Ceramic fiber casting

A process for producing a slip cast ceramic body having an open porosity ranging from about 30% by volume to about 90% by volume of said body which consists essentially of preparing a slip consisting essentially of ceramic material suspended in a liquid vehicle, said ceramic material consisting essentially of a mixture of fibers and particulates, said fibers having an aspect ratio ranging from about 10 to less than about 200 and being selected from the group consisting of aluminum oxide, beryllium oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, titanium carbide, zirconium carbide and a mixture thereof, said particulates being filler particulates selected from the group consisting of aluminum oxide, beryllium oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, titanium carbide, zirconium carbide and a mixture thereof, the volume ratio of said fibers to said particulates ranging from about 1:5 to about 1:1, said particulates having an equivalent diameter ranging from greater than about 0.2 .mu. to less than about 3 .mu., the ratio of the largest to the smallest dimension of said particulates being less than about 10 and the largest dimension of said particulates being less than about 1/2 of the length of said fibers, said ceramic material being present in an amount ranging from greater than about 4% by volume to about 30% by volume of the total volume of said slip, said fibers being present in an amount greater than about 2% by volume of the total volume of said slip, providing a porous mold, casting the slip into the mold to extract said liquid vehicle producing said slip cast body, and recovering said slip cast body, said slip cast body being of simple, hollow and/or complex shape, said slip cast body being useful in producing a ceramic composite which does not differ significantly in shape and size therefrom and which is comprised of a continuous matrix phase and a discontinuous filler phase, said slip cast body being characterizable as being infiltratable with molten ceramic infiltrant to produce said composite wherein said infiltrant forms said matrix phase.