Development of a manufacturing process for fine ceramic components using the composite of silica slurry: an evaluation of its mechanical durability

This study explains the development of a manufacturing process that is machinable for a ceramic product. The initial process involves manufacturing a ceramic slurry, which is a mixture of high-weight percentage ceramic powders, and a polymeric binder. The ceramic slurry is then pressed to shape a solid body knwon as the green part, which can be structured using conventional machining tools. The structured green part undergoes a debinding process, the resulting body is referred to as the brown part. Finally, sintering is performed to merge the peripheral ceramic powders, and the white part is obtained. The white part exhibited approximately 18 % isotropic shrinkage in dimension and 9.4 % weight reduction compared with the initial green part. The durability of each part is determined via impact-resistant and microindentation tests. The fracture-resistant energy of the white part is determined as 0.673 J, which is an increase of approximately 500 % compared with the values of other parts. Furthermore, the elastic modulus of the white part is determined to be 14.7 GPa, representing an increase of approximately 270 %. In conclusion, we employed an innovative manufacturing process for ceramic products to address the challenges in conventional methods.