High Tech Ceramics News articles from March 2006

High Tech Ceramics News archives from March 2006

INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Growth Seen for Advanced Glasses.
March 1, 2006... According to an updated technical market research report titled, Advanced Glasses and Glass Ceramics: Materials, Processing, New Developments - RGB-094U from BCC Research (www.bccresearch.com), worldwide sales of advanced glass and ceramics...

PROCESSING AND TECHNOLOGIES Blasch Launches Nitride-Bonded Parts.
March 1, 2006... A new line of high-precision nitride-bonded silicon carbide parts has been introduced by Blasch Precision Ceramics. Produced by net shape process, Blasch says the new technique allows production of high-tolerance complex parts faster and...

METROLOGY AND ANALYSIS Rheometer Automates Wall Friction Measurement.
March 1, 2006... A new module for the Freeman Technology FT4 Powder Rheometer allows fast, fully automated measurement of wall friction using standard or custom materials in contact with powders under test. This new module further extends the capabilities of...

STRUCTURAL CERAMICS Transparent Sapphire Armor Cuts Weight.
March 1, 2006... Sapphire transparent armor has the ability to reduce the weight and thickness of a ballistic glass system by 40%, according to Saint-Gobain Crystals, Newbury, Ohio. The sapphire (Al2O3) can provide direct benefits in a wide variety of armor...

POWDERS AND NANO CERAMICS Nanophase Announces U.S. Patent Allowance.
March 1, 2006... Nanophase Technologies announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Company has posted notification that it will allow the company's U.S. Patent Application entitled "Composite Nanoparticle Materials and Method of Making the Same."...

Bright Future for Nano Manufacturing.
March 1, 2006... By controlling materials at the nanoscale, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers believe they can greatly improve manufacturing processes of products ranging from solar cells to computers to flat-panel displays. At the center of the...

COATINGS Nano-Coating Passes Preliminary Testing.
March 1, 2006... Nano Superlattice Technology Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: NSLT) has been engaged in the coating of tools and components with nano structured PVD coatings for the semiconductor, precision machinery and telecommunication industries. NSLT says that...

ADVANCED GLASS Saint-Gobain, Shell Develop Solar Panel.
March 1, 2006... Saint-Gobain Vitrage, Saint-Gobain's Flat Glass Sector, and Shell have signed a memorandum of understanding to produce next-generation solar panels. Shell has developed a new generation of photovoltaic panel, based on copper indium selenide...

Siemens Buys Glasfiber Plant.
March 1, 2006... In response to the continuing high demand for wind turbines worldwide, Siemens Wind Power A/S (Brande, Denmark) is expanding its production capacity. Toward this end, the company has acquired the former LM Glasfiber wind blade factory in...

BIOCERAMICS Better Outcome for Oral Reconstruction.
March 1, 2006... Oral and pharyngeal cancers rank among the most prevalent worldwide, although they account for only about three percent of all cancers in the United States. Unfortunately, most oral cancers are detected at advanced stages when combinations of...

Sea Yields Stronger Artificial Bone.
March 1, 2006... The next generation of artificial bone may rely on a few secrets from the sea. Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have harnessed the way seawater freezes to develop a porous,...

BATTERIES AND FUEL CELLS MIT Improves Hybrid Car Battery.
March 1, 2006... Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have developed a lithium nickel manganese oxide battery that could become an alternative to nickel metal hydride batteries used today to power hybrid cars. Researchers modified the lithium...

Altairnano Making Li-Ion Battery Cells.
March 1, 2006... Altair Nanotechnologies, Inc. announced that its facility in Anderson, Indiana has begun manufacturing and testing the first batch of lithium ion battery cells manufactured at that facility utilizing its nano-structured electrode materials. The...

Thermovoltaic Cell SBIR Grant to Spire.
March 1, 2006... A Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop a new type of thermophotovoltaic power cell that produces electricity from heat has been awarded to Spire Corp., Bedford, Mass. The cells are similar to solar cells that convert...

ELECTRONIC CERAMICS Cree, Kansai Demonstrate SiC Three Phase Inverter.
March 1, 2006... Cree, Inc. and Kansai Electric Power Co. of Osaka, Japan, have successfully demonstrated a 110 kVA silicon carbide (SiC) three-phase inverter. This represents the highest power SiC inverter reported to date and represents nine times higher...

CoorsTek Introduces Flat Wafer Chucks.
March 1, 2006... CoorsTek has introduced its latest capability for the advanced semiconductor manufacturing market - ultra-flat, high-purity ceramic vacuum chucks. These components offer significant performance advantages over traditional wafer chucks. New...

SUPERCONDUCTORS AMSC Wins More Orders.
March 1, 2006... American Superconductor Corp. announced a follow-on order for its proprietary PowerModule-based wind turbine generator control systems from Windtec Systemtechnik GmbH (Windtec), a supplier of large wind turbine components and system technology,...

Intermagnetics May Sell Energy Technology Unit.
March 1, 2006... Intermagnetics General Corp. is seeking a possible sale or spin-off of its energy technology division as it focuses more on its medical products businesses, which include a plant in Pewaukee. The Latham, N.Y.-based company has hired investment...

INDUSTRY NEWS 3M to Acquire General Industrial Diamond.
March 1, 2006... 3M has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire General Industrial Diamond Co. Inc., a leading manufacturer of superabrasive grinding wheels, dressing tools and machines used to dimension and finish hard-to-grind materials in industrial...

AVX Honored by Electronic Products.
March 1, 2006... AVX Corp. received a 2005 Product of the Year award from Electronic Products for the 0402 TACmicrochip tantalum chip capacitor. The award was presented to AVX on February 7 at a ceremony at AVX's facilities in Myrtle Beach, SC. In another...

Theme Announced for MS&T 2006 Conference.
March 1, 2006... Five major themes comprise the technical program for the 2006 Materials Science and Technology (MS&T'06) Conference scheduled for October 15-19 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The technical themes--materials and systems; product manufacturing; processing;...

CALENDAR.(Calendar)
March 1, 2006... April 17-21, 2006 MRS Spring Meeting - San Francisco, CA. Features 37 technical symposia in six topical clusters and an international exhibit highlighting products and services. Contact: Materials Research Society 506 Keystone Drive,...

((BRIEFS)) BUSINESS NEWS.
March 1, 2006... Cabot Micro Wins Supplier Award. Cabot Microelectronics Corp. received the Silver Materials Supplier Award from Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of the world's top dedicated semiconductor foundries. The award was presented to Cabot...

PERSONNEL.
March 1, 2006... Malvern Build Process Team. Malvern Instruments has announced two new appointments to its Process Systems Team in the US, against a backdrop of strong sales throughout 2005. Matt Malfa and Alon Vaisman will work as Project Engineers, primarily...

FINANCIAL RESULTS.
March 1, 2006... Ramtron Revenues Down. U.S. semiconductor maker Ramtron International Corp. (Nasdaq: RMTR), a leading developer and supplier of nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM) and integrated semiconductor products, has reported its...

TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT Sol-gel Techniques Help Form Hybrid Glass.
March 1, 2006... By y Anna Wojcik, Hyrbid Glass Technologies (HGT), Monmouth Junction, NJ There is a critical need for innovative approaches in the development and processing of materials which can aid the advancement of electronic, photonic and other...

Hybrid Glass Coatings.
March 1, 2006... Hybrid glass is an inorganic-organic material made by sol-gel hydrolysis and condensation of organically substituted metal alkoxides. Using this technology, Hybrid Glass Technologies has developed a variety of series of clear and colored...

Reactive Ormogels.
March 1, 2006... Another series of sol-gel materials developed by Hybrid Glass Technologies are photosensitive, reactive ormogels . Ormogels are hybrid, UV - or electron beam curable formulations of tailored refractive index. Such materials are negative resists...

WHO'S WHO IN CERAMICS Promoting Ceramic Wear Resistant Linings.(Company overview)
March 1, 2006... Joe Accetta, a civil engineering graduate from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, began as a field sales engineer in 1973 for M.H.Detrick, Chicago, Illinois, who was an original partner in the joint venture of Abresist Corp.,...