Acquisition of a Modern Hot Press

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This new hot press will to be used to fabricate ceramic samples with microdesigned interfacial defect structures. The hot press is capable of reaching a temperature of at least 1600 C, at pressures as low as 10_3-10-4, at a rate of about 1-2 C/min. It would be housed in the Ceramics Research Laboratory, within the Department of Materials Science and Mineral Engineering. The research programs most affected involve a method of combining photolitho- graphic techniques with ion beam etching and hot pressing to produce microdesigned interface structures. The method allows model experiments investigating high-temperature crack healing, pore boundary interaciton, pore drag, pore coarsening, and pore elimination and network evolution during sintering. Examples of projects underway by faculty members include applications of microdesigned interfaces to crack healing studies and pore-boundary interactions in ceramic materials, ceramic-ceramic joining, ceramic-metal interface studies, whose research projects include sintering studies. Collaborative research topics with scientists at other universities and industry include fracture behavior of ceramic-metal interfaces, creep cavitation, segregation to internal cavity surfaces, vapor phase growth of single crystal whiskers, and NDE. About 12 graduate students are working with the faculty members directly and several undergraduates.