Conform process development

Mentioned as the redundant-deformation process Phelps Dodge used to win the replacement contract; also as the process the Army is now evaluating for magnesium armors. British lab origin. ## Cases mentioned in passing

They countersued. They had a fixed-price contract, and they could have made an extra few million dollars if they'd been able to buy from this one small firm. They had justified going to that firm by claiming they had tried to source everywhere in the world and no one else would bid on the specification. Which wasn't true. They were lying. Phelps Dodge, the second-largest copper company in the world, headquartered in New Jersey, had been begging this British company who was building the extension to let them put in a bid. Phelps Dodge had a new process with what we call redundant deformation. The Army's looking at this same Conform process for some new magnesium armors now — developed in one of the British labs — where you really get a lot of work into the metal and get very fine grains.

British severe-plastic-deformation extrusion process from ~30 years ago, in which metal is squeezed through a 90° die at 30× normal extrusion energy, yielding extreme strength and ductility. Tom's Phelps Dodge trolley-wire procurement for the New Hampshire–Boston rail connection used Conform-made wire.

Last week when I was down at the Army, they were trying to develop new types of armor, not by rapid solidification, but they have a process the British developed and tried to commercialize 30 years ago, where they really sort of knead the metal. You put 30 times the energy into it, and you squeeze it out an extrusion hole — actually you squeeze it this way and it comes out at 90° — and it's called the Conform process. You can get some incredible properties. I mentioned the trolley wire — the trolley wire they ended up buying from Phelps Dodge for the New Hampshire-Boston connection was made by the Conform process. Fantastic strength and ductility. Remember we talked about that last time.