Super Glue Solves Ceramics Problem.

• Position: Traditional ceramic-joining methods - Brief Article

A glue invented by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames (Iowa) Laboratory should enable manufacturers for the first time to join parts made of a rugged class of ceramic materials known as silicon-carbide composites. They are considered possible replacements for steel and the superalloys used in the aerospace industry because they can withstand higher temperatures, do not melt, and are less susceptible to corrosion. The composites are made of silicon-carbide fibers woven together like a mat, then encased in a silicon-carbide matrix. Just as steel rebar strengthens concrete, the fibers strengthen the brittle matrix material.

Until now, manufacturers have been unable to make complex objects--such as fans, heat exchangers, engine parts, and fuel cells--out of these composites because there was no way to form reliable joints between parts made of the material. The new glue appears to solve that problem. Tests indicate that ceramic joints made with it exhibit strength of as much as 14,500 pounds per square inch at temperatures of 2,200 [degrees] F That is a vast improvement over steel, which has little...