Faculty seminar "Joining of Dissimilar Materials for different Applications"
On October 26, 2023 1.15 pm in Auditorium 1.4 a faculty seminar will take place. The presentation will be given by Dr. Gurdial Blugan. The topic of the speech is " Joining of Dissimilar Materials for different Applications"
Many complex components are manufactured by joining of smaller parts made of different material types including metals, ceramics, polymer and composites. The joining of ceramic parts to other materials is particularly challenging as the ceramic materials have often different properties to metals, polymers and composites to which they must be joined. These differences such as thermal expansion coefficient, thermal conductivity, Young's modulus and poor wetting can make joining a complicated process. Many joining processes can be utilized today including; mechanical joining, adhesion, chemical and diffusion bonding, brazing and glass sealing to name a few.
We will explore some of these cases, such as active metal brazing, diffusion bonding, glass sealing and the applications they can be used for. These include cutting tools, batteries, fuel cells and space platforms (satellites). Examples will include the key challenges and the properties of the different joining mechanism. Ceramics joined include, Si3N4, Al2O3 and SiC.
Biogram
Dr. Gurdial Blugan completed a PhD at Queen Mary University of London where he studied the microstructure design of Si3N4 ceramics for high temperature applications. Following this he worked as a Materials Technologist at Morgan Advanced Ceramics, Rugby Division working on advanced Al2O3 and ZrO2 ceramics as well as processes such a metallization and joining. In 2001 he joined Empa's Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics as a Postdoc, later as a Scientist and since 2019 as a Group Leader. His field of research includes, both structural and electrical applications, bioceramics, energy production and storage and joining of ceramic materials.