recent trends and future prospects on materials research in japan

Materials Chemistry and Physics 42 (1995) 12-16 ELSEVIER

Recent trends and future prospects on materials research in Japan *

Hiroshige Suzuki Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1, Ohokayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152, Japan

Received 4 January 1995; revised 22 February 1995; accepted 27 February 1995

Abstract

The present status of materials research in Japan is described. Materials development covering nearly 50 years of development processes of industrial technologies in Japan is reviewed. The scope and results of two extensive R&D programs (OOPURO, which means OOGATA ( =Big) Project and JISEDAI, which means Next Generation), which the Japanese Government has promoted during this period, are introduced. The present status and results of R&D of a few new materials, and the ERATO Program, Industrial Science and Technology Frontier Program (ISTF), which is now in progress, are summarized.

Keywords: Trends; Prospects; Japan

1. Introduction

In Japan, the production rate of fine ceramics in 1987

occupied about 60% of the total amount of the free world, and the Japanese ceramic industry is still considered to be holding its position, although the global situations have changed much since then. It is considered that structural ceramics in the field of ceramics has some remaining difficulties, and even though it is still in the initial stage of development and the production rate is low, the potential is high. There are some differences between ceramics and high performance metals, polymer composites and others, but there should be no need to take them into consideration in detail.

Regarding the current situation of the materials research in Japan, I will briefly summarize the big R&D projects, which have been promoted as national projects since the early 1980s and the results and some good examples of metals, CFRPs and ceramics, developed in relation with or stimulated by the above projects. I will also mention the materials-related research program of the Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology (ERATO) Project, which was promoted by the Japan Research Development Corporation (JRDC) , admin- istered by the Science and Technology Agency (STA) , during almost the same period of time as stated above.

Then, in order to survey the future, I will introduce the big revolution in Japanese industries, and the way of thinking, by taking the Frontier Program ISTF as an example, which was planned before the revolution and started just las year. I

* ICA invited paper. Plenary lecture.

0254-0584/95/$09.50 0 1995 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved SsDlO254-0584(95)01548-9

will explain the directions which Japan will be taking, from my standpoint, and then my hope for material researchers and specialists to think about problem areas and directions.

2. History of development of industrial technologies and materials in Japan

Industrial developments in Japan started with paper, fiber (clothes), cement, architecture, civil engineering and grad- ually spread to metallurgy (iron, non-ferrous), machinery, electric machines, ship building and automobiles. In con- junction with that, home electronics such as televisions, washing machines, coolers, etc., have rapidly developed. Since the appearance of semiconductors, supermicro electronics and high performance electronics (calculaters, com- puters, etc.) have cultivated a vast market, and highly valued small and light product industries have become prosperous. The era of information and communication has come, along with optical fibers, liquid crystals, various kinds of semiconductors other than Si, sensors and many kinds of supporting materials.

It is natural that such developments in Japan are due to the technology introduced from many developed countries at that time. During the initial period, exportation was encouraged to earn foreign money, and much effort was put into self- supply of necessary components and materials, the latter in particular to digest such introduced technologies and to make an independent growth possible. Materials, machinery and facilities, such as refractory materials for steel making, graph-

H. Suzuki/Materials Chemistry and Physics 42 (1995) 12-16 13

Table 1 R&D program on basic technologies for future industries (JISEDAI)

Project name Period Total

expenditure

(MYen)

Outline of project

Advanced alloys with

controlled crystallinity

Advanced composite

materials

1981-1988 about 3903 development of heat-resistant alloys which have high toughness with single crystallization,

grain refinement and uniform distribution of hard particles

1981-1988 about 4649 development of advanced composite materials which are lighter than aluminum alloys and

stronger than steels in strength, stiffness, etc., in response to specific application; they are

used as structural materials with high reliability

Synthetic membranes for new 1981-1990 about 4179 development of synthetic membranes which can separate and purify mixed gases or liquid

separation technology mixtures by utilizing differences in the property of substances

Synthetic polymers 1981-1990 about 2883 development of polymer materials which exhibit electric conductivity like metals together

with polymers’ intrinsic properties such as lightweight, resistance to corrosion and good

processability

High performance plastics 1981-1990 about 2441 development of high performance plastics which are lightweight but as strong as metal,

possibly used as structural materials

High performance ceramics 1981-1992 about 11262 development of high strength ceramics at extremely high temperature to be used as

materials for gas turbine components

ite electrodes, composite fibers and electron microscopes, etc., were developed. At the same time, cultivation of per- sonnel and reinforcement of basic research by means of expansion of universities and national research institutes were realized. Fast-growing enterprises, in particular, have built their own fine institutes with full research facilities. Many of those enterprises have surpassed the afore-mentioned universities or national institutes in quality, for a while. In Japan, however, the aeroplane was not developed and munitional research was not carried out at all. Basic research and accumulation of technologies in such fields are nearly nothing, even today.

Japan did not experience any special difficulties up to about 1970, but was then confronted by an extremely big difficulty, the so-called Oil Crisis. A series of problems has arisen, such as public concern due to factory effluents and lack of important industrial resources. However, nuclear steel making and high efficiency gas turbines, which were promoted by industrial-governmental-academic cooperation as part of a national project called Moon Light Project, since 1973, have been successful. It is during this period that the Japanese ability for science and technology has remarkably developed, including R&D of various materials for high temperature nuclear reactors, such as metals, ceramics, and components for high temperature gas turbines, all necessary for the above- mentioned projects. Subsequently, the Japanese industry has relatively smoothly continued to expand, along with the growing demands of resource saving, energy saving, low pollution and recycling of resources.

3. JISEDAI Projects [l] and technology and materials research since then

Since the beginning of the 198Os, based on the experiences gained by that time, the establishment of a technological basis

was planned for supporting a front-end industry, which is expected to become the main part of Japanese industry in the next 10 to 20 years. In this, an attempt was included to make Japanese industry (which was criticized as imitative) have a self-developing ability. Based on confidence in the success of the afore-mentioned Moon Light Project, the Ministry of

Trade and Industry (MITI) , taking an initiative in cooperation with industrial and academic societies, started the JISE- DA1 Projects in 198 1, and has continued this up to the present time. Table 1 shows the field of materials, identified in the projects, taking into consideration the materials which might be difficult to research by specific enterprises. Regarding

metals, because of many enterprises with self-developing power, the number of themes adopted in the program was few and the time span of the research was short. Regarding the field of functional high-polymer materials, such as plastics, which are necessary for development and are often requested by industry, many research programs were carried

out. Ceramics is one of the traditionally favorite fields, but

relatively small enterprises processed the materials. As a result, its research was hardly adequate. The projects were

run from the viewpoint of accumulation of experiences rather than making a relatively large amount of money. As the program proceeds, interchanges of engineers have been enhanced among the industry, and communication between different industries or between users and fabricators has been

activated. Strong concerns were indicated from overseas. It may be different depending on the field and viewpoint,

but it seems that the objectives of each project shown in Table 1 have been generally accomplished and several important results have been obtained. By achikving single crystal tech-

nology, for example, a remarkable enhancement of gas turbine temperature has become possible. In the field of composite materials, epoxy and Al and Ti alloys strengthened with carbon fiber, Sic fiber, A&O, fiber, etc., have become

14 H. Suzuki/Muteri& Chemistry und Physics 42 (1995) 12-16

48 48.5 49 49.5 50 50.5 51 51.5 52 Ni, (at %)

Fig. 1. Change in transformation temperature of TiNi wire heat-treated at

510 “C for 25 min after 10% cold work against Ni content.

Fig. 2. Stress-number (S-N) relationships of cyclic loading obtained for

flat straight coupon specimens of quasi-isotropic stacking sequence of CF/

PEEK and CFlepoxy (stacking sequence E: (45/ -45/0/90)sym, E’: (01

90/45/-45)sym).

Lay.“p: [-45/o/+ 451901

1.2 1 I

---- 0.4 -

CF/EPOXY 0

I I I I I

2.5 5.0 7.5 10.0

impact energy/unit thickness J/mm

Fig. 3. Relationships between CA1 strains and normalized impact energy by thickness in the present experiments (by NASA method) and material sup-

plier’s data (by SACMA method).

successful as matrix material. Such results, with additional refinements, are said to be planned for use in aeroplanes made in the United States. Organic polymers and plastics have been developed into films for filtering and separation of solutes in vapor or liquid phases, or high performance plastics which are equal to or surpassing metals in electrical conductivity, elasticity and strength, etc. In the field of ceramics, Si3N4 and SIC have been mainly studied. Gas turbine rotors of about 16 cm in diameter, stators, and combustors have been fabricated. The rotors achieved 50 000 rpm at 1250 “C in trial operations.

Reviewing the results obtained through such large projects, they were targeted to study basic subjects such as technologies of material fabrication and evaluation, and not direct fabrication of components or products for practical use. Thus,

big economical merits have been obtained in the short term. However, it may be seen as the first step in developing new materials. For enterprises and universities, the next steps were taken based on the achievement of the first phase. In addition, mutual contacts were firmly established.

Through such steps, Japan entered a time of economic

recession, and caverning of industry, accelerated by the high value of the yen. The country has unexpectedly become more involved in Asian countries.

3.1. Research and realization of the intermetallic compound of the Ti-Ni system

Inter-metallic compounds are of current concern and have been extensively studied. However, they were seldom pro- duced in quantity due to their problems in fabrication. The group of Kaieda of NIRM [ 21 has shown that it is feasible to make high purity intermetallic compounds among Ti, Al, Ni, Fe and Co by means of self-ignition synthesis (SIS). For

the Ti-Ni system, they developed a fabrication process of wire of 8 mm to 10 pm in diameter at about 15 tons/year, and are supplying for practical use a configuration memory alloy or super elastic alloy. Fig. 1 shows material composition dependence on transition temperature (martensitic and aus- tenitic) being useful in determining composition suited for its practical use.

3.2. Commercialization study on CFRP and ceramic fiber (TiSiCN) or Sic/Sic composites and Sic long fiber

For structural materials in aeroplanes, lightness, strength, fabricability, fatigue resistance and high reliability are required. Complicated structure and residual stresses are also of importance. A group at the Aerospace Research Institute [3] has reported, based on long studies, that carbon fiber composite combined with thermoplastic resin PEEK is supe- rior to usual epoxy in many aspects. This material has passed realistic structural tests and technology was also developed for defect detection. Its practical application to large scale aeroplanes may be realized in the near future. It is reported that the group is promoting, in cooperation with other com- panies, a study on a 3D textile of TYRANO fiber bonded

H. Suzuki/Materials Chemistry and Physics 42 (1995) 12-16 15

Table 2 4. Future prospect and expectation to Asian prosperity Materials-related projects in the ERATO Program

Ultra-fine particle Amorphous and intercalation compounds

Fine polymer (polyamides, polyester, etc. )

Perfect crystal (Si, C&As)

Bioholonics

Nano-mechanism

Solid surface

Molecular architecture

with Sic by CVI, and has already obtained trial material of high temperature strength above 400 MPa. Figs. 2 and 3 show the results of the fatigue test on GF/PEEK material and the behavior of compressive impact failure, respectively.

Other enterprises are manufacturing SiC/SiC composite by CVI [ 41 and Osaka Industrial Institute is studying a soak- ing heat-treatment of the material by using polycalbosilane

[51. In Japan, industrial manufacturing has recently started on

Hi-NICALON, a Sic fiber having a high resistivity at tem- peratures above 1600 “C. Studies on cost and strength of Sic fibers are also underway in Japan at many places.

3.3. Study on high strength Si,N, ceramics

Yoshimura et al. [6] reported trial material of sintered Si3N4, fabricated by Y,O,-Al,O, additives, being composed of very fine crystal grains and having a bending stress of 2050 MPa.

3.4. Others

Many ceramics, such as S&N,, Sialons, Sic, ZrO,, AlN,cBN, diamond and TiBz, are under investigation in terms of powder synthesis, forming, sintering and their evaluation. Excellent research results are reported on strength evaluation, based on statistical fracture mechanics, etc., and giving a base of establishment of design methodology [ 71.

The purposes of ERATO are to search for the fountainhead of science and technology, and to give birth to a bud of technological revolution. About seven people are assigned per theme (project), with 500 MYen (US $5M) per project for five years. About 35 projects started and more than 15 projects have been completed. Many foreign researchers are participating in these projects, 111 people from 26 countries so far. Themes closely related to materials research are shown in Table 2. There are remarkable results. They are measuring precisely, designing and fabricating products, ranging from the atomic or molecular order to nanometer scale. As there are many similarities with biocells, etc., existing or arising in a living body, significant results and achievements are expected to be obtained before long.

In Japan, a large and new national program, named ISTF [ 81, was announced by MIT1 in 1993. This is a restart program, integrating the OOPURO Program, which started in 1966, targeting development of large scale systems and plants, and JISEDAI Projects, aiming at establishment of basic technology for future industries, and targeting elemental materials technology, containing difficult themes remaining unsolved in JISEDAI. The main point here is to promote, not only by Japan but also in close cooperation with foreign industrial and academic societies, and to make progress in basic and creative research and development, deliberately and efficiently. As themes related to materials, the following are included in the program: (a) high performance composite materials (C/C, intermetallic and its composites), (b) ultra- high purity metals, deposition and sintering of ultra-fine particles, structure control of organic materials, (c) silicon base polymer, (d) inorganic fusion materials with high order structure, (e) metallic and ceramic superconductors. This Japanese program is to search for materials, having functions and performances near ultimate conditions, from progress in the state-of-the-art industrial technology. The new materials will in turn be used to contribute to progress in basic technology, which is becoming necessary in the field of information, telecommunication and aerospace.

Much research effort in institutes other than those stated above, is also in progress. In materials development, metrol- ogy (material evaluation/testing equipment) becomes necessary. Standards should be instituted, and an appropriatedata base should be established. It may be difficult for such materials to be expanded into the market without their wide use by users and designers. AIST (Agency of Industrial Science and Technology) is very keen on such works. The Agency is establishing JIS and also positively contributing to making and spreading international standards. At present, such a cooperative program as on industrial standardization and quality control is in progress among Japanese and Asian countries. Efforts for industrial development and cultural progress in the Asian area are underway. International academic societies, such as IUMRS, are expected to play a significant role in the interchange of young scientists and engineers, in particular, and on strengthening of cooperative relationships.

5. Remarks

The process of industrial development in Japan, particu- larly in materials research, has been summarized through my personal experiences. The research is very actively pursued, but because of society’s present economic revolution, such research activities might be inevitably affected and necessi- tate their own fundamental revolution. My personal perspec- tives are as follows:

(1) Content of R&D changes according to progress of technology. In Japan in the early days, an emphasis was put

16 H. Suzuki /Materials Chemistry and Physics 42 (1995) 12-16

on completion of a certain plant or system, and it was rec- ognized that it might be good to import materials and components and those imports were possible in reality. In the second stage, elemental material technologies were empha- sized as an important technological basis. From now on, high quality materials are being sought in particular their ultimate performances. It is considered that new materials other than metals and ceramics, having no boundaries, and being near to a living body, will appear as front-end materials.

Kanno of JFIC, and to Dr G. Chiba of JRDC for discussions on ERATO, and to Mr Y. Tsuchie of the Japan Atomic Power Co. for assistance.

References

(2) As a borderless world is emerging and communica- tions are freely carried out among countries and areas, the development provides cooperation and enhancement, but effective use of resources, prevention of public nuisance and environmental maintenance are critical issues facing us today.

(3) Best and front-end technology development must aim high. However, it is also highly desirable to search for focused themes, based on local characteristics, and to achieve them in cooperation.

[ 11 JISEDAI Projects, World 11th Tsukuba General Symp.. Proc.,

Keibunsha. Japan, Sept. 1992. [2] Y. Kaieda, Ceramics, 29 (1994) 203.

[3] T. Ishikawa, Y. Hayashi and M. Matsushima, J. Aerospace Sot. Jpn., 42 (1994) 319.

Acknowledgements

[4] N. Fujita and K. Matsumoto, Japan Ceramic Sot. 1994 Fall Symp.,

Sapporo. Japan, 1994, Prepr.. p. 2 1. [.5] T. Tanaka, M. Tamari, I. Kondoh and M. Iwasa, Japan Ceramic Sot.

1994 Fall Symp.. Sapporo, Japan, 1994, Prepr., p. 23. [6] M. Yoshimura, T. Nishioka and A. Yamakawa, Japan Powder

Metallurgy Sot. Symp., Nagoya, Japan, Nov. 1994, Prepr., p. 5 1. [ 71 T. Yamada, J. Kitazumi, Y. Taniguchi and M. Matsui, Mech. Sot. Japan

2nd Con5 Structural Materials and Machining Technology, Tokyo,

Japan, Oct. 1994, p. 425. It should like to express my thanks to authors of valuable [8] Industrial Science and Technology Frontier Program (ISTF), AIST,

papers, such as Mr K. Inoue and Dr K. Miwa of MITI, Dr T. MITI, Japan, 1994.

recent trends and future prospects on materials research in japan

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