Ceramics and Glass Development and Processing

Stan Hilton removes a sample from a hot press.

The Advanced Ceramics and Glasses group began as a high-temperature ceramic structure and coatings fabrication research unit in the 1960s. The early research included work in plasma spraying, hot pressed oxides, carbides, and silicides. Plasma spray techniques were developed for applying coatings to several turbine engine and rocket parts. Later, vibration damping glass coatings were developed to reduce the effects of high cycle fatigue in the hot section of turbine engines. Some of the first ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) ever reported in the literature were made by our group.

More recent work in our group has focused on sol gel coatings for various laser and mirror applications, ceramic tape fabrication for use in laminated object rapid prototyping, and hot pressing of permanent magnetic materials, and molybdenum disilicide nanocomposites.