Processing of metal-ceramic composites using microwave heating

2^nd International Conference and Expo on Ceramics & Composite Materials

July 25-26, 2016 Berlin, Germany

Dinesh Agrawal, Jiping Cheng, P G Karandikar and M K Aghajanian

Pennsylvania State University, USA
M Cubed Technologies Inc., USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Material Sci Eng

Abstract :

Microwave technology is an emerging field in materials processing for synthesis, sintering, melting, joining, surfacemodifications, recycling of waste products, quality improvements, etc. Microwave processing of materials is highly attractive and recognized for its many advantages namely energy-efficiency, substantial reduction in process cycle time, providing fine microstructures leading to improved mechanical properties and eco-friendliness. This presentation describes microwave application to fabricate metal-ceramic composites by molten metal infiltration and reaction bonding in-situ process. Metal Ceramic Composites (MCC) offers tailorable physical, thermal and mechanical properties for a variety of applications. Conventional fabrication of the composites using molten metal infiltration mechanism involves use of the resistance heated furnaces and takes very long processing cycle time. This work relates the ability of microwave to enhance the infiltration and reaction processes to fabricate composites. Identical composite compositions were also fabricated using conventional heating for comparison. Properties of the composites made by microwave heating were comparable or better than the properties of the composites made by the conventional methods. Substantial process time reductions were achieved for all the infiltration processes using microwave. Several prototype components for real applications were fabricated to demonstrate process scale up.

Biography :

Email: dxa4@psu.edu