Commercial Benefits and Advantages of the AACCMCI CRADA

Background

Several years ago six AACCM member companies formed a subconsortium – the Association of American Ceramic Component Manufacturers Consortium I (AACCMCI) – and initiated a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory, with partial funding to the laboratories from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The purpose of the AACCMCI CRADA was to explore new and better ways to design and manufacture advanced ceramic components. The general goal of the collaboration was to use fundamental scientific understanding to help lower costs of ceramic component design and manufacturing, and to manufacture components more reproducibly with improved performance and reliability. The CRADA focused specifically on developing predictive model software for ceramic powder compaction (pressing).

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Results

The CRADA collaboration has produced new techniques and guidelines for raw materials characterization which improves powder pressing by reducing both time to production and defective parts. Additionally, user-friendly, predictive model software for ceramic powder compaction was developed, tested and validated. The result is unprecedented flexibility regarding tooling design and processes for powder pressing. The net effect is the ability to reduce ceramic component manufacturing costs while maximizing design and manufacturing flexibility/agility.

It is anticipated that this modeling technology will enable advanced ceramic components to have a more competitive position within the design community, from both cost and design perspectives.

Financial Benefits

  • One company retained at least two jobs due to business generated by CRADA-enhanced competitiveness.
  • An improved sampling procedure implemented by another company has led to increased process control, dropping production cost by an average of 6%.
  • One company has realized cost savings of around $50,000 for the last six months on one line of pressed-ceramic materials.
  • Another company forecasts that its manufacturing costs will be reduced by 20%, while making a better product faster.
  • One company realized a 12% savings in manufacturing costs on one product line with improved product quality, on-time delivery, and additional sales.
  • Another company installed a new product line that has created two new jobs and has increased sales by $500,000.
  • One company estimates $100,000 savings from process improvements.
  • The labs have realized accelerated development of advanced-characterization and powder-compaction technology, which is being applied toward the development of more reliable ceramic materials and processes for improved performance components critical to national defense.

Collaborative Benefits

  • Manufacturers have established a collaborative working relationship with other competitive companies and with the national laboratories.
  • Participants have established a knowledge base for tapping into government-funded resources for the purpose of improving American industry.
  • Manufacturers have gained access to sophisticated analytical equipment, computers and thought processes through the national laboratories.
  • Manufacturers have validated common ceramic-component manufacturing problems with other, similar companies.
  • Manufacturers have gained key problem-solving approaches that could result in more profit, new business opportunities, and higher quality components.
  • Participants have obtained new technology that is generating income and notoriety.
  • The CRADA has enabled manufacturing-based companies to allocate more time and resources to the addressing of age-old powder-compaction problems.
FEATURE ARTICLES

"CRADA Develops Model for Powder Pressing and Die Design; Part 1 and Part 2"
(article from the Ceramic Bulletin, January 2001, p. 53† and February 2001, p. 41†)

"Industry, Government Team to Improve Ceramic Manufacturing"(article from the Ceramic Bulletin, October 1998)