Net Shape Forming of Fine Grain Structural Ceramic Components

The very high cost of forming finished parts from advanced engineering ceramics severely limits their widespread use. Superplastic forming can help address this technology barrier. Unfortunately, until recently, nothing could be done to induce superplasticity in ceramics. This program will utilize recent breakthroughs that now reproducibly suggest the potential of superplastic forming. It is anticipated that if successful, this program will launch a technology that can reduce the cost of forming complex shapes from normally-difficult-to-process ceramics by an order of magnitude. Nanomaterials Research Corporation (NRC) expects to establish the proof-of-concept of the technology during Phase I (our focus: silicon carbide) and during Phase II, accomplish scale up and optimization of the technology. Phase III will commercialize the technology.