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[November 2004]
CERAM Helps to Provide Hybrid Solutions
Experts at CERAM are helping to develop innovative materials that will have significant applications in many industries, particularly medical and automotive.
Hybrid Materials have been born from the increasing demand for engineering components to satisfy complex and often conflicting requirements within a system which can no longer be met by a single material.
Mimicking naturally occurring structures, encountered for example in animal teeth, or wood or the protective shells of crabs and other crustaceans, or the armour plated reptiles such as tortoises and armadillos provides a powerful model of how different materials could be utilised in the same structure to provide unique and bespoke solutions.
For example in Medical Implants the development and widespread application of metallic, plastic, ceramic and composite implants over the past 30 years has been significant.
Hybrids have also been developed for tooling for plastic injection moulding, where they have to operate under very demanding conditions.
George Yiasemides of CERAM explained:
"Pivotal to the successful application of this technology is many years development of joining techniques undertaken by CERAM Technology to bond the various alloys together. This capability, in conjunction with the flexibility of incorporating conformal water-cooling channels within the material offers substantial benefits in the manufacture of tooling for injection moulding."The new technology facilitates significant flexibility in design and manufacture and these have a downward effect on cost and lead-time.
ENDS