|
The Department of Materials Engineering provides a
four-year B.Sc. program that enables its graduates to meet
successfully the present day challenges of industry,
research and development. The students acquire a suitable
background in the various areas of materials engineering
that include metallurgy (metals engineering), ceramic
materials, polymers, composite materials, coatings, thin
films and surface treatments. A special program, focused on
electronic materials, orients the students towards problems
related to the processing of such materials and enables the
graduates to integrate into the rapidly expanding
electronic industry in Israel.
The Department also offers graduate programs leading to
M.Sc. or Ph.D. degrees in Materials Engineering. The M.Sc.
program consists of two years of study combining 24 course
credit requirement with the completion of a research
project. Students enrolled in the Ph.D. program are
expected to prove their ability to carry out an original
research project and to publish their results according to
internationally accepted standards. The research activities
of the graduate students are carried out under the guidance
and supervision of staff members of the department. The
areas of graduate research mostly coincide, consequently,
with the various fields of research activity of the members
of the department.
The research facilities at the disposal of the department
include the equipment necessary for the preparation of
samples (arc, resistance and induction furnaces,
heat-treatment furnaces, salt baths, spark cutter),
characterization and identification of samples
(metallographic benches, metallograph, X-ray diffractometry,
dilatometry analysis, two 200 KeV JEOL electron microscopes,
Auger and ESCA spectrometer); mechanical testings (10-ton
dynamic testing apparatus, various hardness and
microhardness tester, creep fatigue machines) and
non-destructive testing by conventional techniques and
acoustic emission.
The research activities include phase diagram studies;
diffusion studies in metallic systems; hydrogen
embrittlement in metals, stress corrosion, corrosion of
materials; theoretical studies on point defects; soft and
hard magnetic crystalline and amorphous materials; surface
treatment of metals and ceramics, deposition of hard
ceramic coatings; metallization in electronic device
fabrication; transformation kinetics in thin films;
multilayered structures; semiconductor and superionic
devices for thermo-electric conversion; piezoelectric
materials; polymers and composite materials; numerical
analysis of metallurgical processing (welding, casting,
rapid quenching, spray atomization, nucleation and growth,
residual stress analysis); hydrogen absorbing compounds;
ancient metallography; electron spectroscopy of solid
surfaces (XPS, AES); rapid solidification, nanocrystalline
materials; high Tc superconductive ceramics processing;
electronic materials and dental materials. The department
strongly encourages cooperative research activities with
neighboring industry (e.g. Dead Sea magnesium plant) or
with other research institutes such as the Nuclear Research
Center-Negev.
|