In the vacuum system of pneumatic conveying, the authors have proposed, that a suction nozzle equipped with an injection pipe at the center, would provide a highly-dense and highly-efficient method of transporting powders and particles. In this paper, we examine the effect of particle diameter of them. The experiment was carried out with five spherical glass beads in ranges from 49 μm to 272 μm when a mean particle diameter x_m is expressed in a volumetric median diameter. As a result, it was found that the change of mean particle diameter has a negligibly small effect on the nozzle performance except in the case of x_m = 49 μm. This was confirmed from the particle behavior by flow visualization. In the case of x_m = 49 μm, we were able to discuss the impact of agglomerative property from the evaluation of fluctuating pressure on the wall surface in the suction nozzle.

Reaction of mono calcium phosphate monohydrate (MCPM) and calcium carbonate at 36.5°C was applied to prepare octacalcium phosphate (OCP) porous compact expected to be a bioresorbable bone precursor in accord with autologous bone recycling process. XRD analysis confirmed that intermediate product of porous dicalcium phosphate dihydrate (DCPD) compact is synthesized practically in the first period of 2 hours, and that DCPD crystalline is reasonably decomposed into OCP through the hydrolysis reaction within 7 days. The pH value of phosphate buffered solution exerts an influence on the CO₂ gas evolution reaction and hence the transformation rate of DCPD crystalline into OCP. OCP porous compacts were evaluated in simulated body fluid (SBF) for its transformation ability to hydroxyapatite (HAp). SEM micrographs, XRD and EDS analyses demonstrated that petaloid shaped calcium-deficient HAp should be crystallized on the basis of the bone-like apatite layers in OCP crystalline structure.

Microstructural observation using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a promising technique for obtaining new findings with atomic-scale and developing phenomenological theory for ceramic materials. This paper reports on observation techniques and diverse findings obtained by observations of several ceramics. The knowledge obtained here is expected to be useful in the design of future materials.

Composite films with an array of needle-like TiO₂ particles in urethane resin matrix were fabricated by applying alternating current (AC) bias. The resulting composite films showed angular dependence of transmittance in the visible-near infrared (NIR) wavelength range. The resulting composite films assumed to be applied to smart windows and privacy films.