ORNL researchers Zhili Feng and Jian Chen in the Materials Science and Technology Division at the ORNL, will receive the Elmer L. Hann Award at the Society of Naval Architects and Maritime Engineers Convention. This award honors their innovative work on a user-friendly software tool that can quickly analyze and determine the best order for performing welds on ship structures.

December 12, 2022

7 MIN READ

Army strong: Research teams join forces to invent weld wire for tank, infrastructure repair

The U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense teamed up to create a series of weld filler materials that could dramatically improve high-strength steel repair in vehicles, bridges and pipelines.

November 22, 2019

3 MIN READ

Friction welding cooks up ‘steel onion rings’

Now scientists in the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Materials Science and Technology Division (MSTD) have collaborated with JFE Steel Corporation on using ORNL’s friction stir spot welding (FSSW) technology to join overlapping sheets of JFE’s advanced high-strength steel.

April 16, 2018

1 MIN READ

Welding institute honors ORNL’s Feng, David

Zhili Feng, a research at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been elected fellow of the International Institute of Welding (IWW) "for lifetime achievement through distinguished contributions to the field of welding science and technology,...

February 8, 2018

6 MIN READ

Researchers run first tests of unique system for welding highly irradiated metal alloys

Scientists of the Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program (LWRS) and partners from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have conducted the first weld tests to repair highly irradiated materials at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

August 3, 2016

1 MIN READ

Hydrogen – Coming to a station near you

A stationary vessel developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers Zhili Feng and Yanli Wang could be the key to less expensive hydrogen storage, making it possible for more hydrogen-powered vehicles to hit the road in the near future. Feng and Wang have designed a...