EPSRC Funded Projects

EPSRC are funding four projects co-ordinated by the PowdermatriX Faraday Partnership.

Each project has an active industrial advisory group of companies making both financial contributions and in-kind contributions through activities such as providing a steer to the project and making sample materials and facilities available. A total of 41 companies are supporting the projects with contributions that add almost a further £1 million to the £1million of EPSRC support.

A PowdermatriX Technology Translator is co-ordinating the activities of each project to ensure that the work programme is followed and to help the industrial partners exploit the project results.

A summary of each project follows. Contact the named Technology Translator for further project details:

• Engineering the Green State of Powder Products
  (contact David Whittaker)



• Developing a Paste Formulation Criterion
  (contact Bob Blake )



• Fabrication of Nanostructured Ceramics for Engineering Applications
  (contact Steve Harmer)



• A Feasibility Study of Bonding of Powder Silicides for Application to Aero and Land-based Turbines
  (contact John Cotton)

Engineering the Green State of Powder Products
(contact David Whittaker)

“Engineering the Green State” draws on 7 research institutions to address the problems with net shape forming of powder compacts by die pressing.

The work programme aims to improve our fundamental understanding of the formation of green bodies produced by dry powder processing through:

• Developing scientifically based process models of the various stages
• Optimising existing manufacturing processes
• Designing new processing routes.

Activities will yield pressed bodies with more homogeneous particle packing and hence greater net shape capability and result in superior final bodies and reduce post compaction processing.

Dr Chang at Birmingham contributes expertise in metal powder formulation and handling, Dr Bradley at Greenwich provides experience of powder/granulate (all particle types) handling, flowability and segregation. Prof. Binner at Loughborough has expertise in the area of processing nanostructured ceramics. Prof. Cocks at Leicester has established experimental facilities for modelling delivery from the shoe into the die and the resulting density distributions. CERAM provides experimental capabilities for studying compaction, while Prof. Chandler at Aberdeen provides key skills in the area of powder consolidation modelling. Prof Withers at Manchester has a great deal of experience in the characterisation of partially dense systems both by traditional destructive 'metallographic' 2D techniques as well as non destructive X-ray tomography.

Relevance to Beneficiaries

Dry powder processing is a key capability for all the twenty participating companies. They will be provided with models and formulation protocols which will assist in bringing new, better and more profitable products to market in shorter time with greater product consistency. This project was ranked top by the industrial attendees at the launch of the PowdermatriX Faraday. The work will improve our understanding of the factors that govern the quality of green compacts. It will also benefit the academic study of powder processing by providing a series of well characterised green microstructures to develop sintering models and to evaluate the relationship between final product properties and the initial green state. The collaborating companies cover the powder supply, metal, ceramic, hard metal, magnetic and pharmaceutical sectors. They will receive help from the PowdermatriX Technology Translators in synthesising findings into their own industrial environment.

Developing a Paste Formulation Criterion
(contact Bob Blake)

“Developing a Paste Formulation Criterion” is a collaboration between two research groups active in the topic of paste flow mechanics, with particular emphasis on understanding paste manufacturing routes and the impact of formulation on paste behaviour. The group at the IRC in Materials Processing at Birmingham under Professor Blackburn provides expertise in ‘wet’ formulation, while the group in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge under Dr. Ian Wilson has developed fundamental testing techniques and considered the application of fundamental modelling techniques to paste systems.

The project aims to:
• Develop refined models for predicting permeabilities in particulate pastes.
• Utilise the refined permeability prediction in the determination of phase separation in paste flow.
• Develop predictive capability for successful paste flow formulation based on the physical parameters generated in the above activities.
• Conduct controlled experiments to define the problem more precisely and yield data for comparison with model predictions.

Relevance to Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries cover many sectors of UK industry, as the generic and fundamental work of this project will lay the foundations for understanding the mechanisms which are active in the creation of the optimised paste formulations. The work represents a first, but important, step towards completely predictive formulation. The results should aid formulators in reaching their objectives more effectively. It will also assist the understanding of failures in current formulations, for example in situations where the process has been operated for some time, but often for elusive reasons, or where problem are resolved by ‘know-how’, not by logical analysis. This programme will be a foundation for future work, which will extend predictive capacity to account for particle morphology, binder rheology and additives.

Fabrication of Nanostructured Ceramics for Engineering Applications
(contact Steve Harmer)

“Fabrication of nanostructured ceramics” will develop process routes for nanostructured ceramic and metal/ceramic composite coatings, thick films and bulk materials for engineering applications.

The work will develop four key technologies, which significantly affect our ability to process nanostructured materials. Since existing commercial nanopowders are generally very heavily agglomerated and extremely expensive, the work will begin with research into the synthesis and subsequent characterisation of nanopowders from low cost solvents, the aim being to control particle growth and particle agglomeration. The research will then focus on the production of suspensions with controlled rheology that are suitable for the production of green bodies, coatings and thick films by a range of different techniques. After manufacture, the bodies, coatings and films will be densified using controlled sintering techniques to yield products that should have superior properties and increased functionality in comparison with conventional structural materials. They will be characterised for use as thermal barrier coatings (ZrO2), erosion and wear resistance (Al2O3 & Ni/Al2O3), filament protection (CeO2) and solid oxide fuel cell applications.

The teams at Loughborough and Manchester working with a number of collaborating companies bring together expertise in nanopowder synthesis, suspension rheology, green forming, sintering and stress analysis on ceramic and ceramic/metal systems.

Relevance to Beneficiaries

The results will benefit all companies who are currently manufacturing nanoparticles by chemical routes as well as the end-users of the powders from the automotive, aerospace, electrical, electronic and power generation industries. Activities are expected to improve component properties. For example, coatings are used to prevent wear, erosion and corrosion, and to provide thermal insulation. For both commercial and military applications, there is a need for coatings with improved durability and performance. Nanostructured coatings have shown great promise during initial laboratory trials with durability improvements of 3 - 5 times being projected. Additionally, bulk components made from nanostructured ceramics are expected to have increases in strength, toughness and wear resistance. A further benefit of this programme will be the understanding of the factors affecting the rheology of the nanoparticulate ceramic suspensions, allowing them to be used as inks as well as the precursors for green body and coating production.

A Feasibility Study of Bonding of Powder Silicides for Application to Aero and Land-based Turbines
(contact John Cotton)

A Patent Application is being prepared around this area of research. Details of the proposal are only available under confidentiality terms. Interested parties should contact John Cotton.

This research programme will assess a way of increasing the operating temperature of aero and land-based turbine engines by replacing nickel single crystal blades with niobium silicides with optimised high temperature properties. A preliminary assessment will be made of the feasibility of using powder routes for this work. Oxidation studies of the chosen compositions will be carried out.

The work on powder processing will be carried out by Dr Xinhua Wu at Birmingham with alloy optimisation by Professor Panos Tsakiropoulos at the University of Surrey, and oxidation studies carried out at NPL.

Relevance to Beneficiaries

This programme aims to deliver a process route offering the possibility of cost-effective production of components. It is clear from discussions with potential users in the aero and land-based turbine industries that we need to develop relevant expertise in this area where there has been, and still is, a major effort underway in the USA and in Europe. We expect that in view of the novel research, the UK will catch up and eventually lead the USA.