A more efficient way of manufacturing alloys and composite materials looks even more promising after several newly patented advances by UC Davis engineering researchers. Known as "self-propagating combustion," this simplified way of making materials involves mixing ingredient powders and then igniting one end. The reaction zips through the powder, creating a new material. Previously, the process has been limited to the few materials whose reactions reached very high temperatures. But Zuhair Munir, a professor of materials science at the UC Davis engineering college and associate dean for graduate studies, applied an electric field to the processing. The current heats up the "combustion zone," allowing many more materials with lower combustion temperatures to be made this way. When Munir's group added pressure at just the right time during the process to densify the new material, another disadvantage of self-sustaining combustion -- the porous product -- was solved. Furthermore, the research group applied its patented field-activated, pressure-assisted techniques to make a molybdenum silicide, used for heating elements in industrial furnaces. In limited use in this country and others, self-sustaining combustion is gaining more attention among larger manufacturers using more traditional approaches, Munir says.