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High temperatures and pressures produced with the QUICKpress table top piston-cylinder help synthesize a wide range of new, technologically-important materials and advance understanding of the behavior of the Earth's mantle and extra-terrestrial lithospheres and atmospheres.The QUICKpress piston-cylinder simultaneously provides a temperature range of 25°C to 1800°C and a pressure range from 5 to 40 kilobars. High pressure generates very high activities of normally gaseous species such as Oxygen and Nitrogen and increases melting points so that high temperature crystalline phases can be accessed and studied. Piston cylinder technology has catalyzed a broad range of scientific research for new high-strength materials such as ductile ceramics for high-strength insulation components; self-lubricating mercury-based alloys for aerospace applications; refractory materials, such as aluminum and boron-nitride, for electronic computer components. It promotes experimentation with sintering (consolidation) of metals and alloys, useful for producing stable materials that have high strength, low porosity, and excellent conductivity. One of the barriers to the pragmatic application of superconductor materials is that they require very low operating temperatures. Piston-cylinder technology has already led to the discovery of a group of copper oxide compounds that show promise of stability at higher temperatures. Use of the QUICKpress piston-cylinder has advanced our understanding of the physical and chemical properties of the Earth's interior; information that is salient to a variety of geologic topics, including Earthquake studies, heat, fluid, and energy transport investigations and crustal evolution simulations. The QUICKpress piston-cylinder is far less expensive than other comparable equipment. Its unique non-end loaded design results in a compact unit that is easy to use and requires no knowledge of internal operation to effectively run experiments. Prior to the manufacture of QUICKpress piston-cylinder, apparatus for generating high pressure and temperatures was expensive, slow and difficult to operate. QUICKpress designer Dr. John Holloway is world renowned in the field of high pressure high temperature phase equilibria, as applied to Earth and planetary science.Dr, Holloway founded a high pressure laboratory at Arizona State University, where he has been on the faculty for thirty years as a professor of Chemistry and Geology. Dr. Holloway is actively involved in NSF and NASA funded projects to develop and use new types of high pressure equipment. Dr. Tracy Paul joined Depths of the Earth Company in 1993, bringing with her seven years of experience in materials science, including an expertise in synthesizing novel materials for high technology applications. Depths of the Earth Company was founded in 1989 with the express purpose of building and selling non-endloaded piston-cylinder high pressure devices and providing the supplies needed for their operation. In 1994 the company completed its first expansion by moving to larger space with a research and development laboratory and with the hiring of a full-time research and development scientist. |
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