Influence of Sintering Time on Properties of Alumina-Based Ceramic Composite

Abstract

The authors have investigated the influence of sintering time at 1600 °C on microstructure, shrinkage, density, surface hardness and bending strength of Al2O3 based ceramic composites. From the ceramic powder mixes, the specimens were compacted by uniaxial pressing and during sintering the heating gradient was 100 °C/h. The experiments have shown that at 1600°C of sintering temperature, the specimen densifications have almost finished within 5 hours, meanwhile the crystal grows processes were continued for up to 9 hours of sintering. The authors have found that the maximum values of hardness and mechanical bending strength of specimens were obtained at 5 hours of sintering and these values have slowly decreased with increasing the sintering times.

Development ceramic floor tiles with increased shear and pressure strengths

“…The mineralogical composition of these powder mixtures is described in the Table 2 and the typical microstructure and chemical components are shown in Figure 1. On the basis of the earlier experiments with alumina [34][35][36][37] and zirconia [38][39][40] of the authors in this research to the conventional floor tiles powder Martoxid KMS-94 alumina ( Figure 2) and TZP zircon-dioxide ( Figure 3) powders were added in different ratios.…”