Advanced Ceramics Manufacturing at Dalhousie

Prof. Kevin Plucknett
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Advanced ceramics are employed across a broad range of applications, both structural and functional. In this talk, recent ceramics research conducted at Dalhousie and through collaboration will be reviewed. This includes aspects relating to ceramic-metal composite development, as both bulk materials and 3D printed coatings using laser directed energy deposition. A recent collaboration with Guangdong University of Technology in China has also led to a range of ‘high entropy’ ceramics and composites. Finally, the recent award of a CFI Innovation Fund grant, Next Generation Manufacturing of Advanced Ceramics (NG-MAC), will be discussed. NG-MAC will allow the establishment of a variety of 2D, 2.5D and 3D ceramics printing capabilities at Dalhousie, along with associated characterisation facilities, and thermal spray capacity at UNB. The equipment will be used in a variety of research projects, ranging from bioceramics development, through to robust sensors, large-scale architectural applications, and advanced coatings.

Dr. Kevin Plucknett is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), where he also holds an Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Research Chair in ‘Engineering Materials and Advanced Manufacturing’. Since 2017 he has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Electromechanical Engineering at Guangdong University of Technology (GDUT), Guangzhou, China. He was also the Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of Engineering from July 2016 to June 2021. He is presently co-Director of the Faculty of Engineering materials characterisation facility, a role he has held since June 2004. From 2004 to 2014, he also held a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in ‘Materials Degradation and Failure’ at Dalhousie. In late 2020, he also received a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Long-term Fellowship to undertake a 10-month collaborative visit to the University of Tokyo in 2022.

Since joining the Faculty of Engineering at Dalhousie, Dr. Plucknett has been the principal investigator or a co-applicant on successful grant and contract funding with a total value exceeding $34 M. His research to-date has resulted in more than 170 journal and conference publications, three invited book chapters, and a US patent. He has co-edited two books and been a member of the organising committee for 15 international conferences or symposia. Highlighting the industrial focus of his research, he has also authored/co-authored over 190 industrial research reports. He is presently a member for the editorial boards of the peer-reviewed journals Coatings and Ceramics.