Morgan Technical Ceramics is promoting its range of striped tubes for the defence sector with an innovative design, offering lower frequency and increased drive for applications where high acoustic transmitting properties are required.

Ideal for a variety of defence uses including anti-submarine warfare, torpedo decoy and countermeasure, the striped tubing can achieve typical frequencies of 12-15 kHz for a two inch tube and guarantees higher, stronger acoustic signals underwater. The key to the product’s success lies in its revolutionary striped design.

In contrast to a standard tube, which has three main resonance modes (length, wall and circumferential), Morgan Technical Ceramics’ innovative striped tubes have one main resonance – the circumferential mode. In 99 per cent of cases, circumferential mode (low frequency) is chosen for underwater transmission applications to allow the signal to move further away from the source.

Having focused and refined performance through the circumferential mode, the striped tubing features segments which are equally distributed around the circumference, and the space in between the positive and negative electrodes is generally greater than the wall thickness. As the distance between the electrodes is much larger, this allows a user to apply a much higher voltage, and thus achieve a higher acoustic output. If a strong, acoustic signal is needed from a standard tube, its wall thickness limits the higher vibrations achievable.

The striped tube range is available from 12.70 mm (1/2”) to 101.60 mm (4”) diameter tubes with lengths ranging from 10 mm to 75 mm (under ½” to 3”); Morgan Technical Ceramics can also make the product in 152.4 mm (6”) to 202.8 mm (8”) diameter tubes with lengths of up to 75 mm (3”). Larger or smaller sizes are available on request, dependant on available tooling.

The striped tubes are generally manufactured from PZT401 and PZT807 which are hard PZT materials for increased robustness and longevity but this offers low sensing properties. If a striped tube is required for receive/sensing, rather than transmission, Morgan Technical Ceramics can offer an alternative striped tube product made from a softer material such as PZT5A1 which is more sensitive. Applications for this would be more confined to commercial purposes, such as for bore hole investigation, oil exploration and drill navigation.

In receive/sensing mode a standard tube will see uniform pressure on OD/ID and voltage output will be proportional to the D33. In a striped tube, the same happens but the voltage is proportional to the D31 which is much lower than D33.

Richard Carus, product sales manager – Piezo Components for Morgan Technical Ceramics, said: “We work closely with our clients in the defence and security industries to listen and really understand their challenges. The launch of the striped tube range reflects our commitment to radical innovation and to bringing to life the products that our clients want and need. We believe that this ethos to work for our customers is what allows us to retain our position as leader in the design and manufacture of electro ceramic products for the security and defence markets.”

GREENVILLE, S.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Aug. 16, 2012– AVX Corporation (NYSE:AVX), a leading manufacturer of advanced passive components and interconnect solutions, announced today that the major automotive supplier Robert Bosch GmbH, has joined the AVX “Solutions for Hope” Project.

We are very pleased to have Bosch, one of the world’s premier electronics suppliers to the automotive sector participate in our project said Peter Collis Vice President of the tantalum products.

The “Solutions for Hope Project,” established in July 2011, works with leading OEMs such as Motorola Solutions, Intel, and HP to deliver a “closed-pipe” process for delivering conflict-free tantalum material from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in accordance with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) due diligence guidelines and incorporating the independently-validated Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (EICC) and the GLOBAL e-SUSTANABILITY INITIATIVE (GeSI) Conflict-Free Smelter (CFS) program.

The “Solutions for Hope Project” remains the only project to exclusively utilize EICC/GeSI validated Conflict-Free Smelters for processing tantalum ore into capacitor-grade materials.

AVX is the first in its industry to validate a closed tantalum pipe process, assuring all products contain only conflict-free tantalum in accordance with the principles of the Dodd-Frank legislation and the current OECD guidelines.

“AVX will continue its leading role by working with a growing list of major electronics companies like, Robert Bosch GmbH in the Solutions for Hope program. This program demonstrates that verifiably conflict-free tantalum material can be mined and shipped in a manner that is reliable, sustainable and expandable, allowing the DRC to be utilized as a trusted regional source for responsible minerals,” said Bill Millman, Tantalum Divisional Director of Quality and Technology.

For further information on this project, please contact Bill Millman at AVX: +44 (0) 1803 697211 or conflict.free@eur.avx.com

COSTA MESA, CA–(Marketwire – August 10, 2012) – Ceradyne, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRDN) announced that it has acquired a minority interest with an option to acquire all of Tempe, Arizona-based Graphite Machining Services and Innovations, LLC (GMSI). GMSI has developed a proprietary method of applying a chemical vapor deposited (CVD) silicon carbide ceramic coating on precision machined graphite shapes. The resultant product is used in the manufacture of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for the rapidly growing solid state lighting market.

GMSI’s expertise and technology have been focused on the precision machining of ultra-high quality graphite shapes since its founding in 1984. The demand for state-of-the-art components for use in the MOCVD (Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition) process in the manufacturing of LEDs has led to GMSI’s shift in technology and manufacturing capacity to serve the LED and other semiconductor markets.

This acquisition of GMSI will not materially affect Ceradyne’s 2012 financial performance.

Mr. David Reed, president of Ceradyne’s North American Operations, commented: “We are excited about this relatively small but high technology investment in GMSI. It fits very well with our diversification strategy, coupled with our interest in building out Ceradyne’s advanced technical ceramics portfolio. Furthermore, the market for efficient, environmentally friendly LED lighting systems is expected to grow very rapidly over the next ten years.”

Mr. Reed further stated, “The GMSI facility in Tempe is absolutely first class and GMSI’s president, Peter Guercio, and his partners, Rex Dillman and Dale Beeck, are excellent additions to Ceradyne’s entrepreneurial, technology-driven culture.”

Peter Guercio, GMSI’s president, commented: “The relationship with Ceradyne is perfect. It is clear to us with the growth opportunities we see ahead that we will need the resources of a larger technology operation. Ceradyne and its advanced technical ceramic focus is the ideal partner. We are looking forward to our growth in the burgeoning LED markets.”

About Ceradyne, Inc.
Ceradyne develops, manufactures, and markets advanced technical ceramic products and components for industrial, energy, automotive/diesel, and commercial applications.

In many high performance applications, products made of advanced technical ceramics meet specifications that similar products made of metals, plastics or traditional ceramics cannot achieve. Advanced technical ceramics can withstand extremely high temperatures, combine hardness with light weight, are highly resistant to corrosion and wear, and often have excellent electrical capabilities, special electronic properties and low friction characteristics. Additional information about the Company can be found athttp://www.ceradyne.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
Except for the historical information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future performance of Ceradyne that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends,” “future,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011 and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ceramic Pumps for Pilot Plant Fluid Control

Fluid Metering’s valveless, ceramic pumps are designed for pilot plant fluid control. The sapphire-hard internal components of the pumps eliminate accuracy drift typical of pumping systems that rely on valves and elastomers (flexible tubing and diaphragms) to move fluid through the pump. The valveless rotating/reciprocation piston design eliminates the need for check valves, which can clog, leak or fail over time. The result is a maintenance free, drift-free fluid control that will hold an accuracy of 1 percent or better for millions of cycles. Flowrates can be infinitely controlled either mechanically and/or electronically via standard industrial control protocols. Flow control is viscosity-independent for added flowrate stability. Pump models are available to dispense as low as 5 µL per dispense up to 4 L per minute continuous metering.

Linked: http://www.flowcontrolnetwork.com

Authors of an new Early View story on the website of the Journal of the American Ceramic Society report about a solution they have found to some of the problem of shrinkage and deformation that occurs during sintering of large and complex parts composed of one type of bioactive glass.

The investigators, who are from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany) and the BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Berlin), have been looking at how to improve the performance and production of 3D-printed “13-93″ bioactive glass and they say the addition of hydroxyapatite powder, creating a glass–ceramic composite for 3D printing, creates a finished product that retains more of the critical shape and dimensions during sintering than pure powders of the glass.

13-93, a silicate-based glass, isn’t new and several groups of researchers (such as Rahaman et al.) have generally documented that 13-93 is a good candidate material for non-load bearing uses in joint replacement and tissue engineering. The active interest in bioactive glasses, such as 13-93, is in large part due to the apparent ability of the material to accelerate the body’s natural healing process.

Different groups had experimented with using different processes to create green body structures using 13-93 powders and filaments, including fairly precise 3D fabrication and finishing methods, such as selective laser sintering. However, generally speaking, the larger and more complex the green body is, the more problematic sintering becomes. The authors of the JACerS paper report these types of parts “may deform significantly as a result of gravity, surface tension, intrinsic strain or temperature and density gradients. This complicates congruent or net-shape processing.”

The attractiveness of 3D processing is the promise of high-quality and easily reproducible shapes, pore size and distribution, etc.

The payoff in the German group’s work is that they found that a 13-93/HAp powder mix using 40 wt% of crystalline material provided the best combination of geometric stability and viscous sintering. They tested this formulation using the complex cellular cubic structure pictured above, and they were quite happy with the results. They note

“In this way, an overall axial shrinkage of about 20.5 ± 0.5% was obtained in all three dimensions. The diameter of cells was reproduced with an accuracy of 15 ± 5%, whereby the deviation is most probably related to surface effects induced by the printing process and manual powder removal. The ratio between individual cell diameters—the fingerprint of the specific structure—was reproduced with an accuracy of about 2%. … these data demonstrate very good reproduction of the 3D-printed part after sintering.”

Also, the addition of the HAp powder seems to not increase the propensity for crystallization of the bioglass, another problem that may change the properties that made the material desirable in the first place.

The authors suggest that other glass–ceramic composite candidates should be suitable for similar production methods.

More information can be found in “Sintering of 3D-Printed Glass/HAp Composites (doi: 10.1111/j.1551-2916.2012.05368.x).

Edited By Peter Wray • August 10, 2012

Linked: ACerS

Most all of us in the ceramics field, to greater and lesser extents, have been rooting for A123 Systems to succeed, so its been painful to see the company in recent months entering what appears to be a death spiral. Yesterday, with the release of A123’s Q2 financial reports and the official announcement of a Chinese company taking a major ownership stake in the enterprise, the direness of its straits became fully stark.

In an online report, A123 Systems said, “Total revenue for the second quarter of 2012 was $17.0 million, a decrease of 53% from $36.4 million in the second quarter of 2011. Within total revenue, product revenue was $11.5 million, a 61% decrease from $29.6 million in the second quarter of 2011, and services revenue was $5.5 million, a decrease of 19% from $6.8 million in the second quarter of 2011.” Ouch.

The profit/loss picture was even uglier: “Gross loss was ($29.2) million in the second quarter of 2012, compared to a gross loss of ($17.5) million in the second quarter of 2011.”

Clearly, this was an untenable situation and something had to give. Thus, it is not surprising that the company simultaneously announced that it had reached a “nonbinding” agreement with China-based Wanxiang Group Corp. that would permit the company to invest up to $450 million in A123 Systems, with the option of an additional investment of $175 million. (Practically speaking, the “nonbinding” adjective means Wanxiang may decline to make the investment if circumstances and facts change, and the two sides “are currently negotiating definitive documentation.”)

A123’s announcement describes the Wanxiang Group as “China’s largest automotive components manufacturer and one of China’s largest non-government-owned companies.”

A123 CEO David Vieau says in the announcement that the agreement

“… is the first step toward solidifying a strategic agreement that we believe would remove the uncertainty regarding A123’s financial situation. A substantial capital investment from Wanxiang would not only provide financial stability to A123 as we continue to grow, but it would also align us with a large, successful global brand in the automotive and cleantech industries. Wanxiang has a successful track record of operating in the US with significant employment and commitment to good corporate citizenship, and we expect that a strategic agreement with Wanxiang would help enhance our competitive position in the global marketplace, especially in China.”

It may be jumping the gun a bit, but the Wall Street Journal and Reuters are reporting that with these moves, Wanxiang is grabbing the reins of of A123.

Will the investment work? The WSJ reports that Wanxiang “has been an active buyer of distressed auto-parts makers for nearly a decade.”

But, I don’t think it is going to go well for the Obama administration and the DOE, who provided a grant to A123. The development is going to be a headache, and is sure to be spun as something along the lines of Solyndra 2.0.

Edited By Peter Wray • August 9, 2012

Link: http://ceramics.org/

Transparent solar cells for windows that generate electricity

On the left is a piece of glass plate, and on the right is the transparent solar cell

High-resolution imageCredit: Rui Zhu, Ph.D., one of the co-authors

“Visibly Transparent Polymer Solar Cells Produced by Solution Processing”
ACS Nano

Scientists are reporting development of a new transparent solar cell, an advance toward giving windows in homes and other buildings the ability to generate electricity while still allowing people to see outside. Their report appears in the journal ACS Nano.

Yang Yang, Rui Zhu, Paul S. Weiss and colleagues explain that there has been intense world-wide interest in so-called polymer solar cells (PSCs), which are made from plastic-like materials. PSCs are lightweight and flexible and can be produced in high volume at low cost. That interest extends to producing transparent PSCs. However, previous versions of transparent PSCs have had many disadvantages, which the team set out to correct.

They describe a new kind of PSC that produces energy by absorbing mainly infrared light, not visible light, making the cells 66 percent transparent to the human eye. They made the device from a photoactive plastic that converts infrared light into an electrical current. Another breakthrough is the transparent conductor made of a mixture of silver nanowire and titanium dioxide nanoparticles, which was able to replace the opaque metal electrode used in the past. This composite electrode also allowed the solar cell to be fabricated economically by solution processing. The authors suggest the panels could be used in smart windows or portable electronics.

The authors acknowledge funding from the Engineering School of UCLA, theOffice of Naval Research and the Kavli Foundation.

Vitox® AMC, an alumina matrix composite bioceramic material for hip joints from leading manufacturer of ceramic components, Morgan Technical Ceramics, is proven to have exceptionally low wear rates compared with alternative materials. This provides a reliable solution without the potential health risks associated with metal hip joints, whilst being longer lasting, and enabling patients to continue to lead active lifestyles.

Developed in conjunction with the National Institute for Applied Sciences at the University of Lyon (INSA Lyon) in France, and Durham University in the UK, Morgan Technical Ceramics has produced two new studies in hip joint wear:

‘Comparative ageing behavior of commercial, unworn and worn TZP and zirconia-toughened alumina hip joint heads’ and ‘Wear performance of advanced new generation ceramics: zirconia, alumina and zirconia toughened alumina applied in hard-on-soft and hard-on-hard hip prostheses’.

Morgan Technical Ceramics works with universities worldwide and has been supplying the global medical industry with ceramic components for more than 25 years.

In the study with Durham University, a polyethylene UHMWPE cup loaded against the
Zirconia-based heads produced the wear rate of 0.9307 mm3/106 cycles. However, comparatively there was considerable wear reduction for full ceramic couples. The steady-state wear rate was 0.0053 ± 0.0032 mm3/106 cycles (mean ± SD) for Vitox® AMC cups.

The studies also highlight that Vitox® AMC has shown an outstanding ageing stability with no sign of degradation over a period longer than human life.

“Our aim was to find a way to combine high wear resistance, excellent mechanical properties and long term stability into a single bioceramic that would also improve comfort and quality of life for patients,” says Yannick Galais, commercial manager at Morgan Technical Ceramics.

“I’m delighted that these reports demonstrate that our Vitox® AMC bioceramic really is harder wearing and lasts longer than alternatives.”

The report is available online at:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955221912000179

Vitox® AMC is a high purity, sub-micron grain alumina matrix composite offering a 55% increase in 4-point flexural strength and a 12.5% increase in fracture toughness compared to high purity implantable grade alumina. Materials specialists within Morgan Technical Ceramics have formulated the composite material with the intention that the mechanical properties of alumina can be enhanced.

The Vitox® AMC high strength and mechanical properties offer a wide range of design possibilities.

The composite material can be used to manufacture larger diameter femoral heads and thin wall section acetabular cups which are proven to reduce the likelihood of dislocation by providing a more stable joint, which can be a problem in patients who have undergone total hip replacement arthroplasty surgery. Larger bioceramic hip joints similar in diameter to natural bone feature, give recipients a wider range of motion without the potential for dislocation, improving quality of life.

Vitox® AMC can also be used for a new form of arthroplasry which has been developed for bone preservation. The new products are designed for minimal invasive procedure, require intricate shapes and thin wall sections and are designed for easier revision surgery for a subsequent total hip replacement device.

Vitox® AMC can be used in ceramic-on-ceramic systems or in conjunction with a polyethylene and metal acetabular cup in hip replacements.
Metal is still widely used in hip joints, however, recent reports have shown there to be potentially serious health risks caused by tiny metal ions can break off from the implants and leak into the blood, causing local reactions that destroy muscle and bone, cause severe pain and even long-term disability. Traditional metal–polyethylene hip implant wear also generates polyethylene particulate debris, inducing osteolysis, which can lead to the weakening of surrounding bone resulting in loosening of the implant, a primary cause of costly revision operations.

Vitox® AMC was developed at Morgan Technical Ceramics’ facility in Rugby, UK, which is certified with the ISO13458 standard for the design and manufacture of medical devices.

For more information contact +441788 539 220, or visit the web site www.mtcrugby.com/products/medical-implants/

Texas Technical Ceramics, Inc. (TTC) announced today that it has been awarded a three (3) year contract with Backer EHP for mass production of approximately 45 Million ceramic parts per the contract terms. The specialized ceramic parts consist of various electrical insulators made of Steatite, a crystalline form of magnesium silicate, which offers superior strength and safety for temperatures up to 2,000° F. TTC has proudly served the electrical market for more than 25 years and continues to be a trusted partner offering high quality products and superior customer service, at competitive prices.

Headquartered in Murfreesboro, TN with an additional plant located in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico- Backer EHP has been a leader in electric heat applications for almost 100 years. Formerly known as Chromalox, Backer EHP is globally recognized for providing high quality products for the cooking, water heater, dish washing, lighting and HVAC markets. For more information about Backer EHP you may visit them on the web at www.backerehp.com.

Texas Technical Ceramics, Inc. (TTC) is proudly located in Willis, Texas and offers advanced ceramic products to an array of markets to include: electrical, oil and gas, power, agriculture and aerospace. Established in 1981, TTC offers superior products that meet and exceed the expectations of its global customers by providing cost efficient solutions with high quality and quick-turn production. TTC has extensive experience with custom and mass production of parts using the most innovative materials such as Alumina, Cordierite, Spinel, Wollastonite, YTZ and Zirconia.

For more information about this project or to discuss your ceramic manufacturing needs, please contact Jeff Lassinger at (724)-353-1585 or by email at jlk@associatedceramics.com. You may visit TTC’s new website coming soon at www.texastechnicalceramics.com or its partner company www.associatedceramics.com.

Edited By Peter Wray • July 27, 2012 (No Comments)

Many of the same materials used in semiconductor processing are being applied to textile materials. Credit: Jur, NCSU.

The notion of ceramics going together with fabrics is a little counterintuitive. Mixing the hard stuff with soft threads? But, it’s true, and sort of like peanuts on top of an ice cream sundae—a great combination can occur. Actually, it’s really not all that counterintuitive if one considers just one application developed years ago that must have seemed a little hard to believe when it was introduced: fiberglass.

There are several groups of researchers that have been experimenting with blending ceramic materials and fabrics, yielding applications that range from the relativey simple to the extremely novel and robust.

For example, at the simple end of the spectrum, shirts are now available that claim to permanently incorporate sunblocking materials into their threads. That seems great to me. As a runner and someone who has already had one run-in with cancer, I am very watchful (if not a little paranoid) about sun exposure and wear long sleeve shirts outdoors (even when swimming). Cotton or cotton-blends seem to do a good job of blocking the sun, but hold perspiration like a sponge. As an alternative, I tried wearing some of the lightweight synthetic “wicking” shirts designed for sports, but I always wondered whether the meshy material was blocking all of the UV rays.

That was before I ran across Coolibar long sleeve athletic shirts. Coolibar claims to be the first company to “develop UPF 50+ apparel and hats using a proprietary fabric with zinc oxide that cannot be absorbed by the skin, cannot wear or wash off and safely deflects all UV rays.” Coolibar also makes attire with another UPF 50 fabric that contains TiO₂. (The UPF designation is the fabric corollary to the SPF system for sunscreens.) Coolibar says its fabrics have been evaluated by an independent lab following testing and labeling standards established by ASTM (D6544 andD123) and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists. I just purchased several of these shirts and look forward to testing them during the rest of the summer.

Coolibar’s apparel is an example of ceramic science joining up with textiles that is easy to understand. A bigger stretch is some of the work being conducted at North Carolina State University, and reported in the new August issue of ACerS’ Bulletin, where researchers are experimenting with some novel ceramic surface treatments of textiles.

One NCSU group is using atomic layer disposition to expand the boundary of traditional textiles by exploiting the conducting and semiconducting properties of ceramic nanoscale materials. Jesse S. Jur and Gregory N. Parsons, professors at NCSU, discuss in one of the Bulletin stories how ALD-processing can be used for the fabrication of electronic devices using textiles. They note, for example, that ALD can be used to create building blocks for responsive sensors. “The nanoscale surface coverage of ALD offers the ability to fabricate device layers that take advantage of the high surface area and strategic structure-property relations available through the use of a textile substrate,” Jur and Parsons report. “This is important in the formation of responsive materials with electrical behavior that changes when flexed or exposed to certain chemicals, that is, fabrics that act as platforms for all-fiber-based electronic devices.” Jur and Parsons detail some of the materials being examined as well as the challenges to scaling up high-throughput ALD techniques, and they sketch a future where applications for surface-modified textiles (woven and nonwoven) go well beyond traditional clothing, furnishings and protective coverings.

Another Bulletin story, by Tiina Nypelö and Orlando J. Rojas, focuses on the combination of ceramic materials and cellulose to create new types of functionalized fibers. Nypelö, a postdoctoral student, and Rojas, another NCSU professor, report on the use of coatings of clay, calcium carbonate, TiO₂, silica and magnetic particles on emerging cellulose-based materials. They describe organic-inorganic hybrid fibers that could be used for flexible, printed electronics, circuit board bases, sensors, actuators and resistance temperature detectors as well as conductive, magnetic and piezoelectric films.

Thus, from shirts to sensors, it seems that the emerging ceramics–fabrics mashup isn’t all that odd, and, the benefits loom large.