Producing ceramics

Manufacturers could produce ceramics with less time, cost and material waste using a new technique developed by researchers at Leicester University.

The new method, which is based on computer modelling, removes the conventional trial-and-error approach to manufacturing ceramics.

The

research team, led by Jingzhe Pan, focused its attention on the sintering stage of the ceramic manufacturing process.

In this stage, ceramic powders, which have been compacted into a solid, are fired and heated up to a temperature that causes them to adhere to one another. The materials repack more closely so that their overall volume shrinks while their density increases.

Traditionally, it has been difficult for manufacturers to predict exactly how these materials change in dimension during the sintering process, and therefore the final product is not always desirable.

The brittleness of ceramics makes them difficult to alter post-production so the erroneous product is usually scrapped.

In order to save manufacturers from such waste, the Leicester researchers have developed a computer software program that can predict how ceramics will change in dimension during the sintering process.