Equipment will be purchased and dedicated initially to the development of advanced superplastic materials. The program will be interdisciplinary in nature, involving collaboration amongst faculty and students in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Physics and Aerospace Engineering. After gaining experience through this program, the equipment will be utilized for the development of and fundamental studies on other classes of materials which can be processed using similar principles. The major items of equipment requested in this proposal are an attritor, a glove box, a set of microfine sieves and a shaker and, a blade cutting mill. The investigators involved already have equipment for melt spinning, hot isostatic pressing and superplastic testing. They also have access to extensive material characterization facilities. These equipment and facilities will be used along with the requested equipment to develop new superplastic materials as detailed in the project description of this proposal.
