Wood Based Advanced Ceramics Materials

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Over the past decade, there have been several government research programs that have demonstrated that ceramics can outperform metal components by as much as two orders of magnitude in high wear conditions. In each case the technology has not been introduced to the marketplace because of the very high processing cost of the ceramic. This new process has the potential for being very low cost which is key for the commercialization of these ceramics. For the first time, we believe that the utilization of low cost manufactured wood products as the raw materials for the ceramic process has the potential for producing silicon carbide materials at a cost that is competitive with metals and can outperform them in many corrosion and wear applications.