NSF award funds new manufacturing method for producing metal-ceramic composites

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass., has announced that Diana Lados, associate professor of mechanical engineering and founding director of the university's Integrative Materials Design Center (iMdc), has received a three-year, $424,000 award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the development of a new way to manufacture metal-ceramic composites, which can be used to make vehicles lighter and more energy-efficient while increasing their performance.

The research will focus on materials known as ceramic-reinforced metal matrix composites, which are produced by incorporating small ceramic particles within aluminum to enhance its strength and high operating temperature. Manufacturers would like to use these light composite materials in cars, trucks, boats, and airplanes to increase their fuel efficiency without sacrificing strength and ductility, but current manufacturing methods cannot achieve the nanoscale size and uniform distribution of the ceramic particles necessary to fabricate parts that meet these requirements and perform well at both ambient and elevated temperatures.

With the NSF award, Lados, the sole principal investigator, will conduct fundamental and applied research aimed at developing a novel energy- and cost-efficient process for making nanoceramic-reinforced metal matrix composites, overcoming the limitations of existing processes, and enabling the creation of materials with the desired combination of properties.

Unlike current methods, in which the ceramic particles are mixed into the metal during processing, the new technique involves the formation of nano-reinforcements directly within the molten metal. The resulting composite materials will contain ceramic particles of the proper size, distributed uniformly in and firmly bonded to the metal matrix. According to NSF, the process, less expensive and more flexible and energy-efficient than existing methods, can be used with a broad selection of metal-ceramic systems to manufacture a variety of structural components.