Reaction processing of ultra-high temperature W/Ta₂C cermets

Current aerospace application designs are limited by material systems which are well developed and understood. Current materials can not withstand the longer thrust times and hotter burning propellants that designers would like to use. A promising solution to current material needs is composites of metals and ceramics (cermets). Among these new materials, cermets of refractory metals such as W or Ta and ultra high temperature ceramics (UHTC\u27s) are very promising. Much of the current research in cermets has focused on processing routes that require pressure assisted sintering. Pressure assisted sintering compared to most other ceramic processing methods is costly and limits parts to simple geometries (e.g. right cylinders) and modest size (diameters \u3c36 cm). Reactive processing was successfully employed to produce dense W/Ta₂C cermets. --Abstract, page iv