Aluminum titanate ceramic and process for producing the same

A process for producing an aluminum titanate which comprises preparing a plurality of raw material powders of 5 .mu.m or less in average particle diameter, consisting essentially of an Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 source, a TiO.sub.2 source, an SiO.sub.2 source, an Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3 source, an MgO source, a rare earth element source, a mullite source and Al.sub.2 TiO.sub.5 source,

• mixing the raw material powders to obtain a mixture,
• shaping the mixture to obtain a shaped body,
• drying the shaped body to obtain a dried body and then sintering the dried body to obtain an aluminum titanate ceramic comprising 40-60% by weight of Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, 30-45% by weight of TiO.sub.2, 1-10% by weight of SiO.sub.2, 0-4% by weight of Fe.sub.2 O.sub.3, 0.1-1.5% by weight of MgO and 0.1-10% by weight of RE.sub.2 O.sub.3, where RE represents Y, Tb, Er, Dy, Ho, Tm or Lu, in the form of a crystalline phase of aluminum titanate and a solid solution thereof, a crystalline phase of mullite and a crystalline phase of rare earth titanate represented by RE.sub.2 Ti.sub.2 O.sub.7.