MRI: Acquisition of a Large High-Temperature Vacuum Press for Advanced Materials Research, Manufacturing and Training at NC State University

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This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award will support the acquisition of a diffusion bonding hot press furnace (furnace) with high-temperature capabilities to enhance research and education at North Carolina State University (NCSU) and area universities and industries. The furnace will catalyze fundamental research on new manufacturing processes and materials-- leading to enhanced performance, safety and efficiency for products ranging from aircraft to biomedical devices. The furnace will be integrated into courses on advanced materials and manufacturing and used for outreach activities in additive manufacturing, including a Manufacturing Summer Camp for high school and middle school students. It will help to foster collaborative efforts with industry and to give students exposure to research experiences in partnership with industry.The furnace will enable fundamental studies to understand the effect of processing parameters on the performance of selected material systems, which range from metal foams to high temperature multifunctional ceramic sensors and from high entropy alloys to reinforced Ti matrix composites. Potentially transformative research on composite metal foam technology can enable higher energy absorption, excellent radiation shielding, blast resistance, and good thermal insulation. This instrument will allow the fabrication of the metal foams more consistently and reliably at much larger and testable scales. The research on the development of high temperature sensors would be potentially transformative by allowing the microstructure and properties of the sensors to be controlled through the control of their thermal history. There is a great need for such multifunctional ceramics at ultrahigh temperatures for structural health monitoring.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.