Method for making a ceramic metal composite
AssigneeCoors Ceramics Company
InventorsMarcus A. Ritland, Dennis W. Readey
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Abstract
The present invention is directed to a process for fabricating ceramic-metal composites having continuous ceramic and metal phases. The process includes the steps of contacting a porous ceramic matrix material with a molten metal whereby capillary action pulls the metal into the ceramic matrix to substantially fill the void space. The present invention also provides a ceramic-metal composite having continuous metal and ceramic phases.
Claims22
A method for making a ceramic-metal composite, comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a green body comprising a ceramic powder;
- (b) sintering said green body until a sintered ceramic having a predetermined average pore size is obtained;
- and
- (c) infiltrating said ceramic with a molten metal, wherein said molten metal comprises oxygen, such that capillary action of the sintered ceramic pulls said molten metal into said sintered ceramic such that substantially all of the volume percent porosity is filled with the molten metal.
A method of making a ceramic-metal composite material, comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming a green body comprising a ceramic powder;
- (b) sintering said green body until a ceramic of desired average pore size and porosity is obtained, and wherein said porosity is in the range of from about 10 volume percent to about 80 volume percent and said average pore size is in the range of from about 1 micrometers to about 10 micrometers;
- (c) doping a quantity of molten metal with a dopant comprising oxygen to alter the interfacial free energy characteristics of the molten metal;
- and
- (d) infiltrating said ceramic with said molten metal by capillary action such that substantially 100 percent of the volume percent porosity is filled with the molten metal.
A method for making a ceramic-metal composite, comprising the steps of:
- (a) forming an alumina ceramic body having substantially interconnected porosity in the range of from about 10 volume percent to about 80 volume percent;
- (b) heating a metal comprising copper metal and copper oxide to substantially melt said copper metal;
- and
- (c) contacting said alumina ceramic body with said heated metal in a vacuum to infiltrate said metal into said alumina ceramic.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.