Specialty ceramic cements are directly relevant to our lives, but we rarely notice their presence. The important physical characteristics of these cements include the capacity to deal with temperature changes varying from ambient temperature up to 3000°F (1650°C) and higher, depending on the specific case.

Advanced ceramics have found their place in a number of applications, largely due to their superior mechanical properties.

Carbon is one of the earliest known elements. It was used by the Egyptians and Sumerians in the form of charcoal around 3750 B.C. for the reduction of copper, zinc, and tin ores in the manufacture of bronze.

Piezoelectricity is electric polarization produced by mechanical strain in certain crystals, the polarization being proportional to the amount of strain and changing sign with it.

I have a notoriously lackluster long-term memory. The phrase “Remember that time…” is usually cause for nothing but dread as far as I’m concerned. 

News regarding an order for Harper International’s carbon fiber-related systems drew the most interest last week.

Kyocera’s announcement regarding production in India drew the most reader interest last week.

Radio frequency (RF) heating and drying systems were first developed in the early 1940s and have been used by the ceramic and glass fiber industries for over 50 years.

"Very weird. Strangest material I ever saw,” says Lyle Levine, materials physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

A team of material scientists, chemical engineers and physicists from the University of Pennsylvania has made another advance in their effort to use liquid crystals as a medium for assembling structures.