Excerpt from User Evaluation of "Phase Diagrams for Ceramists" And Implications for Related Data and Research Programs

Phase diagrams play an important role in the development of ceramic materials. Phase equilibria data are essential in meeting the expanding needs for refractories, electronic components, non - crystalline solids, and various other applications of interest to ceramic scientists and engineers. The chemical information generally summarized as a phase equilibrium diagram is extremely useful in many industrial processes. However, the necessary research involved in obtaining such information is often very costly. The average binary phase diagram can be estimated to take about one man year and a ternary diagram may take five times that effort. To avoid duplication, it is advantageous to have all existing diagrams compiled and distributed for easy access.

As described below, the American Ceramic Society long ago recognized the importance of phase diagrams to the field of ceramic materials and the importance of having this type of information available in evaluated and summarized form. Beginning in 1933, the Society has worked contin uously with the National Bureau of Standards to provide a sequence of reports under the title Phase Diagrams for Ceramists giving evaluated data from the literature on selected ceramic systems. The Bureau has supplemented these data with measurements in its own laboratories on a limited number of systems chosen because the data were needed for specific reasons but were not available or were of doubtful accuracy. Other laboratories such as the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute and the Pennsylvania State University have supported Phase Diagrams for Ceramists through evaluations by their staffs and/or through experimentalwork. The overall responsibility and general editorship have, however, always been assumed by the National Bureau of Standards.

Several valuable contributions to compilation, evaluation, and publication of phase diagrams of ceramic systems have been made by other groups and published independently from time-to - time as described below. These have generally been one-time-only activities with a limited, specialized scope. Phase Diagrams for Ceramists is the only continuing program of general scope in the Western World. With the recent addition of an International Board of Contributing Editors, it appears very likely to be even more central and unique in the future.

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