Inventor’s Technology May Hold Key to Ceramic Engine Parts : Autos: Researchers have tried to use the strong, heat-resistant and lightweight material in cars. A new process may overcome the obstacles.

In his pin-striped suit and horn-rimmed glasses, Thomas Sullivan does not fit the stereotype of the wild-eyed, driven researcher.

Button-down appearances notwithstanding, Sullivan’s inventing career recently passed a major milestone, earning him a major dose of legitimacy. In November, the 36-year-old San Diego State University dropout received a U. S. patent for a ceramics manufacturing process that could make the material suitable for use as automotive engine components.

Sullivan’s invention and his firm, Sullivan Mining Co., have caught the eye of Chrysler Corp., Ford Motor Co., the U. S. Department of Energy and industry experts. Although they caution that Sullivan has yet to prove that he can produce acceptable ceramic parts in large quantities, car company officials described Sullivan’s process as a breakthrough and said they are interested in incorporating his technology in their cars.

For years, automotive designers have seen ceramics as the ideal materials for certain car engine parts because they are strong, heat-resistant and lightweight compared to metal. But their negative aspects--brittleness and high finishing costs--have made practical use of ceramics unfeasible up to now.

Sullivan’s invention, which involves a unique way to make silicon nitride, is based on his ability to make ceramics by combining chemical liquids rather than by melting a mix of powders. The liquids, which are heated, then hardened under intense pressure, have fewer impurities and are more easily manufactured near “net shape,” meaning they require a minimum of machining and finishing before actually being put into cars.

Walt Winterbottom, a researcher who manages the materials systems reliability department at Ford in Dearborn, Mich., said Sullivan’s ceramics manufacturing process is “one of the two or three most interesting developments” recently in ceramics technology as it pertains to engine design.

“The problems with ceramics have always been, ‘How do you make a reliable, low-cost material?’ and ‘How do you avoid the brittleness problem?’ ” Winterbottom said. “Sullivan’s product speaks to both those issues.”

Describing Sullivan’s process as “very promising,” Stewart Harman, a product engineer in Chrysler’s advanced inorganic materials technology group in Highland Park, Mich., said Sullivan’s invention “will definitely help along the commercialization of ceramics for automotive applications.”

But Harman warns that Sullivan’s technology has a long way to go, including passing more durability tests, before it is accepted by major car manufacturers. “There are still some things that need to be proved out. The onus is on him to scale up to become a manufacturing company,” Harman said.

Despite those cautionary words, Chrysler officials were clearly pleased that prototypes of ceramic cam rollers made by Sullivan breezed through a six-month, 50,000-mile test, suffering no more wear than is typically exhibited by steel cam rollers. Cam rollers are parts that are connected to an engine’s cam shaft, the apparatus that opens and closes the valves of an engine cylinder.

Ceramic cam rollers are lighter than ones of metal and less vulnerable to what car companies call “customer abuse”: engine damage that results from low or infrequently changed motor oil. That kind of damage leads to costly repairs for consumers and warranty costs for manufacturers.

Chrysler was encouraged enough by the results of the test to agree to enter into a second stage of product testing with Sullivan. Chrysler will use Sullivan’s cam rollers in an experimental set of Chrysler fleet vehicles.

If that test is successful, and if Sullivan can demonstrate that he can produce the parts in quantity, Chrysler could begin ordering the part in bulk.

The precise dollar value of Sullivan’s technology, if adopted by car makers, is difficult to estimate. But there is little doubt that the technology could be lucrative. Millions of cam rollers--from eight to 32 per car----are manufactured every year.

But the real value could be in follow-on uses of the technology. If the next stage of Chrysler tests is successful, the manufacturer said it would consider using Sullivan’s ceramics in a host of other engine parts, Harman said.

That’s a lot of ifs in an industry that scrutinizes new product technology for years before adopting changes, but there are several industry officials who say Sullivan may indeed have something significant to offer.

“We are intrigued by the fact that Sullivan developed this in a 9-by-12-foot shop on a shoestring budget, compared with hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on this by large corporations,” said Robert Brooks, a correspondent for Ward’s Engine Update and Vehicle Technology, an influential auto technology trade newsletter published in Detroit.

Sullivan, who in recent months has moved to a larger, 2,300-square-foot research and development facility in the Sorrento Mesa area of San Diego, has also received a $1-million contract from the U. S. Department of Energy to set up a large-scale ceramics manufacturing operation.

“If his research and development is successful and his process does the things he says it can do, I think he has a real winner there,” said Albert A. Chesnes, deputy assistant U. S. secretary of energy who is in charge of the department’s transportation technologies.

If successful, “it would be very difficult to compete with a process like his.”

Chesnes said his department, which is particularly interested in Sullivan’s process for use in an advanced, superheated turbine engine, made the $1-million grant after evaluating samples of Sullivan’s products and finding that they indeed exhibited the properties Sullivan said they had.

“The process that Sullivan came up with does not start with powder, and that kind of eliminates an awful lot of problems resulting from the conventional way you make ceramics today,” Chesnes said. “The question is, can the process be repeatable and controllable.”

Sullivan dropped out of chemistry studies at San Diego State after two years because he chafed under the restrictions of the study program.

Opting instead to chart his own course, he immediately began a career as a free-lance researcher working under contract with other firms. All the while, he squirreled away funds to keep his own invention projects going.

In fact, Sullivan has been able to fund all of his ceramics research with his own money until now. But that will change in coming years. Sullivan said he plans to raise $15 million from corporate investors to finance development of his technology.

Times researcher Amy Harmon contributed to this story.