Advanced Ceramic Processing at NIST: Progress in Defect Metrology, Cold-Sintering, and Additive Manufacturing

Russell Maier

Materials Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/91396540996?pwd=eTMzZVdFa0hGOFd4aVVkVFloNWhvUT09

Meeting ID: 913 9654 0996
Passcode: 900387

ABSTRACT

 The material measurement laboratory MML at NIST is a metrology lab dedicated to improving materials measurement sciences with the goal of developing reference measurements, tools, and procedures. There are three focus areas that our group (MML Materials Structure and Data Group) is pursuing at the moment that include ceramic additive manufacturing (AM), cold-sintering, and point defect metrology. AM of metals and polymers have already made large advances in commercial applications facilitated by the availability of data-driven approaches that have helped improve predictive modeling capabilities for AM processes. In contrast, the development of ceramic AM is still in a fledgling state, with the lack of adequate computer simulations cited by industrial stakeholders as a significant obstacle to its commercialization [A.J. Allen, I. Levin, R.A. Maier, Research, standards, and data needs for industrialization of ceramic direct ink writing, Int. J. Ceram. Eng. Sci. 4 (2022) 302–308. https://doi.org/10.1002/ces2.10158.]. To aid in efforts to improve reliability of ceramic printed parts, we are currently making progress in improving fundamental measurements of ceramic direct-ink writing processes in order to provide reliable and reproducible data to the modeling community. An additional hurdle to mass commercialization of ceramic 3D printing is the expertise required to sinter a printed part. Recent advancements in cold-sintering (sintering ceramics to full density at fractions of traditional processing temperatures) are being explored as methods to integrate ceramic AM with more user-friendly and carbon-reducing post-processing steps. In situ test fixtures have been built at NIST and measurements have recently been conducted on cold-sintered materials at synchrotron beamlines [A.J. Allen, I. Levin, R.A. Maier, S.E. Witt, F. Zhang, I. Kuzmenko, In situ characterization of ceramic cold sintering by small‐angle scattering, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 104 (2021) 2442–2448. https://doi.org/10.1111/jace.17664]. All functional ceramic materials contain point defects, and these point defects often have a controlling impact on the properties of electroceramic materials. Our group is also heavily involved in developing measurement techniques to study dilute concentrations of point defects [R.A. Maier, E. Cockayne, M. Donohue, G. Cibin, I. Levin, Substitutional Mechanisms and Structural Relaxations for Manganese in SrTiO 3 : Bridging the Concentration Gap for Point-Defect Metrology, Chem. Mater. 32 (2020) 4651–4662. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c01082.].

“Tale of Two Careers” 

Doug Taylor

Manager, Explosives R&D Dept., Sandia National Labs

(and NMT Materials Engineering Alumnus)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95575684486?pwd=aWVKUkhaZHZMSTVjYjc4RUxtVFZsdz09

Meeting ID: 955 7568 4486
Passcode: 815950

ABSTRACT

Have you thought much about your career besides what field of study interests you? One of my favorite questions on an interview is “describe your ideal job to me.” Most people are dumbfounded by the question and ask, “what do you mean?” Write the job description for the job you want—simple, right? In reality, when we graduate most of us just want a professional job in our desired field and give little thought to any of the specifics. We take the first or what sounds like the best offer we receive without considering much more. For example, do you want a job in academia, industry, or government? The environments, requirements, and benefits can be vastly different, not to mention the daily activities of each. If industry is attractive, are you more interested in a small or large company, production or research, products or services, investigator, technician, or management? Do you want to work in a lab or behind a computer? The list could go on for any of the main categories of employment.

While my career is not over, I’ve had the opportunity to work in a couple different companies on dozens of projects serving various roles. The majority of my career has been spent in two different companies: TPL (a small, privately held company) and NTESS (a wholly owned subsidiary of a huge company contracted to run a national laboratory, which is also termed a Federally Funded Research & Development Company, FFRDC), thus “A Tale of Two Careers”. I will present an overview of some of these projects in the context of the environment where they occurred, including the benefits and problems associated with each. Likewise, part of my career has been in Materials Science & Engineering and part has involved Explosive Engineering. I will discuss how I made optical integrated circuits through materials chemistry and laser direct writing and why they don’t exist today; how we explosively welded refractory metal liners into military gun barrels; and how to safely handle chemical munitions. In sharing some of my experiences, my goal is to invite you to think about your career a priori and not build the train while it’s rolling down the tracks.