Containerless processing of amorphous ceramics

Abstract

The absence of gravity allows containerless processing of materials which could not otherwise be processed. High melting point, hard materials such as borides, nitrides, and refractory metals are usually brittle in their crystalline form. The absence of dislocations in amorphous materials frequently endows them with flexibility and toughness. Systematic studies of the properties of many amorphous materials have not been carried out. The requirements for their production is that they can be processed in a controlled way without container interaction. Containerless processing in microgravity could permit the control necessary to produce amorphous forms of hard materials.