New military requirements have reinvigorated the need for transparent magnesium aluminate (M-AI,04) spinel. Surmet has developed a process that yields high quality transparent spinel at production scale. Several issues related to the extreme requirements of processing ultrafine spinel powders are described. Transmission data is presented for a a, significant dataset of parts made by this process. More recently, the process has been expanded to include a capability for producing domes for the Joint Common Missile program. Domes at nominal 6" and 7" diameter have been successfully fabricated. Despite early challenges related to the forming portion of the process, a repeatable capability for these domes has been demonstrated. Several challenges remain in spinel processing in order to support additional military requirements. In particular, the strength of the material needs further improvement. Also, improvements in optical quality with regard to inclusions are needed.
