A process for the production of a fibre or whisker reinforced ceramic compact

Abstract: A ceramic compact having high temperature strength, toughness and reliability, comprises a ceramic matrix (e.g. Silicon nitride) and ceramic fibers or whiskers (e.g.Silicon carbide) uniformly dispersed in the matrix and orientated in a desired direction, said matrix and fibers or whiskers being closely bonded by sintering. The compact is produced, for example, by preparing a shaped body of silicon in which ceramic fibers or whiskers are uniformly dispersed and then heating and nitriding the shaped body in a nitrogen atmosphere to form a fiber or whisker reinforced silicon nitride sintered compact.

Description: This invention relates to a process for the production of a ceramic shaped body containing ceramic fibers and having an excellent strength and toughness, in particular, a ceramic silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) sintered compact. Ceramics have widely been used as electrically functional materials or mechanical and structural materials because of excellent properties thereof, but the practical use of ceramics has considerably been limited when utilizing the mechanical properties since there arises a problem that a sudden breakage or a large dispersion of the strength tends to occur due to the brittleness of ceramics. Thus, various efforts have hitherto been made so as to improve the reliability or strength of ceramics. As to aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃), zirconium oxide (ZrO₂), silicon carbide (SiC) and silicon nitride (Si₃N₄), in particular, compositions and production conditions have been studied in detail. Furthermore, an incorporation of fibers, for example, metallic fibers and ceramic fibers has been studied to increase the strength and ceramics containing ceramic whiskers, for example, a silicon nitride compact containing fibrous silicon carbide dispersed have been reported as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application OPI (Kokai) No. 104069/1983. However, the studies of the compositions and production conditions have failed to realize the anticipated results and the incorporation of fibers has met the problems that the production cost is high and the uniform dispersion of fibers is very difficult. The present application provides a process for the production of a ceramic compact, which comprises preparing a ceramic fibers assembly, pressing said assembly to form a ceramic fibers preformed body with a suitable size, impregnating the ceramic preformed body with a slurry containing a ceramic powder or silicon powder as a predominant component by a centrifugal casting method, drying and then sintering. The present invention provides a process for the production of a ceramic compact with an excellent high temperature strength, toughness and reliability. Examples of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawing which is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of an apparatus for centrifugal casting, suitable for practicing the process of the present invention. The inventors have made various efforts to obtain a ceramic compact excellent in high temperature strength, toughness and reliability and consequently, have found that a composite composition in which ceramic fibers are uniformly dispersed exhibits very excellent properties or performances, in particular, a combination of a matrix of silicon nitride and ceramic fibers is more excellent and a method comprising dispersing silicon and ceramic fibers and nitriding the silicon to form silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) is effective for obtaining a more compact sintered body. That is, there is provided a ceramic compact comprising a matrix of silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) and ceramic fibers, preferably consisting of silicon carbide whisker, uniformly distributed and dispersed therein, said matrix and fibers being closely bonded by sintering, preferably reaction sintering. The above described ceramic compact can be produced, for example, by a process comprising obtaining a shaped body of silicon (Si) in which ceramic fibers are uniformly dispersed and then heating and nitriding the shaped body in a nitrogen atmosphere to form a fiber-reinforced silicon nitride (Si₃N₄) compact. The ceramic shaped body consists substantially of a ceramic matrix and ceramic fibers uniformly distributed and dispersed therein with a certain directional property. In the prior art process, a shaped body of silicon nitride and ceramic fibers is obtained and then subjected to compacting, while in one embodiment of the present invention, the compacting is carried out by nitriding silicon so as to prevent from shrinkage of the volume during the compacting. That is, a shaped or formed body containing fibers is hardly changed in dimension and thus hardly compacted, but this embodiment of the present invention aims to compact without changing the dimension of such a shaped body. Any of long fibers and short fibers could be used as the ceramic fibers, but whiskers are preferred from the standpoint of compatibility. Whiskers should be used under sufficiently dispersed state. As the ceramic fibers, there can be used fibers of alumina (Al₂O₃), silicon nitride (Si₃N₄), silicon carbide (SiC), carbon (C), potassium titanate (K₂TiO₃) and zirconium oxide (ZrO₂). Silicon carbide whiskers are particularly preferably used because of being so compatible with a matrix of silicon nitride that best results are given. The quantity of the ceramic fibers should be 0.1 to 45 % by volume, since if it is less than 0.1 % by volume, no effect appears by the addition thereof, while if more than 45 % by volume, the fibers are too many to be uniformly dispersed. As a solvent for mixing a silicon powder and ceramic fibers to form a slurry, there can be used, for example, water, alcohol, acetone, hexane and the like. Fig. 1 is a schematic view of an apparatus for centrifugal casting, in which a casting mold 3 is provided in a closed vessel 1 to be revolved by a rotation driving means 2 and the vessel 1 can be evacuated via a pipe 4 by a vacuum pump (not shown). The casting mold 3 is made of a material capable of permitting only a solvent in a slurry 6 containing a material 5 for a compact to pass therethrough, for example, gypsum, filter paper and the like. Particularly, gypsum or filter paper is preferably used because of the ease of making the casting mold and the lower price. For casting, a reduced atmosphere can be applied with better results. Referring to Fig. 1, the material 5 for a sintered compact is being formed on the inner wall of the casting mold 3 from the slurry 6. In one embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a process for the production of a ceramic composite, characterized by shaping ceramic fibers into a shaped body with a desired size, impregnating the shaped body with a slurry containing a ceramic powder or silicon powder as a predominant component by a centrifugal casting method, drying and then sintering. In this embodiment, it is more preferable to use silicon carbide (SiC) whiskers as the ceramic fibers, a shaped body of ceramic fibers, having a porosity of 95 to 55 %, as the shaped body, and SiC, Si₃N₄, Al₂O₃ or ZrO₂ powder as the ceramic powder. The impregnation with a slurry is carried out by centrifugal casting, as described above, and a shaped body is impregnated with a slurry containing silicon as a predominant component, dried and then subjected to reaction sintering in nitrogen gas. In this specification, the above described porosity is defined by the following formula (1): Firstly, ceramic fibers are shaped into a preform having a porosity of 95 to 55 % as represented by the formula (1). This means that a ceramic powder to be impregnated will be dispersed in the pores of the preform, but if the porosity is more than 95 %, the preform is hard to hold a desired shape, while if less than 55, the powder is too few to achieve compacting by sintering. For example, preparation of the preform is generally carried out by a pressing method. In this embodiment, any of continuous fibers and short fibers can be used. The resulting preform is then impregnated with a ceramic powder or a powder containing predominantly silicon, for example, by a method comprising dispersing the powder in a solvent, impregnating the preform with the resulting slurry by a centrifugal casting method and then evaporating the solvent. Useful examples of the ceramic powder are SiC, Si₃N₄, Al₂O₃ and ZrO₂. Furthermore, a sintering aid such as Y₂O₃ can be added to the ceramic powder or silicon powder. As the solvent, for example, there are used water, alcohol and the like and in the case of the ceramic powders, alcohol is preferable in order to prevent the powders from oxidation. A preform having a porosity of 95 to 55 %, i.e. having a fiber content of 5 to 45 % by volume is impregnated with a ceramic powder or silicon powder, thus obtaining a shaped body having a powder content of 5 to 75 % by volume and a total quantity of the fiber and powder of 50 to 80 % by volume. The impregnation is carried out by a centrifugal casting method using a centrifugal force whereby the preform is uniformly impregnated with a slurry and the removal of the solvent can rapidly be carried out. The centrifugal casting method is carried out, for example, by an apparatus as shown in Fig. 1. In this embodiment, the casting mold 3 is formed so as to be adapted to the contour of a preform 5 and made of a material capable of permitting only a solvent in a slurry 6 containing a ceramic powder or silicon powder to pass therethrough, for example, gypsum, filter paper and the like. Particularly, gypsum or filter paper is preferably used because of the ease of making the casting mold and the lower price. As shown in Fig. 1, the preform 5 is set in the mold 3, the slurry 6 is poured in the preform 5 and the preform 5 is impregnated with the powder while subjecting to centrifugal force. During the casting, a reduced atmosphere is preferably used with good results. The resulting shaped body is dried in known manner and then sintered. In the case of using Si₃N₄ as the matrix, in particular, a shaped body impregnated with a silicon powder can be obtained and subjected to reaction sintering in an atmosphere of nitrogen to form Si₃N₄. When sintering a ceramic powder in ceramic fibers, the volume is so hard to shrink that compacting is difficult, but when a silicon powder is subjected to reaction sintering, a sintered compact body can easily be obtained without necessity of the volume shrinkage. As illustrated above, the feature of this embodiment of the present invention consists in obtaining a composite of a ceramics and ceramic fibers by previously impregnating a preform of the ceramic fibers with a slurry of a ceramic powder or silicon powder by a centrifugal casting method, drying to remove the solvent and sintering. A uniform dispersion of ceramics and ceramic fibers is thus made possible, which has hitherto been considered difficult. Furthermore, when using a centrifugal casting method utilizing a centrifugal force in order to fill a preform with a ceramic powder or silicon powder, a uniform shaped body can be given. Therefore, there is provided fiber-reinforced silicon nitride ceramics excellent in strength as well as toughness by the use of a ceramic shaped body consisting essentially of a ceramic matrix and ceramic fibers, characterized in that the ceramic fibers are orientated. This ceramic compact is very effective as structual materials at high temperature, for example, structural materials for gas turbines, because of having a higher strength at a high temperature and a large toughness. This is significant in view of that the ceramics of the prior art are lacking in the high temperature strength and toughness and thus have not been put to practical use. Moreover, the process of the embodiments of the present invention has the advantage in addition to the provision of the above described fiber-reinforced silicon nitride compact that it enables the use of a centrifugal casting method, thus reducing the production cost and providing the compact economically. The following examples are given in order to illustrate the instant invention in greater detail without limiting the same. Example 1 A whisker assembly consisting of entangled SiC whiskers, having a porosity of 90 %, was prepared and pressed to form a preform having an outer diameter of 60 mm, thickness of 10 mm and porosity of 85 %. On the other hand, 5 % by weight of α-type Al₂O₃ powder having a mean grain diameter of 0.4 µm and 5 % by weight of Y₂O₃ powder having a mean grain diameter of 1.0 µm were added to Si₃N₄ powder having a mean grain diameter of 0.5 µm and dispersed in ethanol to form a slurry. The preform was impregnated with the slurry, dried at 80 °C for 2 days and sintered at 1800 °C in a nitrogen gaseous atmosphere under a pressure of 1 atm for 2 hours. The thus resulting sintered compact had a higher strength, higher toughness and more excellent high temperature strength, i.e. a relative density of 90 %, 3 points bending strength at room temperature of 80 kg/mm² , 3 points bending strength at 1200 °C of 75 kg/mm² and breakage toughness K IC of 12 MN/m 3/2 . Example 2 Using a similar SiC whisker assembly to that of Example 1 , a whisker preform having an outer diameter of 30 mm, inner diameter of 20 mm and length of 60 mm was obtained and impregnated with a slurry prepared in an analogous manner to Example 1 by centrifugal casting. The resulting impregnated preform was then sintered under similar conditions to those of Example 1 to yield a sintered compact. The thus resulting compact had similar excellent properties to Example 1 , i.e a relative density of 92 %, 3 points bending strength at room temperature of 80 kg/mm² , 3 points bending strength at 1200 °C of 75 kg/mm² and breakage toughness K IC of 13 MN/m 3/2 . Example 3 A SiC preform was obtained and impregnated with Si powder in an analogous manner to Example 1. The thus obtained preform was then subjected to reaction sintering in nitrogen gas at 1350 °C for 5 hours at 1 atm. The thus resulting compact had similar excellent properties to Example 1, i.e. a relative density of 93 %, 3 points bending strength at room temperature of 70 kg/mm², 3 points bending strength at 1200 °C of 70 kg/mm² and breakage toughness K IC of 12 MN/m 3/2 .

Claims: A process for the production of a ceramic compact, which comprises preparing a ceramic fibers assembly, pressing said assembly to form a ceramic fibers preformed body with a suitable size, impregnating the ceramic preformed body with a slurry containing a ceramic powder or silicon powder as a predominant component by a centrifugal casting method, drying and then sintering. The process of Claim 1, wherein the ceramic fibers are selected from the group consisting of fibers of aluminium oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, zirconium oxide, carbon, potassium titanate and mixtures thereof. The process of Claim 1 wherein the ceramic preformed body has a porosity of 95 to 55%. The process of Claim 1, wherein the ceramic powder is selected from the group consisting of powders of silicon carbide, silicon nitride, aluminium oxide, zirconium oxide and mixtures thereof. The process of Claim 1, wherein the sintering is carried out by reaction sintering in nitrogen. The process of Claim 1, wherein the ceramic powder or silicon powder further contains a sintering assistant. The process of Claim 1, wherein the ceramic preformed body is impregnated to give a powder content of 5 to 75% by volume and a total quantity of the fibers and powder of 50 to 80% by volume.

Inventors: DOI YOSHIHIKO C O ITAMI WORKS, MIYAKE MASAYA C O ITAMI WORKS, YAMAKAWA AKIRA C O ITAMI WORKS, DOI, YOSHIHIKO, C/O ITAMI WORKS OF SUMITOMO, MIYAKE, MASAYA, C/O ITAMI WORKS OF SUMITOMO, YAMAKAWA, AKIRA, C/O ITAMI WORKS OF SUMITOMO
Applicants: SUMITOMO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES, SUMITOMO ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES LIMITED
Application year: 1987
Main classification: C04B35
IPC codes: C04B35