September 2013
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, DOD, NASA and defense industries developed and to a limited extent, deployed very high strength Boron monofilament reinforced /Al composites manufactured by diffusion bonding techniques. Though Boron/Al and later SiC monofilament reinforced Ti alloys found use is limited DOD applications, metal matrix composites along with lesser developed ceramic matrix, they were very expensive. Metal and ceramic matrix composites were labeled “materials of the future that always will be”. Then along came a SiC particulate reinforced Al piston developed by Toyota and manufactured by squeeze casting that promised to be a lower cost process. This induced DOD to initiate a series of university based research centers for studying the fundamentals of low cost manufacturing methods as well as micro-mechanics evaluation of metal and ceramic matrix composites. The mechanics of materials center was established at U Cal Santa Barbara under the directorship of Tony Evans and the Laboratory for Processing and Evaluation of Inorganic Matrix Composites was established within the Materials Processing Center of MIT. Dr. Cornie was then imported from industry to MIT to direct and write grant proposals to assure the continuing funding of the project as well as developing an Industrial consortium to further elaborate on the research results and to supervise graduate student dissertations and technical staff research that resulted from this generous inflow of funding.
The technical processing areas of study at MIT were: 1) Wetting of ceramics and carbon with molten metal, 2) Kinetics of infiltration of a ceramic or carbon preform, 3) Rheocasting of metal matrix composite, 4) Influence of the metal/ceramic or metal/graphite interface on properties and processing. Interface design and the development of measurement methods for the kinetics of infiltration lead to the design of experimental apparatus that could be scaled to a new method of manufacturing metal matrix composites by pressure infiltration of metals into ceramic and carbon preforms.
Over the ten year period 1982 to 1992, the Laboratory for the Processing and Evaluation of Inorganic Matrix projects led to the generation of 23 PhD and MS dissertations (and 37 published papers) which resulted in a fundamental understanding of inorganic matrix composites as well as processes for their manufacture. These graduates, Research Associates, visiting scientist and the science they developed in their dissertations and research investigations have become the foundation for technology transfer and commercialization of meal matrix composites.
By the early ‘90s, federal funding for the development of metal and ceramic matrix composites became diffuse and lost its DOD focus. It was time for technology transfer to the private sector. This technology and knowledge base was then transferred to Industry in the form of new startups initially “Angel funded” by the federal SBIR program and specific DOD projects involving defense contractors interested in advanced electronic radar systems, again teamed with newly emerging small businesses. This talk reviews the history of the commercial development of low cost cast metal matrix composites.
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, DOD, NASA and defense industries developed and to a limited extent, deployed very high strength Boron monofilament reinforced /Al composites manufactured by diffusion bonding techniques. Though Boron/Al and later SiC monofilament reinforced Ti alloys found use is limited DOD applications, metal matrix composites along with lesser developed ceramic matrix, they were very expensive. Metal and ceramic matrix composites were labeled “materials of the future that always will be”. Then along came a SiC particulate reinforced Al piston developed by Toyota and manufactured by squeeze casting that promised to be a lower cost process. This induced DOD to initiate a series of university based research centers for studying the fundamentals of low cost manufacturing methods as well as micro-mechanics evaluation of metal and ceramic matrix composites. The mechanics of materials center was established at U Cal Santa Barbara under the directorship of Tony Evans and the Laboratory for Processing and Evaluation of Inorganic Matrix Composites was established within the Materials Processing Center of MIT. Dr. Cornie was then imported from industry to MIT to direct and write grant proposals to assure the continuing funding of the project as well as developing an Industrial consortium to further elaborate on the research results and to supervise graduate student dissertations and technical staff research that resulted from this generous inflow of funding.
The technical processing areas of study at MIT were: 1) Wetting of ceramics and carbon with molten metal, 2) Kinetics of infiltration of a ceramic or carbon preform, 3) Rheocasting of metal matrix composite, 4) Influence of the metal/ceramic or metal/graphite interface on properties and processing. Interface design and the development of measurement methods for the kinetics of infiltration lead to the design of experimental apparatus that could be scaled to a new method of manufacturing metal matrix composites by pressure infiltration of metals into ceramic and carbon preforms.
Over the ten year period 1982 to 1992, the Laboratory for the Processing and Evaluation of Inorganic Matrix projects led to the generation of 23 PhD and MS dissertations (and 37 published papers) which resulted in a fundamental understanding of inorganic matrix composites as well as processes for their manufacture. These graduates, Research Associates, visiting scientist and the science they developed in their dissertations and research investigations have become the foundation for technology transfer and commercialization of meal matrix composites.
By the early ‘90s, federal funding for the development of metal and ceramic matrix composites became diffuse and lost its DOD focus. It was time for technology transfer to the private sector. This technology and knowledge base was then transferred to Industry in the form of new startups initially “Angel funded” by the federal SBIR program and specific DOD projects involving defense contractors interested in advanced electronic radar systems, again teamed with newly emerging small businesses. This talk reviews the history of the commercial development of low cost cast metal matrix composites.