When it comes to finding the right silicon carbide product for your needs, there are a few key things to consider:
- Raw material preparation, which usually involves a powder or a mixture of powders, along with any binders or sintering aids that may be required.
- Forming, or creating the green body, which can be done through techniques such as dry uniaxial pressing, isostatic pressing, slip casting, extrusion, injection molding, or additive manufacturing.
- Firing, or the high temperature process that transforms the green body into the final ceramic.
There may also be additional steps involved, such as surface finishing or machining.
Fiven offers a wide variety of powders that are specifically designed for the most common forming and firing methods. For example, our SIKA® Densitec products are ready-to-press (RTP) powders, which are made from a homogeneous mixture of submicron silicon carbide, binders, and sintering additives that are spray dried into spherical granules.
If you prefer to use your own in-house RTP formulation, we also offer a range of silicon carbide powders with various particle size distributions and purity levels, such as our SIKA®Sintex and SIKA®Sintex C products. These powders can be tailored to meet your specific needs, depending on your forming method and requirements.
For slip casting, we recommend our SIKA®Unikiln FCP07 product, which is a fine silicon carbide powder with excellent properties for this method. When combined with a coarse powder like 100F, the green body can achieve densities of up to 85% of theoretical density. This is due to the unique surface properties of SIKA® Unikiln FCP07, which make it more stable in suspension and allow for higher solid loading in the slip. SIKA® Unikiln FCP05, FCP07, and 100F products are chemically treated green silicon carbide powders that are formulated to produce nitride-bonded or recrystallized silicon carbide ceramics.
To help you find the optimal combination powders for your product, Fiven offers a process called multi-objective optimization. This involves setting multiple objectives or target values for characteristics such as density, flowability, and tensile strength, and using mathematical algorithms to find the combination of powders that best meets all these objectives simultaneously. The optimization process can consider various constraints, such as the availability of different types of powders and the cost of using each type, to find a solution that is not only optimal, but also practical and cost-effective. By using Fiven to optimize the combination of powders, you can achieve a more consistent and high-quality product with improved characteristics.
If you have a project that requires silicon carbide powders, do not hesitate to contact us – we are happy to help you find the perfect productfor your needs.