+ Prof. Omer Van der Biest is full Professor. He holds a degree of Master in Metallurgical Engineering of the K.U. Leuven (1970) and a Ph. D. in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (1974). Prior to his appointment in Leuven in 1987 he was with the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (1970-76), Lecturer at the University of California (1974-76) and Scientific Officer with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Petten (Nl). Keywords describing his research interests include: high temperature materials, ceramic composites, powder metallurgical processes, mechanical properties, surface analysis and analytical electron microscopy. He is an author on more than 150 publications in refereed journals. + Prof. Jef Vleugels became associate professor at the faculty of Engineering in 2001 and is currently teaching courses on: processing of ceramics and powder metallurgy. His research activities and interests are mainly focussed on the processing and characterisation of ceramics and ceramic composites, including hardmetals, cermets and nanocomposites, for structural as well as functional applications. Amongst the current research topics are: porous metal and ceramic materials and coatings, cutting tools, cermets, cemented carbides, composites, spark plasma sintering, microwave sintering and colloidal processing. + Prof. Ludo Froyen is full Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering. He is teaching courses on materials engineering, materials characterisation, materials processing and failure analysis. His research focus is on mechanical alloying, mechanochemical synthesis, ultrafine structured powder metallurgical components, rapid manufacturing (selective laser sintering, selective laser melting). , An overview of all equipment at MTM is provided at: http://www.mtm.kuleuven.ac.be/Research/Equipment/index.html Amongst the equipment dedicated to powder metallurgy are:
· Mechanical alloying mills
· Vacuum and inert gas sintering equipment
· Gas atomisation
· Hot presses
· Mechanical alloying mills
· Laser sintering equipment (at the Dept of Mechanical Engineering)
· Computer tomography
· Field assisted sintering (spark plasma sintering) technology equipment
· Particle size distribution equipment
· FEG environmental microscope (ESEM)
· Cold isostatic press
· Conventional pressureless sintering furnaces
· Microwave sintering furnace
· Automated nano- and microhardness measurement systems
· Electrophoresis cells for plates, tubes and complex shaped bodies
· Acoustic particle sizer (Matec Applied Sciences APS)
· Laser diffraction particle sizer (Mastersizer Micro Plus)
· Zeta potential analyser (Matec Applied Sciences ESA 9800)
· High temperature dilatometer (Netzsch Dil 402 C)
· High temperature TGA (Cahn TG-171)
· High temperature DSC (Netzsch DSC 404)
· High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope with Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopic and Energy-based Image Filtering systems.
· Impulse Excitation Equipment for measurement of elastic moduli and internal friction at room and high temperature.
· X-ray diffractometer for low and high angle measurements with high temperature chamber for powder and bulk samples.
· Mechanical testing machine for high temperature uniaxial tension-compression test.
· Home-made SEVNB notching device for toughness measurements