MSE Team

Faculty | Staff | Grad Students | Undergrad Students | Others

Edward A. Laitila

Engineer/Scientist
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
628 M&M Building

906.369.2041
906.487.2934 Fax
ealaitil@mtu.edu

Shipping/Mailing Address

X-Ray Diffraction Facility

Education

AAS Electrical Engineering Technology MTU 1982
BS Electrical Engineering, MTU 1989
Currently Completing Graduate Degree in Materials Science and Engineering

Research Interests

X-ray diffraction theory and applications, mechanical alloying, intermetallic materials, physical metallurgy, nanoscale materials, composites, materials characterization, and powder metallurgy.

Teaching Interests

Focus on X-ray diffraction techniques; laboratory courses, MY3200 and MY5260. Other laboratory involvement, MY3210, and MY4130.

Department Responsibilities

X-ray Facility Manager including training, maintenance, repair, data analysis, consultant, etc. Other responsibilities include; electronic equipment repair and support, materials characterization, customized electronic instrumentation fabrication, and general course support. Additional interests in outreach programs particularly developing new programs and developing demonstrations in the area of Materials Science.

Facility Locations

All facilities are located in the Minerals and Materials Engineering (M&M) building, designated as building 12 on the MTU campus map. X-ray Diffraction Laboratory room 629, X-ray Fluorescence Laboratory room 630, Undergraduate X-ray Laboratory room U105, Undergraduate X-ray Data Analysis room U104.

X-Ray Diffraction Facility

Skills

Extensive x-ray powder diffraction data analysis skills including development of several unique data analysis techniques, repair and maintenance of x-ray diffractometer's and fluorescence spectrometer, custom electronic fabrication skills (developed several electronic based instruments for materials property measurements among other applications), mechanical property measurements, and extensive experience in optical microscopy and digital image analysis. Experience using the scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM).

Selected Publications

J.J. Le Claire, E.A. Laitila, and D.E. Mikkola, Forming nanostructured cubic trialuminide/carbide composites by mechanical milling followed by thermal processing, Scripta Materialia, Vol. 50, 2003, 95-98

D. Dewald, M. Austin, E.A. Laitila, and D.E. Mikkola, Cubic titanium trialuminide thermal spray coatings-a review, Journal of Thermal Spray Technology, Vol. 10, No. 1, March 2001, 111-117

B.J. Pletka, R.I. Schultz-Kramer, and E.A. Laitila, Artifacts in X-ray diffraction experiments, NASA Conference Publication, 2000, 529-542, NASA; 1998

Consulting

• Caterpillar Inc.
• Applied Process
• Brush Wellman
• Aspen Systems Inc.
• Nucor Steel
• InKote
• NASA
• Peninsula Copper Industries
• GS Engineering
• Leggett and Platt
• Larpen Supply Company Inc.
• GENTEX Corporation
• Quantum Catalytics
• Cayenne Systems Inc.
• Cleveland-Cliffs Inc.

Top