If you see a concrete structure of any kind, be it a building, road, or maybe piece of art, in all likelihood it’s supported by rebar. While there are a few varieties of steel rebar, from the standard steel to epoxy coated, they all suffer from corrosion issues.
Two doctoral graduates from MIT launched a startup called Allium Engineering a few years ago that’s taking aim at that issue by manufacturing steel that's able to resist corrosion through an innovative stainless steel cladding process. The company says this technology can more than triple the lifetime of key infrastructure such as bridges, which would allow for significant cuts to steel and concrete production, two of the largest carbon dioxide emitting industries.
To share more about Allium, how the company got started and the technology behind it, Allium’s co-founder and CTO Sam McAlpine stopped by for a chat with ASME TechCast.