A grant worth $3.2 million has been secured for research into new material developed at Iowa State and manufactured in Ames, Sen. Tom Harkin, a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, recently announced.

The material, Terfenol-D, will be used for both Naval applications and civilian products. According to a press release from Harkin’s office, the material may increase sonar performance by 30 times while reducing costs.

“Terfenol-D, developed by the [U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory] at Iowa State, will help the Navy save millions of dollars in equipment costs,” Harkin said in the release.

A spokesperson for Harkin said the hope is for this research money to reduce production costs in order for civilian applications to become more practical.

“There is no question that Terfenol-D will prove useful in the private sector and create jobs in central Iowa,” Harkin said.

The material is manufactured in Ames at Etrema Products, Inc., a subsidiary of Edge Technologies, Inc.

Steven Saint Vincent, director of naval systems at Etrema, said the company is currently the only manufacturer of Terfenol-D in the world. This will allow Etrema to secure an exclusive contract with the Navy for further research.

Terfenol-D is a magnetorestrictive alloy that changes shape in a magnetic field. Kim Hernandez, public relations specialist at Etrema, said many of Etrema’s products that use Terfenol-D, such as transducers and actuators, allow electrical energy to be transferred into mechanical energy and vice versa. The components of Terfenol-D include Terbium, Iron and Dysprosium, from which its name is derived.

Saint Vincent said a 90 percent reduction in manufacturing costs may be attained by improving a number of production processes. Two of the processes include designing more efficient cutters to shape the material and crystal growers that do not require as much purification as is now needed.

Saint Vincent estimated savings to the Navy will exceed $54 million over 10 years. He said this a conservative estimate and does not include savings to civilian industry.

Terfenol-D is used in sonar devices on ships and submarines. With Naval strategy shifting to the Middle East, better sonar is needed for the noisy waters in the region. Saint Vincent said a rod of Terfenol-D about the size of a computer mouse can produce sound pressure 1,000 times greater than that of a jet aircraft taking off.

Sonar devices made with Terfenol-D can monitor multiple frequencies, while current devices can monitor only one at a time, he said.

“What our material allows is … the enabling of warships to better follow targets, track them and thus enhance our maritime security,” Saint Vincent said.

“High-powered ultrasonic transducers” made with Terfenol-D cause chemical reactions to occur. Devulcanization of rubber is one area which Saint Vincent said these processes may prove useful. Devulcanizing rubber allows it to be reused.

“What we’ve done is 150 percent better than anything else in the industry right now,” Saint Vincent said.

There are also acoustic applications of Terfenol-D. Etrema currently makes a speaker for use in laboratory clean rooms. In a demonstration, it was shown how a Terfenol-D product could literally turn an ordinary table into a speaker.

The device is plugged into an audio device and set on a table. The sound from the device is almost inaudible, but when set on the table, the sound information comes through the table. The sound is transferred into the table and the table vibrates in such a way to produce a replication of the music.

The funding was approved June 2 by the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and is on its way to the full Senate Appropriations Committee and then to the Senate floor to be passed.