High Tech Ceramics News articles from December 2005

High Tech Ceramics News archives from December 2005

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Rapid Growth Slated For Smart Materials.
December 1, 2005... The term smart materials refers to an interesting class of materials that are able to respond dynamically to external stimuli like heat, humidity, ultraviolet light, and pressure. Smart materials systems have sensing and actuating functions...

PROCESSING AND TECHNOLOGIES Abresist Linings Resist Abrasion and Corrosion.
December 1, 2005... Abresist Corp. manufactures fused cast basalt and ceramic linings that provide abrasion and impact protection. Specifically constructed for use wherever wear and abrasion are a problem, Abresist linings reduce downtime and maintenance. They are...

Porous Zirconia Addition to Cover Plate Range.
December 1, 2005... ESL Electro-Science (King of Prussia, PA) has added porous zirconia cover plates to its product portfolio. An ESL cover plate is a porous, fired ceramic plate used to cover green ceramic parts during firing. Porous alumina and zirconia plates...

METROLOGY AND ANALYSIS Shimadsu's Extensometer Line Offers Greater Precision.
December 1, 2005... Shimadzu Scientific Instruments, Inc. (SSI), a leading developer of analytical instrumentation in the U.S., has launched a more sensitive, more accurate and easier to use SIE-560 series of extensometers. Incorporating Shimadzu's Digital Strain...

STRUCTURAL CERAMICS Ceradyne Receives New Armor Contracts.
December 1, 2005... Ceradyne, Inc. received a $6.0 million order for its lightweight ceramic body armor system for the U.S. Marine Corps. Shipments are expected to commence in December 2005 and be completed in the second quarter 2006. Ceradyne also announced...

Saint-Gobain Inks Contract with Riley Power.
December 1, 2005... Saint-Gobain Ceramics in Worcester, Mass. has signed a contract with Riley Power Inc. (RPI), also based in Worcester, to supply all materials and installation services for the refractories for a new waste-to-energy unit to be built by RPI at...

POWDERS AND NANO CERAMICS Grant for Alternative Energy Program Project.
December 1, 2005... Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. announced that it has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the Indiana Advanced Energy Technologies Program (AETP) initiative. The Indiana Energy Group, a division of the Office of Lieutenant Governor Becky Skillman,...

TiO2 Nanotube Arrays Split Water.
December 1, 2005... Titanium dioxide nanotube arrays that generate hydrogen by splitting water via solar radiation have reportedly been developed at the University of Nevada Reno. This novel method can split water to produce hydrogen energy in a more efficient...

COATINGS Nano TBCs Protect Engine Components.
December 1, 2005... High temperature environments impose significant performance challenges upon engineering design materials. Applied Thin Films, Inc. researchers Francis R. Chapman and Sankar Sambasivan have been actively developing new materials based on...

ADVANCED GLASSESS Ferro's Laser Marking Materials Pass Muster.
December 1, 2005... CerMark Laser Marking Materials is pcccccsart of Ferro Corp.'s Glass Systems business. In a recent announcement, CerMark said that it laser marking materials have successfully survived nearly four years of low earth orbit (LEO) exposure on the...

Schott in Korean Venture for Substrate.
December 1, 2005... Schott AG (Mainz, Germany) entered a joint venture in Seoul, Korea for the processing of large format TFT-LCD glass substrates with Kuramoto Seisakusho Co. Ltd., based in Japan's Miyagi prefecture. Schott holds 75% of the shares of Schott...

BIOCERAMICS Making Implants That Stay Put.
December 1, 2005... The load-bearing ability and the bioactivity of titanium made possible its use in biomedical device applications, especially in hip revision and fixation surgery. It was initially shown that sand-blasted or surface-roughened titanium implants...

MTC to Showcase Ceramic Feed-Thru.
December 1, 2005... Morgan Technical Ceramics (MTC) - comprised of Morgan Advanced Ceramics and Morgan Electro Ceramics - will showcase its new 104-pin ceramic feed-thru at MD&M West at the Anaheim Convention Center, CA, USA from 31 January to 2 February 2006. ...

FILTERS AND MEMBRANES Blasch Launches Line of Ceramic Foam Filters.
December 1, 2005... A new line of high-performance, competitively priced ceramic foam filters -- designed for filtering impurities from liquid metals -- has been introduced by Blasch Precision Ceramics. Blasch's new Cleen-Flo filters are available in three...

BATTERIES AND POWER DEVICES Worldwide Energy Licenses ORNL Technology.
December 1, 2005... Worldwide Energy has announced an agreement to develop and commercialize an advanced solid oxide fuel cell technology developed at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The exclusive patent licensing agreement with...

ELECTRONIC CERAMICS Casix Unveils Nd:GdVO4 Laser Crystals.
December 1, 2005... Casix Inc. announced the introduction of Neodymium Doped Gadolinium Vanadate (Nd:GdVO4) laser crystals for the solid state laser market. According to Casix, the Nd:GdVO4 crystals are ideal laser host materials for diode pumped solid state...

Intel Chip Technology Uses New Materials.
December 1, 2005... Intel Corp.has announced development of a new, ultra-fast, yet very low power prototype transistor using new materials that could form the basis of its microprocessors and other logic products beginning in the second half of the next decade....

Murata Launches Advanced EMI Suppresser Filter.
December 1, 2005... Murata Electronics North America, Smyrna, Ga., a world-leading innovator in electronics and the largest global supplier of ceramic passive components, has unveiled a slimmer and more sophisticated surface mount EMI suppression filter. The new...

An Bright LED That Gives A Warmer White.
December 1, 2005... Lamina Ceramics Inc (Westhampton, NJ) announced the launch of a new super bright, high power LED light engine featuring a warm, eye-pleasing light quality similar to popular halogen and tungsten incandescent lamps. The BL-4000 Warm White with...

SUPERCONDUCTORS AMSC Taps Suzuki Shokan for Japan Distributor.
December 1, 2005... American Superconductor Corp. revealed at the 18th International Symposium on Superconductivity hat it has selected Suzuki Shokan Co. Ltd. as its distribution partner for 344 superconductors in the Japanese market. Japan represents one of the...

INDUSTRY NEWS Ceradyne Announces Concurrent Public Offerings.
December 1, 2005... Ceradyne, Inc. is offering to sell 1,800,000 shares of its common stock in an underwritten public offering. The company intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 270,000 shares of common stock to cover...

Alcoa Recognized As A Top Green Company.
December 1, 2005... Alcoa, a major producer of alumina ceramics and aluminum products has been named one of the Top Green Companies in the world by BusinessWeek magazine and the Climate Group in recognition of its performance in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG)...

R&H Breaks Ground For CMP Asia Pacific Center.
December 1, 2005... Ceramic nanopowders are used in chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials, CMP Technologies, a leader and innovator in CMP technology for the global semiconductor industry, broke ground for its Asia Pacific...

Nanopowder Venture Launched in China.
December 1, 2005... China's Refractories reports that Shanxi Taihe Science and Technology Holding Co. has signed a contract with Triglobal Capital Management Corp, a Canadian investment firm, to jointly launch a nanopowder project in terms of technology, capital...

CALENDAR.(Calendar)
December 1, 2005... January 8-11, 2006, 9th International Ceramic Processing Science Symposium, Coral Springs Marriott Hotel, Golf Club and Convention Center, Coral Springs, Florida. Contact: American Ceramic Society, P.O. Box 6136, Westerville, OH 43086-6136,...

((BRIEFS)) PERSONNEL.
December 1, 2005... Cerbide Names N.A. Sales Director. Cerbide, Inc. has named Dan Wilson as Director of North American Sales. In addition to direct account sales, he will also be responsible for the growth and support of the company's network of manufacturing...

FINANCIAL.
December 1, 2005... Revenues Up for Nanophase Technologies. Nanophase Technologies, a technology leader in nanomaterials and nanoengineered products, announced the highest revenues during a third quarter in the company's history and record revenues for the first...

TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT Fabrication Technique for Surface Microstructures on Silica Glass plates.
December 1, 2005... Contributed by: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Photonics Research Institute, AIST Tsukuba Central 5, Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8565, Japan. The National Institute of Advanced Industrial...

Background.
December 1, 2005... UV-transparent materials such as a silica glass are widely used for optical devices practically. The precision surface microfabrication of the materials to make highly integrated microdevices is one of the key technologies of photonics research...

Details of Research.
December 1, 2005... The group's microfabrication research is based on UV-pulsed laser irradiation; laser ablation equipment (excimer lasers and diode pumped solid-state (DPSS) UV lasers), optical spectroscopic measurements, mass analyses, and low temperature...

First Component Produced.
December 1, 2005... By using a mask projection system, the research team has succeeded in the micro-fabrication of silica glass up to 1 micron resolution as a minimum resolution, and a deep micro-trench about 7 microns wide and 420 microns deep with a maximum...

WHO'S WHO Promoting Zirconia Ceramics James A. West, Vice President and General Manager, Carpenter Advanced Ceramics (CAC).(Company Profile)
December 1, 2005... West joined CAC in 2002 as director of manufacturing, responsible for CAC's two plants in Auburn and Monash, Australia. Before joining CAC, West had worked 10 years for AVX/Kyocera Corp. as the plant manager/operations manager in Colorado...