Molten metal filter and method for making same
AssigneeThe Carborundum Company
InventorsAlison W. Gee, Premachandran Krishnaswamy, Ajit Y. Sane
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Abstract
A porous ceramic body of high structural strength and integrity is disclosed, along with the method of fabricating such, whereby a curable resin and a sinterable ceramic are mixed and then admixed to removable pore formers, then consolidated into a green body, the pore formers removed, and sintered into the porous ceramic body.
Claims33
A porous ceramic body of high strength and integrity, comprising:
- a substantially continuous ceramic matrix characterized by the absence of filamentary pores;
- a plurality of variously sized cells randomly distributed and interspersed throughout said ceramic matrix, said ceramic matrix substantially separating the cells and filling the interstices between and among said cells;
- and
- a plurality of non-filamentary pores interconnecting said cells, predominately each of said cells being interconnected by said pores to at least two (2) other of said cells, the walls of said cells and said pores being predominately smooth, the edges of said pores forming discrete areas of transition between said cell walls and said pore walls, said edges being rounded and smooth, the average cross-sectional area of said pores being predominately smaller in size than the average cross-sectional area of said cells.
A porous ceramic body of high strength and integrity produced by a method comprising the steps of:
- forming a substantially homogenous mixture of curable resin and sinterable ceramic powder;
- admixing said mixture of said resin and said powder to a plurality of pore formers to form an admixture;
- consolidating said admixture such that substantially all voids are eliminated;
- curing said resin within said admixture to form a green body;
- removing said pore formers from said green body;
- and
- after said pore formers are removed from said green body, firing said green body to sintering temperature and sintering said powder to form said porous ceramic body of high strength and integrity, said porous ceramic body including a plurality of non-filamentary pores;
- and
- wherein said resin and said pore formers are selected such that wetability of said resin and said pore formers tends to cause said resin to bead when in contact with the surfaces of said pore formers before said resin is cured.
A porous ceramic body of high strength and integrity formed by removing the pore formers from, and then sintering, a green body which comprises a consolidation of a predominately homogenous mixture of a curable resin with a sinterable ceramic powder which is intermixed with a plurality of said pore formers, the materials of said resin and said pore formers being selected such that the wetability of said rein in respect to said pore formers tends to cause said resin to bead when in contact with the surfaces of said pore formers before said resin is cured, said resin in said consolidation being curable and said pore formers in said consolidation being removable after said resin in said green body has been cured.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.