Reading Questions
3.1. General • Name the key stages of fabrication ceramics? What is the name of an unfired
piece of ceramic?
Key stages in the fabrication of ceramics are:
1. Specification, purchase, and storage of raw materials
2. Preparation of a composition in powder form
3. Forming the powder into a shape
4. Densification
5. Finishing
Name of an unfired piece of ceramic: "Green" body.
3.3. Raw Materials • Name some of the properties of the raw material that need to be taken in
consideration.
We should specify chemical composition (including impurities and moisture content). Particle
size and degree of aggregation are often important. reactivity of a material needs to be taken in
consideration as well.
3.4. Powder Preparation – Mixing and Grinding • Explain, why a milling process is necessary. •
In the chapter different milling and mixing methods are described. (Only) Name the different
methods.
Apart from breaking up agglomerates and forming an intimate mixture of the constituents, a
milling process introduces defects into the crystals which may enhance diffusion and accelerate
sintering.
Ball milling (wet / dry), Vibro-energy milling, Attritor milling, Fluid energy milling, Paddle mixing,
Rotating barrel with baffles, Chemical methods (e.g. co-precipitation, sol-gel).
3.5. Calcination • State the reason, why the calcined material needs to be milled after
calcination.
The calcined material has usually undergone a limited amount of sintering and must be milled to
give a powder or slip suitable for the shaping stage.
3.6. Shaping • Explain the reason, why a binder is used.
The primary function of the binder is to give the dry shape sufficient strength to survive the
handling necessary between shaping and sintering.
3.6.2. Isostatic-pressing • Name typical applications for Isostatic-pressing.
This method is used in the mass production of spark-plug insulators and ceramics for
high-voltage devices.
3.6.5. Colloidal processing: slip-casting • Name the advantage of the slip-casting procedure
compared to a dry powder route.
The casts are usually sufficiently dense to yield low-porosity (5% or less) bodies on sintering.
The slow dewatering process results in close-packed particles with less risk of introducing
defects compared to dry powder compaction routes.
3.3.3. Tapecasting • Name the geometrical limitation of the method.
It is difficult to dry thicker films (greater than 0.5 mm) successfully because the surface film
forms first and cracks due to restrained lateral motion.
3.6.9 Films and Layers • Name at least 3 different methods to create a thin film ceramic coating
onto a surface.
1. Solid phase: Slurry-coating
2. Liquid phase: Sol-gel process
3. Gaseous/vapour phase: Chemical vapour deposition (CVD)