INTER MATERIAL 21世紀に活躍するベンチャー企業

Reaction Bonding and Reactive Sintering :A Way to Low Cost Manufacturing of Alumina Based Components
■著者
Technical University Hamburg-Harburg Advanced Ceramics Group、Rolf Janssen　他

■要約
MEH Materials Engineering Hamburg GmbHModern engineering ceramics have got a high potential for many applications due to their unique properties such as excellent high-temperature behavior, good tribological properties, high hardness, high strength, and low specific weight. However, industrial application of structural ceramic components is limited by their high cost when compared to metal parts. While ceramic materials can be inexpensive, the manufacturing costs for components are often too high, mainly due to high costs for shaping and hard-machining. For this reason, there is a strong demand for cost-efficient ceramic parts and manufacturing processes. One suitable way to reduce manufacturing costs is green machining. In conventional ceramics, however, green machining is limited to simple geometries by the low strength of the powder compacts. If extensive green machining could be done even for complex shapes, costs for hard-machining could be drastically reduced. Green machining is also suitable for fast manufacturing of prototypes or small-scale series because no specific pressing tools or molds are required for every component. In addition, it lends itself to automated CAD/CAM shaping processes. In the following, we will try to show that the RBAO (Reaction Bonding of Aluminum Oxide) and s-MAC (sintered Metal Alumina Composites) processes are suitable for such extensive green machining.