Slip Cast Spinel for Near-net Shaped Conformal Sensor Window Manufacturing

Technology Assessment & Transfer, Inc. (TA&T) proposes a slip casting process to manufacture near-net shaped conformal spinel electro-optic windows. Slip casting is a wet process that enables fabrication of very homogeneous and high green density components. A homogeneous green structure creates very predictable shrinkage characteristics which are desirable for near-net shape manufacturing of complex curved, conformal windows. During this Phase I program, TA&T will demonstrate the feasibility of this approach by fabricating two toroid shaped spinel optical blanks which meet predetermined dimensional measurements. These samples will be cored to characterize the optical properties in the visible and mid-IR wavelengths.