The Electrophoretic Forming of Beta‐Alumina Ceramic

The forming or shaping of beta‐alumina ceramic is usually difficult with conventional ceramic processing. In this paper, electrophoretic deposition is shown to be an operationally simple, rapid, and reliable technique for forming a wide range of beta‐alumina shapes required in electrochemical devices. The following topics are discussed in detail: the basis for selection of a suitable vehicle for holding beta‐alumina particles in suspension, the control of electric charge on the particles, the milling of starting powder to provide a small particle size with minimum contamination by wear of the grinding media, the deposition procedure, and the removal of electrophoretic deposits from forming mandrels. Finally, some properties are given for sintered ware formed by electrophoretic deposition.