Diamonds Are An... Engineer's Best Friend?

Zirconia is a common tool in the ceramic engineer's toolbox, but have you ever heard of using diamonds? That's just what some researches are trying to use. Engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST in Braunschweig, Germany have created a material they've dubbed 'DiaCer,' which looks to offer superior wear-resistance and a low coefficient of friction.

Combining technical ceramics with diamonds makes sense since diamonds are incredibly hard, conduct heat well, and are mostly inert to chemical substances. By combining them with ceramics, there results an unsurpassed material resistant to heat, wear, corrosion, and chemicals. Researchers have found that adding a diamond coating to a ceramic pump extends the part's durability by a factor of 4 to 1,000. After being used to create several tons of wire, the test parts were barely worn at all.

Dr. Lothar Schäfer of the Fraunhofer Institute is confident. He's said,

“Using our process, we can apply a diamond layer of up to a half square meter in size. There‘s nothing else like it in the world. Ultimately, DiaCer is of interest for all components in machine construction that need strong resistance to wear."

Ceramics Firms Feeling Credit Crunch For Fuel?

The economic downturn--while reversing somewhat--is still hitting industries across the globe. Demand for technical ceramics has waned as industries are looking to cut costs and put off facilities upgrades. And even in the non-technical ceramics industry, the global recession is wreaking havoc.

There was a telling story in the Birmingham Post (UK) about rising fuel prices exerting a unique downward force on the local ceramics economy thereby putting pressure on jobs.

Ceramics firms have a huge demand for gas to fire their products, which coupled with the fact that the industry was last year hit hard by the recession, has left nervous energy companies seeking to cover their backs by demanding upfront payments.

Stoke-on-Trent-based Wade Ceramics, which has just invested £7.5 million in a new plant, said his gas supplier had insisted last year on three months’ worth of payments up front – but the firm had managed to find a way around it by organising a letter of credit.

Because of the fuel-intensive process behind industrial ceramics manufacturing, the ceramics industry is under massive pressure to cover steep costs. In many cases, fuel providers demand large up-front payments, which are prohibitive for ceramics companies' cashflows. In other cases, fuel providers will supply to ceramics companies without an upfront payment, but then they will demand a higher rate.

There is an obvious vicious circle in these sorts of situation: Without more revenue, ceramics manufacturers cannot pay for fuel, and without fuel, ceramics manufacturers cannot increase revenue. Hopefully, as the economy turns around, this cash and credit crunch will begin to subside. Until then, we'll have to rely on efficient processes and solid business sense.

How do you become a ceramics engineer?

When you think of ceramics, pottery and coffee mugs may be the first things that come to mind. But ceramics play a big role in industrial design and engineering. Ceramics engineering is actually a fast-growing, lucrative career field. Like most professional, technical careers, the best first step to becoming a ceramics engineer is by going to a ceramic engineering program. A ceramic engineering program can help to prepare you for the field, which is ever-changing and technically demanding. Ceramics play a primary role in the design of many products because the materials have the ability to increase or decrease magnetic, thermal, and electrical properties. This property of ceramics makes them incredibly valuable to the engineering process of millions of products. Ceramics are also low-cost compared to other common industrial materials.

Students in ceramic engineering programs have the opportunity to be part of a field that impacts environmental issues like recycling and energy conservation. They also learn basic science and engineering while simultaneously growing their analytical and computational skills.

In a ceramic engineering program, you will develop a comprehensive understanding of ceramic materials, including their behavior in different temperatures, their processing and structure, and their industrial applications. A good program will teach you about the mechanical properties of ceramic materials and their atomic scale properties. Many programs require students to take a certain number of elective courses outside the area of ceramics engineering, which broaden your educational horizons.

Ceramic engineers work with inorganic, nonmetallic materials to develop materials that support products and systems that impact all our lives. For instance, fiber optic materials are critical to the telecommunications industry, and cell phones would not be possible without the development of electronic ceramics.

While there are ceramic engineering programs at many colleges and universities, here are some notable programs to consider:

• Alfred University’s Ceramic Engineering Graduate Programs
• Penn State's Materials Science and Engineering Department
• Rutgers' Materials Science and Engineering Program
• and Clemson's Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Programs

And don't forget! If you're interested in ceramics engineering, don't miss out on the Dean of the NYS College of Ceramic's upcoming talk on glass.