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Welcome to the November Issue of Advanced Ceramics Insights!
Thank you to everyone who participated in USACA’s 2024 Fall Technical Meeting and helped make it a great success! Members gained new insights into fostering resilient supply chains, expanding testing and production capacity, and the ingenuity vital for our industry’s future success.
New roadmaps: We heard from government officials on their plans for microelectronics, aerospace composites, and other advanced materials.
Dr. Aisha Haynes, Principal Director of Advanced Materials for the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, previewed a series of “tactical roadmaps” that she said will be coming in early 2025.
Defining advanced materials: The effort focuses on what she described as “materials to transform the way we sense, control, protect, survive, and ultimately win.” That means “the evolution of traditional materials” – such as ceramic matrix composites and steel with additives that increase performance – and new materials that “enable technical capabilities that we are not able to achieve with traditional materials.” Also sought will be advancements in tools and other capabilities that enable researchers to discover and develop new solutions.
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New investments: Success rests on “the convergence of human ingenuity, artificial intelligence, automation, and advanced manufacturing,” according to Haynes. “When we are going to deliver these materials depends on how quickly we can manufacture them at scale and cost.”
Getting it right also depends heavily on strategic investments in infrastructure and workforce: “I'm deliberate about getting that first,” she said. “Nothing else matters unless we … overcome some of our workforce challenges.”
Deeper dives: Dr. Craig Przybyla, the Team Lead for Composite Performance Research at the Air Force Research Laboratory, outlined the service’s shift in recent years from turbine engines to hypersonics, including efforts to “understand how additive manufacturing and polymers and ceramics affect performance.”
He also stressed that “there’s a lot of interest in space,” highlighting plans for a new “atomic oxygen plasma testing facility.”
‘Keep an eye out for that’: Dr. Korine Duval, who serves as the Sector Lead of the Microelectronics Portfolio for the Pentagon’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program, previewed the just-released unclassified implementation plan for the first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy, which was released Oct. 29, 2024.
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“All of the microelectronics manufacturing investments are focused on packaging right now,” she said, but more attention will be trained on supporting “physical systems” so they can be fielded to the military. “What are the last steps necessary to now push it out to the programs of record? And how can you make sure that you are transitioning these capabilities at the pace of relevance?”
Another focus, she said, will be on digital engineering tools. “The call is not out, but it will be out this year,” according to Duval. “So if you have any interest in microelectronic design or leveraging digital tools for design, then keep an eye out for that.”
New Microelectronics Working Group: The Fall Technical Meeting was also an opportunity to reboot some of USACA’s Working Groups on CMC Manufacturing; Nuclear Materials; Transparent Ceramics; and Workforce Development.
USACA Executive Director Ken Wetzel also announced the formation of a new Microelectronics Working Group, which is being co-chaired by Jeff Vervlied of Free Form Fibers, Andy Thomas of CoorsTek, and Cheryl Xu of NC State University.
Two meetings have been held so far. Wetzel said the first objective is to develop a charter and a roadmap, noting that packaging scale-up is likely to be a major focus, as well as plans to go after related funding opportunities.
Stepping up: The other working groups have new leaders, are revising their charters, updating their roadmaps to align with current initiatives, and will be gearing up for Capitol Hill engagement in Spring 2025.
The Workforce Development Working Group, co-chaired by Tom Nixon at Rolls-Royce and Dr. David Lipke at Missouri S&T, plans to broaden outreach and technical training from kindergarten through vocational schools, including by plugging into existing industry workforce development programs.
The Nuclear Materials Working Group, co-chaired by Jeff Reed at Framatome and Joe Pegna of Free Form Fibers, is preparing to vie for a number of funding opportunities "that can range from materials developments, through supply chains,” Wetzel said.
The CMC Manufacturing Working Group is also updating its roadmap and enlisting more leaders to take part. Melvil Clauson of Re:Build has volunteered to help lead this effort.
Finally, the Transparent Ceramics Working Group is chaired by Rick Gentilman, a former Raytheon engineer and founder of RG Innovations, LLC.
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Get involved: USACA’s biweekly Working Group meetings will be held as follows (all times Eastern Standard Time):
- CMC Manufacturing: Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. starting Nov. 5
- Nuclear Materials: Tuesdays at 2:30 p.m. starting Nov. 12
- Transparent Ceramics: Tuesday’s at 1:00 p.m. starting Nov. 5
- Workforce Development: Thursdays at 11:30 a.m. starting Nov. 7
- Microelectronics: Fridays at 11:30 a.m. starting Nov. 15
To participate, please contact LB Fullerton at lb@strategicmi.com.
Log in: Also, stay tuned for the upcoming launch of USACA’s new website. It will offer a livelier forum for discussion, including member-only shared work spaces for our Working Groups to collaborate.
We also encourage USACA member companies and universities to enlist your colleagues to attend future meetings. Our industry faces increasing demands to address critical imperatives on national security, energy independence, and more. The more of us at the table, the more successful we will all be. We are also eager for your feedback on how we can make USACA engagements more useful.
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GET HYPED UP: The American Ceramic Society is offering a day-long course on hypersonics materials on Dec. 11 at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The workforce development effort is part of a DoD-funded partnership between the ACerS and USACA.
What’s in it: Attendees will learn about the materials requirements for hypersonic flight and the compositions in development to meet these challenges, with a focus on ultra-high temperature ceramics and ceramic matrix composites, according to the course description.
Register here.
STAKE IN THE FUTURE: The Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) is holding a “Stakeholder Listening Event” on Dec. 10-11 in Northern Virginia.
The session, according to AMMTO, “provides an opportunity for stakeholders to provide input on the future of AMMTO’s programs in key areas, including advanced materials, smart manufacturing, critical materials, circularity, energy storage, semiconductors, and workforce development.”
Register here.
NEXT GENERATION: We are also pleased to offer members unique opportunities to sponsor the Graduate Student Luncheon at USACA’s annual Composites, Materials, & Structures Conference, to be held in St. Augustine, Florida, January 26-30, 2025.
The benefits: The event offers a platform to connect with the next generation of ceramic engineers while showcasing your company to top talent in the field. This exclusive setting allows you to engage with highly qualified individuals who are pursuing careers in ceramics engineering. Your company's logo will be prominently displayed, and you can distribute swag and promotional materials.
Don't miss this valuable chance to shape the future of the ceramics industry. For more details, please contact LB Fullerton at lb@strategicmi.com.
And mark your calendars: USACA’s Spring Technical Meeting will be held in Washington, D.C., March 25- 26, 2025. Stay tuned for more details.
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‘LIKE A HOME’: We caught up with Dr. Cheryl Xu, an engineering professor at North Carolina State University who has been active in USACA for the past decade and is co-chairing our new Microelectronics Working Group.
Dr. Xu’s recent research has focused on advanced manufacturing of multifunctional materials, sensor design and manufacturing for harsh environments, and leveraging artificial intelligence in sensor-based health monitoring and control. She is at the forefront of the development of materials for extreme environments, including for hypersonic weapons, and advanced materials and manufacturing for microchips.
She is co-author of the textbook Intelligent Systems: Modeling, Optimization, and Control and has authored multiple scholarly articles, including on AI in advanced manufacturing and the role of additive manufacturing in ultra-high temperature ceramic composites. Dr. Xu also holds a series of patents.
Her research has been funded by the Air Force, Navy, Army, and NASA and she is currently on sabbatical as a research fellow at the Department of Energy.
“To me USACA is really like a home,” Dr. Xu said. “A majority of my research portfolio is harsh environment-focused, especially on the ceramic material.”
What is the focus of your research at DOE?
Smart manufacturing is one of our main initiatives that we want to push forward – on solar, water, wind, and geothermal energy. How do you create energy or make energy more efficient or find more energy resources? In terms of ceramics, how can you increase the efficiency for an internal combustion engine?
What's your vision for the Microelectronics Working Group?
We want chips designed end-to-end in the U.S., from conceptual design to materials selection to manufacturing. Rebuilding this ecosystem is complex, involving the entire process – from design choices and materials to the engineering and manufacturing stages.
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‘FINGER ON THE PULSE’: RK2 Materials, founded by materials scientists Ryan Koseski and Rebecca Kirkpatrick, is nearing its fifth anniversary as a leading innovator in the development of non-oxide and other advanced ceramics.
Headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the company is now supporting the energy, aerospace, and 3D printing industries.
We caught up with Ryan, RK2’s CEO, following the USACA Fall Technical Meeting to hear more about the company and why it recently joined USACA.
What would you describe as RK2’s focus thrust in the advanced ceramics industry?
We provide access to new materials, prototypes, and consulting services for small and midsize businesses that don't have internal research and development. Our clients commonly need help to identify which materials they actually want to use and why, or they may need help developing a prototype.
Can you share some examples of recent projects?
We're currently in the middle of a project on a composite for the nuclear industry. We provide material solutions and system prototypes and components for small modular nuclear reactors, particularly for disaster relief.
The challenge there is the material solutions that enable those reactors to work are much smaller than in a full-scale reactor. When you need something that is a few millimeters to do the same thing, those components become micro-components. That’s very, very hard to do in a ceramic. The shaping and finishing operations are some of the expertise we bring.
And just recently we wrapped up a project on a titanium diboride nozzle for the 3D printing industry.
You recently joined USACA. What was the draw?
This is a very small and very tight-knit community, especially on the ceramics side. USACA is the inclusive group that covers all of the markets and covers them from our technology’s point of view. The focus on our materials and the focus on our technology makes this a very central, very efficient, very encompassing group. It’s really the only place where we can meet with all of the people we need to all at once and do it consistently.
USACA also provides a window into [International Traffic in Arms Regulations] and other sensitive things that American companies and the government really need, especially at DOE and DOD. USACA helps us learn what's going on and who wants what and why. It really helps us build our strategy and keeps our finger on the pulse.
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