These proceedings are designed to provide a forum that integrates research in characterization and modeling to advance the science of ceramic/composite sintering. Densification, shape deformation, and microstructure evolution during sintering is addressed.

This volume, titled Proceedings of the International Materials Symposium on Ce ramic Microstructures: Control at the Atomic Level summarizes the progress that has been achieved during the past decade in understanding and controlling microstructures in ceram ics. A particular emphasis of the symposium, and therefore of this volume, is advances in the characterization, understanding, and control of micro structures at the atomic or near-atomic level. This symposium is the fourth in a series of meetings, held every ten years, devoted to ceramic microstructures. The inaugural meeting took place in 1966, and focussed on the analysis, significance, and production of microstructure; the symposium emphasized the need for, and importance of characterization in achieving a more complete understanding of the physical and chemical characteristics of ceramics. A consensus emerged at that meeting on the critical importance of characterization in achieving a more complete understanding of ceramic properties. That point of view became widely accepted in the ensuing decade. The second meeting took place in 1976 at a time of world-wide energy shortages and thus emphasized energy-related applications of ceramics, and more specifically, microstructure-property relationships of those materials. The third meeting, held in 1986, was devoted to the role that interfaces played both during processing, and in influencing the ultimate properties of single and polyphase ceramics, and ceramic-metal systems.

The Proceedings of the International Materials Symposium on Ceramic Microstructures '86: Role of Interfaces presents a comprehensive coverage of the past decade's advances in ceramic science and technology related to microstructures. The term microstructure is used in the broad sense and is synonymous with char~cter. Character is defined as a complete detailed description of chemical and physical characteristics of a material. This symposium is the third in a series, held every ten years, on ceramic microstructures. The first symposium, in 1966, had as a subtitle "Their Analysis, Significance and Production" and emphasized the need and importance of characterization in order to fully understand the chemical and physical properties of materials. The second Symposium, in 1976, placed emphasis on the exploration of characters most suited and needed for "Energy-Related Applications." By the time of that conference, the sequence of processing--characterization--properties was fully accepted. It was recognized that characterization was the basis of materials science; the objective of processing was to produce a desired character that was considered necessary to realize a given property or behavior. To further emphasize the importance of character, the symposium dealt primarily with the property/character coupling.

A survey of current research on a wide range of carbide, nitride and boride materials, covering the general issues relevant to the development and characterisation of a variety of advanced materials. Topics include structure and electronic properties, modeling, processing, high-temperature chemistry, oxidation and corrosion, mechanical behaviour, manufacturing and applications. The volume complements more specialised books on specific materials as well as more general texts on ceramics or hard materials, presenting a survey of materials research as a key to technological development. After decades of research, the materials are being used in electronics, wear resistant, refractory and other applications, but numerous new applications are possible. Roughly equal numbers of papers cover theoretical and experimental research in the general field of materials science of refractory materials. Audience: Researchers and graduate students in materials science and engineering.

Sintering is a method for manufacturing components from ceramic or metal powders by heating the powder until the particles adhere to form the component required. The resulting products are characterised by an enhanced density and strength, and are used in a wide range of industries. Sintering of advanced materials: fundamentals and processes reviews important developments in this technology and its applicationsPart one discusses the fundamentals of sintering with chapters on topics such as the thermodynamics of sintering, kinetics and mechanisms of densification, the kinetics of microstructural change and liquid phase sintering. Part two reviews advanced sintering processes including atmospheric sintering, vacuum sintering, microwave sintering, field/current assisted sintering and photonic sintering. Finally, Part three covers sintering of aluminium, titanium and their alloys, refractory metals, ultrahard materials, thin films, ultrafine and nanosized particles for advanced materials.With its distinguished editor and international team of contributors, Sintering of advanced materials: fundamentals and processes reviews the latest advances in sintering and is a standard reference for researchers and engineers involved in the processing of ceramics, powder metallurgy, net-shape manufacturing and those using advanced materials in such sectors as electronics, automotive and aerospace engineering. - Explores the thermodynamics of sintering including sinter bonding and densification - Chapters review a variety of sintering methods including atmosphere, vacuum, liquid phase and microwave sintering - Discusses sintering of a variety of materials featuring refractory metals, super hard materials and functionally graded materials

This book covers the latest progress in the field of transparent ceramics, emphasizing their processing as well as solid-state lasers. It consists of 10 chapters covering the synthesis, characterization and compaction, fundamentals of sintering, densification of transparent ceramics by different methods as well as transparent ceramic applications. This book can be used as a reference for senior undergraduate to postgraduate students, researchers, engineers and material scientists working in solid-state physics.