The beginning of full of inspiring live sessions and one-to-one networking meetings, where over 2000 ceramics industry professionals will be taking their business and products to the next level! The plenary  was discussed with American Elements, Kyocera International Inc, CoorsTek and The American Ceramic Society at 10:30am ET. The live sessions continued throughout the day with industry leaders from Ford Motor Company, Samsung Research America, Toshiba America Electronic Components and more joined them  to share key insights and answer  questions. In a few years we will see technical ceramics being used far more, with additive manufacturing assisting, the future holds the best on high tech ceramics. The successful  expo had amazing sessions on-demand as fallow:

Day 1 – Facilitating Clean, Connected and Electrifed Technology Mon, 21 Sep, 2020

Plenary Discussion – Overcoming Business Continuity Challenges Caused by COVID-19  and Maximizing Opportunities in the Sustainable Technology Market

Description: Advanced ceramics are a key material in the transition to a cleaner, electrifed and more efcient future. A plethora of technological advancements are being enabled by the disruptive potential of these materials.  A selection of industry leaders will discuss the potential for growth in these areas whilst also addressing the long-term effects of COVID-19.

Points  Discussed: - What opportunities do advanced ceramic materials provide as a disruptive - Technology for environmentally friendly applications? - Changes in market requirements over the next five years and how this can beneft and challenge the advanced ceramics industry - Can business continuity be ensured through disaster planning and supply chain shortening? - Is the stock piling of materials an effective way of combating economic uncertainty.

Moderator: Eileen De Guire, Director of Technical Content and Communications, The American Ceramic Society.  

Speakers: Michael Silver, CEO, American Elements, Steve Pawlowski, Director Automotive Strategy, CoorsTek Inc. Mark Wolf, Vice President, Fine Ceramics Group, Kyocera.

Panel - Powering a Mobile Future: The Role of Ceramics in Taking Solid State Batteries from Theory to Practice and Improving Lithium Ion Models

Points Discussed: - What are the key challenges in the testing, characterization and development of advanced ceramics and glass in solid state batteries? - What improvements can be made to the energy density of lithium ion batteries using ceramic materials? - How can ceramic components deal with the challenge of thermal management in batteries? - How can the fragility of ceramic or glass cathodes be effectively countered?

Moderator: Lincoln Miara, Senior Staff Scientist, Samsung Research America

Speakers: Alevtina (Alla) Smirnova, Associate Professor, SDSMT, Asma Sharaf, Research Engineer, Ford Motor Company

Interview: Maximizing Advanced Ceramic Materials as the Disruptive Technology for Electronic Packaging and Assembly

Description: Electronic circuitry is an exciting growth area for the technical ceramics industry though there are challenges in expanding their production. Advanced ceramic materials are still relatively expensive when compared with their non-ceramic counterparts and take more time and expertise to produce. This interview will address the versatility of ceramic materials and outline ideas of how to maximize their usage in electronic circuitry.

Points addressed: - Ceramic substrates as a disruptive technology to alternate materials. - Discovering the latest market growth areas for ceramic substrates. - Overcoming the commercialization challenges for ceramic substrate production.

Speakers: Mark DiPerri, Business Development Manager, Toshiba America Electronic Components, INC.

Day 2 – Additive Manufacturing Tue, 22 Sep, 2020

Panel - Overcoming Quality and Consistency Challenges for the Additive Manufacturing of Ceramic Materials

Description: Producing ceramic materials of a consistent quality can be challenging, especially when implementing a new technology such as additive manufacturing. By implementing stringent standards on the ceramic materials produced through additive manufacturing, manufacturers will be able to unlock the potential for more efcient production methods with reliable results.

Points to be discussed: - Can additive manufactured materials meet the required quality needed for the advanced ceramic supply chain? - What progress has been made in the feld of material characterization and testing standardization of additive manufactured advanced ceramics? - How do ceramic materials differ from other additive manufactured materials which have already been commercialized such as metals and polymers.

Moderator: Navin Sakthivel, Additive Manufacturing Process Engineer, Baker Hughes

Speakers: Holly Shulman, Professor Ceramic Engineering, Alfred University Jason Jones, Global Materials & Process Engineer, Moog Mohsen Seifi, Global Director, Additive Manufacturing, ASTM International Haim Levi, Vice President, XJet

Panel - Further Integrating Additive Manufacturing into the Production of Technical Ceramics

Description: It has also become more important than ever to produce ceramic materials in a timely and cost-effective manner. Join our experts as they discuss the implementation of additive manufacturing and the ways in which it can help to overcome the slow processing of ceramic products. Points discussed:

• What are the key production challenges for ceramics and glass that additive manufacturing could help or are helping to overcome?

• How can the additive manufacturing sintering process be improved to increase yield quality?

​​​​​​​​​ Moderator: Navin Sakthivel, Additive Manufacturing Process Engineer, Baker Hughes. Speakers: Peter Durcan, Vice President, 3DCERAM-SINTO

Shawn Allan, Vice President & Materials Engineer, Lithoz America

Day 3 – Aerospace Applications Wed, 23 Sep, 2020

Panel - Actualizing Commercialization: Taking Aerospace Applications from Conception to Completion

Description: The commercialization of advanced ceramic materials has always proven to be a challenge no matter the application. Whether it be cost related, through the limitations of raw material availability, complications in the production process or merely the amount of time taken to produce and test a product, mass producing ceramics is a challenge as old as the industry itself especially for aerospace. This is due to stringent safety guidelines and sheer cost. The experts will discuss how best to overcome these challenges.

Points to be discussed:

• How can the volume control of ceramic production be surpassed? What is stopping the mass production of inherently useful components?

• How can the consistency and density of a new material become uniform enough for production?

• What new technological innovations could help to streamline manufacturing processes?

Speakers: Landon Mertz, Chief Executive Officer, Cerion Nanomaterials, Rudolph Olson, GM and CTO, CFOAM LLC, Mano Manoharan, Chief Technologist, Ceramic Composites and Coatings, General Electric Aviation , Michael Badding, Sr. Research Associate, Corning R&D Corporation.

Panel - Addressing the Challenges of Ceramic Matrix Composite (CMCs) Commercialization

Points discussed:

• What innovation can we expect within the next five years in the world of CMCS?

• How can the unpredictability of ceramic fiber matrix interactions be reduced?

• How can CMCs be effectively fastened to other engine components made of differing materials?

Speakers: Richard White, Principal Consultant – Materials, Lucideon Limited Jonathan Blank, CMC and Coatings Materials & Processes Section Leader, GE Aviation, Shay Harrison, Senior Materials Scientist, Free Form Fibers LLC Andrei Evulet, Co-Founder and CEO, Jetoptera

Topic Table – How to Improve Processing and Machining Efficiency in Order to Reduce Production Time and Cut Costs

Description: During this 45-minute virtual roundtable you will get the opportunity to consult the experts on how to increase the efficiency of your processing and machining technology.

Points Discussed:

• How to make improvements to processing and sintering techniques and equipment?

• How can processing and machining be done more cost efficiently?

• How to improve the speed at which ceramic materials are processed?

Speakers: Andrew Perry, Group Ceramic Processes Leader, Lucideon Limited, Dhruba Panthi, Assistant Professor, Kent State University

Day 4 – Quality and Testing Thu, 24 Sep, 2020

Panel– Improving Ceramic Materials and its Production through Dynamic Temperature analysis and Process Modeling

Points discussed:

• How can ceramic manufacturers best utilize these techniques to improve their product?

• How may these techniques improve the efficiency of ceramic material production?

• What is the biggest challenge that these techniques will help to overcome?

Moderator: Landon Mertz, Chief Executive Officer, Cerion Nano materials.

Speakers: Denny Matthew Alex, Research Assistant, Otto von Guericke University Herbert Mucha, Application Scientist, NETZSCH Gerätebau

Panel - Improving Supply Chain Efficiency Through Material Testing Standardization and Accuracy

Description: It can be challenging to produce ceramic materials to a consistent standard. The incongruities between components made using the same raw materials and equipment can be significant. The ability to accurately and consistently analyze ceramic materials at the various stages of its processing are key to countering and determining the origins of these inconsistencies.

Points to be discussed:

• What machining capabilities do manufacturers want prioritized by their suppliers?

• How can consistency be fostered across the manufacturing process as a whole?

• How can the quality and testing analysis of ceramic materials be improve？

Speakers: Bill Walker, Manager, Materials Engineering, Tenneco Powertrain Nathan Henderson, Sr. Applications Scientist, Bruker Corporation Rick Passey, Product Marketing Engineer, FEI, A Thermo Fisher Company, Alex Van den Bossche, Managing Director, GrindoSonic.

Topic Table – How to Improve Your Ceramic Products Material Properties Through Raw Material Optimization

Description: During this 45-minute virtual round table discussion attendees have the opportunity to consult ceramic manufacturers and raw material suppliers on how best to improve their product with optimized raw materials.

Points Discussed:

• What additives could best improve the performance of my product?

• Can material density be significantly increased?

• What improvements can be made to my polymer derived ceramics?

​​​​​​​​​Speakers: Guillaume De Calan, CEO, NanoeRoland Bayer, Application Development Leader, DuPont - Global Speciality Solutions.

Ceramics Expo Connect had a close draws as it shown bellow:

- more products and services

- 34 expert speakers shared insights over 15 hours of live sessions

- 450 B2B meeting opportunities.

- 1300 messages was sent to them.

- 400  virtual booth staff demonstrated 700.

First and foremost, the Expo Connect Ceramics thanked CERADIR for joining them on their journey during the Ceramics expo connect, they couldn't have done it without many of us. By being a part of Ceramics Expo Connect  we all have played a key part in reconnecting the global ceramics community. The Ceramics Expo Connect had more than 1500 ceramics professionals from 75 countries, many discovered new products and technologies and took part in one-to-one meetings, forming invaluable connections, identifying new business opportunities and gaining key insights into the future of the ceramics industry.