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 defense, 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

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