Slip Casting of Co-Milled Al2O3-SiC Powder Mixtures and their Characterization before and after Sintering against Slip Thickness

Aqueous suspensions of blends of alumina and silicon carbide covering the full compositional range were prepared using both a low energy blender and a high energy planetary ball mill, and used to slip cast tiles of about 10 mm thickness. Green samples and samples sintered at 1500 C were characterised by L, a* and b* colour measurements. It was concluded that colour measurement was a suitable technique to determine the degree of homogenisation in binary systems, and that intimate mixing using high energy was required to obtain homogeneous green and sintered compacts. 4 refs.