The Department of Ceramic and Materials Engineering contains
extensive instructional and research facilities focusing on the
manufacturing, control, and analysis of the wide variety of
conventional and advanced materials including ceramics glasses;
composites; and electrical, optical, and magnetic materials required by
modern technology. Students who utilize the laboratory equipment and
facilities learn to solve problems related to the design, processing,
and evaluation of conventional and specialty materials. Special
equipment exposes our students to the preparation and evaluation of the
newer types of ceramics, metals, polymers, and composites required in
aerospace, advanced engine, biotechnology, photonics, and
electromagnetic applications.
An attractive feature of the
department is the small class sizes, which makes instruction more
interactive. The curriculum includes a large number of laboratory
courses, which provides hands-on experience and learning to our
students. Generally, the laboratories are located within the A-wing of
the Engineering Building, the Center for Ceramic Research Building, or
the Fiber Optic Materials Research Building.
Equipment is
housed in an instructional facility and several advanced technology
centers, including the Center for Ceramic Research, the Fiber Optic
Materials Research Center, and the Center for Advanced Materials via
Immiscible Polymer Processing (AMIPP). Recent major grants from
industry and the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology have
provided these instructional and research facilities. In 2002, the New
Jersey Commission on Higher Education Workforce Excellence Program
provided $2.5 million for the creation of the Nanomaterials Option.
Three new undergraduate laboratories are now available.
Evaluation and Measurement. Microscopy
equipment includes petrographic and metallographic microscopes, an
electron microscope, and scanning electron microscopes. Several X-ray
diffraction units provide the capability of identifying phases, with
computer-automated, high- resolution systems available for advanced
study of particle size, strains, and quantitative phase analysis.
Chemistry can be evaluated with techniques such as energy dispersive
spectroscopy, atomic absorption, inductively coupled plasma, Fourier
transform IR, and laser Raman. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis systems
used with the scanning electron microscopes permit microchemical
analysis. Virtually all types of particle-size analysis are
represented. A surface analysis system provides scanning Auger
microscopy coupled with secondary ion mass, X-ray photoelectron, and
ion scattering spectroscopies.
Thermal analysis equipment
includes simultaneous differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetric
analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, thermomechanical analysis,
and high-temperature X-ray diffraction.
Dielectric properties of ceramic materials can be measured over a frequency range from 0.01 hertz to 1010hertz.
There is equipment for measuring heat capacity, thermal expansion,
thermal conductivity, and thermal diffusivity over a wide temperature
range. Mechanical properties that may be measured and that are
currently being studied include elasticity, viscosity, and plasticity.
Mechanical testing instrumentation includes microhardness, toughness,
and modulus- and strength-testing equipment, including advanced
computer-controlled servo-hydraulic, electromechanical, and
high-temperature creep systems. Various room- and elevated-temperature
viscometers permit rheology to be determined. An advanced torque
rheometer permits optimization of such industrial processes as mixing,
extrusion, and injection molding. Tribology is studied with a specially
designed, automated machine that measures friction and wear.
Packaging. Equipment
is available to determine tensile, compression, tear, rub, and puncture
properties of paper, plastic, metal, wood, glass, and composite
material. Water vapor, oxygen, and carbon dioxide permeation of polymer
materials is measured with the latest MOCON equipment. Materials and
packaged product interaction is measured by gas chromatography. A gel
permeation chromatograph is available to measure molecular weight
distributions of polymers. Melt index of polymers can be determined.
Thermal analysis equipment applicable to transition, degradation, and
melting temperatures of polymeric packaging materials is available for
both instructional and research use.
Design and testing
equipment is available to determine fragility of packaged objects by
subjecting them to mechanical shock and sine wave and random vibration.
Cushioning for packages can be designed and testing done to evaluate
protection offered using the Damage Boundary Curve. An ISTA-certified
test laboratory is used by students to evaluate packages they design,
with results reported internationally. A professional, corrugated box
sample maker is available.
A laboratory packaging line
consisting of equipment for weighing, proportioning, or counting of
products; handling, filling, and closing of packages; and code dating
and checkweighing enables students to run actual line trials and obtain
performance data, such as production, weight accuracy, and closure
integrity.
Preparation and Forming. Common and
special-purpose types of pulverizers, mixers, blungers, extruders,
presses, and furnaces are available for pilot-plant production of
whitewares, refractories, dielectrics, glass, and other types of
ceramics. Microprocessor- and computer-controlled kilns with carefully
controlled atmospheres and closely regulated temperatures are
especially suitable for sintering studies.
Hot pressing and
hot extrusion of special ceramics may be done in a wide range of
presses and furnaces, including both cold and hot isostatic presses,
atmosphere-controlled hot presses, nitriding furnaces, and injection
molders. A wide variety of conventional and novel gas-fired,
electric, and radio-frequency furnaces is available.
Advanced
ceramic production technologies include special equipment for
composites; laser synthesis of ultrafine, perfect powders; R.F./D.C.
film sputtering; chemical vapor deposition; and evaporation-deposition.
The properties of electronic substrates, packages, and magnetic and
superconducting ceramics and devices can be studied in the Howatt
Laboratory for Electronic Ceramics. A complete fiber optics laboratory
includes an internal chemical vapor deposition lathe, a preform
preparation clean room, and two instrumented fiber drawing towers.
Extensive online and offline quality control and testing equipment for
optical fiber also is available.
Laboratories
Computer Laboratory. This
laboratory is equipped with fifteen Silicon Graphics workstations with
links to the Rutgers computer center for massively parallel computing
and to supercomputers at the national level. Computations are performed
in CAD/CAM related to design, manufacture, and properties of materials;
in molecular dynamic simulations of materials; and in theory of
materials.
Electron Microscopy Laboratory. This
laboratory is equipped with a field emission scanning electron
microscope (FESEM) and a transmission electron microscope, JOEL 100 CX,
and various specimen-preparation facilities. The transmission-electron
microscope operates at up to 125 KV and is capable of 630Þ tilting with
a top entry specimen holder stage. Materials research by conventional
electron microscopy techniques is carried out routinely with the use of
this electron microscope. The supporting equipment includes an
evaporator, chemical and electropolishing units for thin foils, and
darkroom facilities.
Materials Research Laboratory. This
laboratory provides the necessary equipment and facilities for the
study of structure and structural defects in metals, alloys, and other
materials and for the study of techniques, such as the controlled use
of precipitate particles or rearrangement of the existing dislocation
structures to improve the engineering properties of materials. Among
the various facilities of this laboratory are electron microscopes,
X-ray facilities, equipment for the preparation and examination of
opaque and transparent specimens, electrolytic polishing equipment,
Servomet erosion spark cutters for sectioning and planing, various
optical microscopes, various induction furnaces and zone-refining
equipment for the growth of crystals, and a stress-corrosion test
apparatus.
Mechanics and Materials Laboratory. The
facilities of this laboratory are used for instruction in determining
the mechanical and physical properties of various materials. The
available facilities include a hydraulically controlled Instron testing
machine with a high- and low-temperature environmental chamber, an
Instron universal testing machine, a torsional pendulum apparatus, a
sonic modulus tester, a differential scanning calorimeter, an infrared
apparatus, a density gradient column, and an apparatus for the study of
surface friction.
X-Ray Laboratory. This
laboratory provides a variety of X-ray equipment used to determine
crystal structure, characterize the defect structure of both metallic
and polymeric materials, identify unknown materials, carry out accurate
measurements of lattice parameters, and conduct phase identification.
The facilities include two Rigaku-Denki rotating anode X-ray
generators, Tennelec position-sensitive detectors with Tracor Northern
pulse height analysis system, nine X-ray diffraction units including
two microfocusing units and two X-ray units with divergent-beam source,
four X-ray double-crystal diffractometers that were specially developed
at the materials research laboratory for the study of lattice defects
in single crystals as well as in polycrystalline specimens, one Lang
X-ray microcamera for the study of dislocation structure in crystals, a
special X-ray small-angle scattering apparatus connected to a
microfocusing X-ray tube, and one proportional counter plus
circuits and automatic microdensitometer for X-ray intensity studies.