Melt extraction of ceramics
AssigneeBattelle Development Corporation
InventorsPeter Bosswell, Dag Richter, Tatjana Berce, Guy Negaty-Hindi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The pool to be filamented is liquefied by heating in a crucible. A disk having an edge immersed in the molten pool rotates at high velocity and drives the pool outwards in the form of a ribbon which breaks up into pieces forming the required particles. The portion of the pool in contact with the disk is constantly replenished and, owing to the use of heating means, has sufficient fluidity to satisfy the conditions for extraction, the molten pool being continuously moved horizontally with respect to the disk.
Claims10
A method of producing solidified filament, fibre or particle from a pool of a molten material by the melt extraction technique including rotating a heat extracting disk having a narrow peripheral surface, immersing the peripheral surface into an immersion area in the pool to form a film of the material on the peripheral surface and at least partially solidfying the film on the peripheral surface, and projecting the at least partially solidified film by centrifugal force from the disk as a filament, fibre or particle wherein the improvement comprises
- additionally heating a portion of the melt pool surface remote from the disk immersion area sufficient to produce a lower-viscosity region of the melt, and
- moving the lower-viscosity region into the disk immersion area.
Apparatus for producing solidified filament, fibre or particle from a pool of a molten material by the melt extraction technique comprising
- means for maintaining a pool of molten material,
- a rotatable, heat extracting disk having a narrow peripheral surface for immersing into an immersion area in the pool forming a film of the material on the peripheral surface, for at least partially solidifying the film on the peripheral surface, and for projecting the at least partially solidified film by centrifugal force from the disk as a filament, fibre or particle,
- means for additionally heating a portion of the melt pool surface remote from the disk immersion area sufficient to produce a lower-viscosity region of the melt, and
- means for moving the lower-viscosity region into the disk immersion area.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.