MSE 3190: Materials Processing I

Study Guide for topics covered after the Second exam 12/5/18

Be able to discuss/draw/explain the following key concepts:

Polymers: Foaming
1. Advantages and Disadvantages of foaming
2. Mechanical, Chemical and Pressure foaming
3. Areas of application.
4. Foaming problems and trouble shooting

Ceramics, Semiconductors and Polymer Matrix Composites

5. Introduction to ceramics including definitions, basic properties of ceramics,

advantages, disadvantages, consequences of brittle mechanical response, uses of
ceramics (and categories based on usage) and ceramics of interest in bio-technology
6. Definition of inorganic glass, what is glass made of similarities and differences
between glass processing and metal and polymer processing, processing of glass,
effect of temperature on viscosity and its relevance to processing, types of discrete
processing, continuous processing especially for sheets
7. Heat treatment of processed and shaped glass – annealing and tempering
8. Glass-ceramics – what are they, shaping and crystallization heat treatment,
advantages and uses
9. Introduction to processing of ceramics including why we cannot use the common
processes for metals, polymers and ceramics.
10. Steps in powder processing
11. Desired characteristics of powders – different ways to make powders suitable for
ceramic processing
12. Green state processing of powders – shaping. Different shaping processes
13. Consolidation – from a shaped green part to a component with the desired, size,
shape, microstructure and properties
14. Introduction to sintering – definitions, thermodynamics, global and local driving force
for sintering. Difference between densification and coarsening
15. The three stages of sintering: features of each stage, typical changes in density in
each stage, overall understanding of the kinetics of sintering in the different stages,
Herring’s scaling law for initial stage sintering, lessons learned from sintering theory
applied to develop guidelines for sintering practice, and approaches used to densify
carbides and nitrides (hard to densify by sintering)
16. Basic description of processing of semiconductors
17. Feature size and the need for clean room
18. Sequences in IC processing, crystal growing, patterning techniques, layer processes in
IC fabrication,
19. The functions of IC packages, materials used and the basic design
20. Definition of composites, the primary role of reinforcements in improving the
mechanical properties of polymers, definition of specific properties, the three most
used type of continuous fiber used as reinforcements and their unique advantages.
21. Common processing approaches for polymer matrix composites

You should review the questions that have appeared on the home works and exams to get a
good sense of our expectations.