• Ardagh Group is to buy (from Wayzata Investment Partners) US-based Anchor Glass Container Corp. for $880 million. The deal is expected to close at the end of August 2012. Anchor, the third largest glass container manufacturer in the US, produces 5.6 billion containers annually from its eight facilities in the US.

• Flat glass prices increased by 0.1% in June 2012 following no change in May 2012, according to the latest Producer Price Index report released by the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Overall, the price of flat glass increased by 1.4% from June 2011 to June 2012.

• It’s official now: Vitro’s Spanish subsidiary Vitro Cristalglass has been declared insolvent. The company said it took the decision as a result of the economic crisis in Europe, particularly the construction industry, where Vitro Cristalglass conducts its business.

• Calderys B.V. (Netherlands) has been awarded a contract by Technip Benelux B.V. for detailed engineering and supply of refractory materials for the biggest hydrogen reformer Technip has ever built, with final destination at LCC-RN Tuapse Refinery in Russia.

• It is reported that PT Krakatau Steel Corp. of Indonesia is set to build a mega blast furnace worth $621.81 million with a target of the operation in early 2015.

Link: ACerS

Ceramics Make Electronic Devices Possible

The nearly $2-trillion global electronics industry would not exist without ceramics. Ceramics’ wide range of electrical properties including insulating, semi-conducting, superconducting, piezoelectric and magnetic are critical to products such as cell phones, computers, television, and other consumer electronic products. The global market for electronic ceramics is estimated at around $9 billion.

Ceramic spark plugs, which are electrical insulators, have had a large impact on society. They were first invented in 1860 to ignite fuel for internal combustion engines and are still being used for this purpose today. Applications include automobiles, boat engines, lawnmowers, and the like. High voltage insulators make it possible to safely carry electricity to houses and businesses.

Save the Date!

ACerS Electronics and Basic Science division will host Electronic Materials and Applications 2013
in Orlando, Fla. January 23 – 25, 2013. EMA 2013 will focus on focuses on
electronic materials for energy generation, conversion and storage applications.

Ceramics Improve Antenna Performance

The next generation of mobile phone antennas would not be possible without special ceramics developed by Morgan Advanced Ceramics for Sarantel, a leading miniature antenna specialist. Sarantel’s PowerHelix range uses a patented design in which copper tracks, deposited onto a small ceramic cylinder, are individually and automatically laser trimmed for optimum frequency response.

Currently, this type of antenna is used in GPS applications, where its zero ground plane allows space saving in handheld and portable equipment. When mounted side by side, the antennas can also be used in combined applications such as Bluetooth and GPS without loss of performance. However, it is within the mobile phone market that the PowerHelix range may be of most benefit. Under E-911 Legislation in the United States, it will soon be mandatory for GPS receivers to be built in to mobile phone handsets, so that the technology can be used to help emergency services respond more effectively to distress calls. 3G mobile and Wi-Fi networks are also potential applications.

The continuing debate over the health implications of using mobile phones is another major issue. International safety regulations defined in terms of the specific energy absorption rate (SAR) encourage optimization of the ratio of radiated power versus absorbed power in the user head. The patented PowerHelix antenna design significantly reduces the losses of current that can cause an incident magnetic field at the user’s skin. A specific ceramic is used that enables the manufacture of antennas which yield just five per cent of the radiation emitted by other systems.

Transistors Advance With Ceramic Material

Intel is combining new high dielectric ceramic and metal materials to build the insulating walls and switching gates of its 45 nanometer transistors. Transistors are tiny switches that process the ones and zeroes of the digital world. The gate turns the transistor on and off and the gate dielectric is an insulator underneath it that separates it from the channel where current flows.

Hundreds of millions of these microscopic transistors-or switches-will be inside the next generation of multi-core processors, resulting in record-breaking PC, laptop and server processor speeds. By replacing the conventional dielectric material with a thicker hafnium-based oxide material, transistor gate leakage is reduced by more than 10 times and transistors can be made smaller, increasing transistor density by approximately two times.

When the hafnium ceramic is combined with a compatible metal gate, the result is more than a 20 percent increase in drive current (higher transistor performance) and more than a five times reduction in source-drain leakage, thus improving the energy efficiency of the transistor. The smaller transistor size means active switching power is reduced by approximately 30 percent.

More: www.ceramics.org

Second-order nonlinear optical properties are fundamental for applications such as frequency conversions. Glass ceramics are of great interest for the development of optical elements with meter-scale dimensions for high power laser facilities.

A typical crystallized spherulite.

Now, a research group has reported a reproducible and fast-technique to prepare transparent glass-ceramics, through a phase separation process leading to approximately 30µm crystallized spherical area called spherulites. The group performed Raman and second-order nonlinear investigations using an original multi-scale approach from the nanometer up to the millimeter scale. Both the far field response of the material and the individual response from the crystallites were addressed. For the first time, spherulite crystallization has been linked with a 3-D isotropic second-order nonlinear optical signal. Furthermore, the researchers suggest a mechanism at the origin of this signal, and demonstrate a new approach for isotropic frequency conversion in transparent inorganic materials.

This research is part of the NANONLO European Project MTKD-CT-2006-042301, where French and Greek scientists are investigating new glass-ceramics with a reduced refractive index contrast between the glass matrix and spherulites, for elaborating fully transparent materials. The group say that this will constitute the focus of their future efforts.

Link: http://www.materialsviews.com

Woven silicon carbide ceramic fibers. Credit: Christian Heiss et al.; MaterialsViews/Wiley.

Textile structures made from silicon carbide fibers are very interesting for manufacturing of fiber reinforced high temperature resistant ceramic matrix composites materials. To produce such textile structures a one or multi-step manufacturing processes like braiding, weaving, warp, or weft knitting is necessary. Depending on the fiber packing density and orientation the fabric structure, the stiffness, deformation, and fracture behavior of the fabric structure vary in a wide range.

In contrast to woven fabrics, which exhibit a low drapability and stretchability in different directions, warp-knitted fabrics are formed by creating loops which give rise for high flexibility and deformability. However, a high Young’s modulus and low deformability of the carbide fibers makes loop formation during knitting difficult. Bending of fibers is also affected by the friction which is caused by ribbing between fibers and the machine parts and by the friction between the fibers inside the roving.

Recently, scientists from the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, demonstrated the manufacturing of knitted fabrics made of silicon carbide ceramic fiber. In an article that appears in Advanced Engineering Materials, “Manufacturing of Silicon Carbide Knit Fabrics” (doi:10.1002/adem.201100192), they show how they derived the critical bending loads from fiber knot and loop testing in order to optimize yarn pretension, working speed, and take up speed during knitting processing. Subsequently, they tested and examined the mechanical behavior of the knit fabric under tensional load.

The investigations show that fiber fracture during knitting can be caused by torsion, bending, or tension. The German researchers considered fiber bending as the critical loading condition imposing boundary condition on the knitting process. Reduction of interfiber friction surface sizing was found to be a critical step in order to produce a continuous knit structure.

The scientists modified the processing conditions for knitting and reduced buckling and friction acting on the silicon carbide ceramic fiber rovings. Using penetrating oil the points of largest friction between fibers and critical knitting elements were lubricated which decreased fiber fracture. Compared to woven silicon carbide fabric structures the knitted fiber perform offers a superior flexibility, wider range of pore size and a higher degree of drapability.

Martin Grolms writes for MaterialsViews, where this post originally appeared.

A new research report titled, “Sol-Gel Processing of Ceramics and Glass” has been released by Reportlinker.com. The report is an update of the market report published in 2006, and it provides the most current information on the sol-gel industry.

Major objectives of the report are as follows:

To identify and profile companies involved in the development of sol-gel-derived products
To discover the technological and business issues associated with the development and manufacture of sol-gel-derived products
To provide a summary of a variety of commercial products produced with the sol-gel technology and their applications and
Others.
Sol-gel processing is a low-temperature processing methodology that uses chemical precursors and can produce ceramics and glass with better homogeneity and higher purity than conventional high-temperature methods. It can be used to produce materials with various compositions in different forms, including porous membranes, monoliths and composites, coatings and thin films, fibers and powders. The process is also ideal for producing organic or inorganic hybrids. One of the important benefits of the sol-gel technology is that it can create compositions that are impossible with conventional processes. In addition, the mixing molecular-scale mixing of the precursors which results in homogenous mixtures is maintained in the final product.

One of the major application fields of sol-gel-derived products is coatings and thin films that are used in optical, electronic and electro-optic devices and components. They are also utilized to produce antireflection coatings for architectural and automotive applications and protective and decorative coatings for use on metal, glass and other substrates. Composite powders made from sol-gel are ideal for use as herbicides or agrochemicals.

Additionally, the technology can be utilized to infiltrate fiber preforms to produce composites. Recently, sol-gel has been used in biotechnology applications, including drug delivery for medicine, environmental testing, biochemical process monitoring and food processing.

Source: http://www.reportlinker.com/

A new research report titled, “Sol-Gel Processing of Ceramics and Glass” has been released by Reportlinker.com. The report is an update of the market report published in 2006, and it provides the most current information on the sol-gel industry.

Major objectives of the report are as follows:

To identify and profile companies involved in the development of sol-gel-derived products
To discover the technological and business issues associated with the development and manufacture of sol-gel-derived products
To provide a summary of a variety of commercial products produced with the sol-gel technology and their applications and
Others.
Sol-gel processing is a low-temperature processing methodology that uses chemical precursors and can produce ceramics and glass with better homogeneity and higher purity than conventional high-temperature methods. It can be used to produce materials with various compositions in different forms, including porous membranes, monoliths and composites, coatings and thin films, fibers and powders. The process is also ideal for producing organic or inorganic hybrids. One of the important benefits of the sol-gel technology is that it can create compositions that are impossible with conventional processes. In addition, the mixing molecular-scale mixing of the precursors which results in homogenous mixtures is maintained in the final product.

One of the major application fields of sol-gel-derived products is coatings and thin films that are used in optical, electronic and electro-optic devices and components. They are also utilized to produce antireflection coatings for architectural and automotive applications and protective and decorative coatings for use on metal, glass and other substrates. Composite powders made from sol-gel are ideal for use as herbicides or agrochemicals.

Additionally, the technology can be utilized to infiltrate fiber preforms to produce composites. Recently, sol-gel has been used in biotechnology applications, including drug delivery for medicine, environmental testing, biochemical process monitoring and food processing.

Source: http://www.reportlinker.com/

KEMET, a provider of high performance capacitance solutions, has added C0G and Ultra-Stable X8R dielectric technologies to its flexible termination (FT-CAP) portfolio. These technologies are RoHS compliant and lead-free and are suitable for a wide range of applications that require effective and reliable performance.

Electronic parts are frequently subjected to severe vibration and flexing when they are utilized in different automotive and other harsh applications. In addition, mishandling during assembly of circuit boards may expose these parts to extreme flex and mechanical stresses. Under these conditions, the flexible termination technology from KEMET has proven to be a successful solution in reducing the damage risk to the multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC).

Dr. Abhijit Gurav, VP of Ceramic Technology at KEMET, stated that the C0G-type capacitors integrated with flexible termination technology deliver high performance and excellent capacitance stability of about 125ºC. They help meet the need for highly robust technologies in audio, power supply, mobile communications, telecom and automotive applications. Gurav added that the Ultra-Stable X8R-type capacitors from KEMET is ideal for high temperature applications and they decrease flex cracks that may be created under extreme board flex situations associated with handling, assembly and harsh environment up to 150°C.

The Ultra-Stable X8R delivers temperature capability similar to conventional X8R, but with no capacitance loss because of applied DC voltage. The device is an ideal alternative to higher capacitance and larger footprint solutions that do not offer capacitance stability.

Source: http://www.kemet.com/

KEMET, a provider of high performance capacitance solutions, has added C0G and Ultra-Stable X8R dielectric technologies to its flexible termination (FT-CAP) portfolio. These technologies are RoHS compliant and lead-free and are suitable for a wide range of applications that require effective and reliable performance.

Electronic parts are frequently subjected to severe vibration and flexing when they are utilized in different automotive and other harsh applications. In addition, mishandling during assembly of circuit boards may expose these parts to extreme flex and mechanical stresses. Under these conditions, the flexible termination technology from KEMET has proven to be a successful solution in reducing the damage risk to the multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC).

Dr. Abhijit Gurav, VP of Ceramic Technology at KEMET, stated that the C0G-type capacitors integrated with flexible termination technology deliver high performance and excellent capacitance stability of about 125ºC. They help meet the need for highly robust technologies in audio, power supply, mobile communications, telecom and automotive applications. Gurav added that the Ultra-Stable X8R-type capacitors from KEMET is ideal for high temperature applications and they decrease flex cracks that may be created under extreme board flex situations associated with handling, assembly and harsh environment up to 150°C.

The Ultra-Stable X8R delivers temperature capability similar to conventional X8R, but with no capacitance loss because of applied DC voltage. The device is an ideal alternative to higher capacitance and larger footprint solutions that do not offer capacitance stability.

Source: http://www.kemet.com/

Congratulations! Innovacera official website is running!

Congratulations! Innovacera official website is running!