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Amelia Berta Kalamazoo College |
Characterization of Ceramic Tapes - Specifically to Determine the Feasibility of Thermoforming Ceramics
Background Information
Ceramic tape casting has been used extensively to make thin, flat objects. These have multiple uses in the electronics field, such as bases to hold electronic circuitry and more. However, not much is known about the forming capabilities of the tape to make non-flat objects. Tapes are made from a combination of a binder system and ceramic slurry that are cast in thin sheets. To get a pure ceramic as the finished product, the binder must be removed by thermolysis. During this process and during sintering tapes may curl, warp, crack and delaminate.Project Objectives
- Characterization of Al2O3 and Al2O3 - Zr tapes using thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) of the binder thermolysis (removal)
- Examine tape's microstructure using optical microscopy
- Determine the extent to which a tape can be bent and still retain that shape throughout binder thermolysis and sintering.
Approach
- Characterize the percent of mass lost during binder thermolysis at different heating temperatures
- Test real-sized ceramic pieces at faster binder burnout rates
- Examine microstructure and grain boundaries looking for differences that could cause cracking and delamination
- Develop mold to thermoform Al2O3 tapes and use the formed tapes to analyze the above objectives.
Accomplishments
- Used TGA to determine that the binder is removed from the ceramic by 600 C, regardless of the heating rate
- Successfully made and sintered Al2O3 laminate using a ramp of three times the normal rate (30C/hour as opposed to 10C/hour) without problems
- Cut and polished laminate to look at grain boundaries and structure
- Created round die to form ceramic tapes and adjusted binder content of tape to be more favorable during forming
 Casting an alumina tape. |
 Example of one type of mold used for forming. |
Final Research Presentation