Éélaboration des céramiques

Problèmes et possibilités

Ceramic processing : problems and possibilities

Professeur de céramique, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Abstract

The industrial growth of modem ceramics is still restrained by their too widely dispersed service property levels on the one hand, and by unacceptably high production costs and/or insufficient reliabilities on the other hand.

Such shortcomings in order to be reduced necessitate continued intensive research efforts on the science and engineering of ceramic processing. Typically, four major steps are involved : chemical synthesis of raw materials in the divided state, powder technology and shaping. firing and sintering, post-consolidation finisliing operations. The firsl step, which is more a matter of chemical engineering than materials engineering per se, is not discussed. Each of the other three processing stages is given consideration from the point of view of the critical issues which currently pose limitations to the overall development of ceramics. For each stage also, one specific example is briefly discussed which illustrates some possibilities being explored at the research level, and which could be transferred into practice in the future.