Over three-quarters of the respondents to a survey conducted in 2008 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and The American Ceramic Society say their work would range from difficult to impossible without access to phase equilibria diagrams.
The survey verified that access to the critically evaluated phase diagrams, produced via the ACerS-NIST Phase Equilibria Diagrams Program, is valuable, with 65 percent of survey respondents indicating that access to diagrams is either “important” or “very important” to their work.
Other important findings include the following:
• The majority of respondents (71%) indicate that it is either important or very important for them to be able to access diagrams in a single source;
• Forty percent of the respondents report that they use the diagrams at least once a month or more frequently;
• While “hard copy” is currently the most common method of receiving Phase Equilibria diagrams, the future preference is electronic media;
• There is a clear demand from respondents for both Electrical property data (62 percent of respondents) and Mechanical property data (70 percent) to be included in a database.
A total of 263 ACerS members and Phase Diagram product users responded to the survey.
ACerS and NIST have collaborated for more than 60 years on the publishing of phase diagrams of ceramic systems in an effort to support growth and progress in the ceramics scientific, technical and industrial communities by providing relevant phase diagrams for oxides, salts, carbides, nitrides, borides, compound semiconductors and chalcogenides.
ACerS and NIST have provided high-quality phase since 1982. At that time, computerization of all data activities was the major goal for the two organizations. Today, the Ceramic Phase Diagrams Data Center maintains computer files for all references, commentaries and chemical classification information, as well as the diagrams themselves, in graphics form. These computer files form the basis for the ACerS-NIST Phase Equilibria Diagrams Database.
ACerS sells the phase diagram data in book, CD and online form. To learn more about the options, click here.