New, superfast method for ceramic manufacturing

Scientists in the University of Maryland (UMD)’s A. James Clark School of Engineering have reinvented a 26,000-year-old manufacturing process into an innovative approach to fabricating ceramic materials that has promising applications for solid-state batteries, fuel cells, 3D printing technologies, and beyond.

Ceramics are widely used in batteries, electronics, and extreme environments—but conventional ceramic sintering (part of the firing process used in the manufacture of ceramic objects) often requires hours of processing time. To overcome this challenge, a Maryland research team has invented an ultrafast high-temperature sintering method that both meets the needs of modern ceramics and fosters the discovery of new material innovations.

The Maryland team’s new method of ultrafast high-temperature sintering offers high heating and high cooling rates, an even temperature distribution, and sintering temperatures of up to 3,000 degrees Celsius. Combined, these processes require less than 10 seconds of total processing time—more than 1,000 times faster than the traditional furnace approach of sintering.

Read more at University of Maryland

Image Credit: University of Maryland

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