Low Cost Manufacturing of Advanced Undersea Actuator Materials

Single Crystal relaxor ferroelectric materials have been found to have significant electroacoustic property enhancements compared to their polycrystalline counterparts. Navy underwater acoustic projectors would benefit significantly from the high sound pressure levels and compactness that such transducer materials make possible. The key to their successful application in many Navy transducer systems is to achieve a low cost, high volume manufacturing process. In Phase I, Materials Systems Inc. plans to demonstrate the basic feasibility of recrystallizing net shape injection molded relaxor ceramic 1-3 preforms at a manufacturing viable production rate using two methods of seeded solid state conversion. In Phase II, the Phase I process work will be extended to refine the process parameters for high rate crystallization and to improve actuation performance. Single crystal SonoPanel¿ 1-3 composite transducers will be fabricated to demonstrate in water performance. The technology will be inserted into ongoing MSI 1-3 composite projector development and manufacturing programs under Phase III.