Fabrication of injection moulded translucent alumina ceramics via pressureless sintering

AbstractIn this work, injection moulding and pressureless sintering in hydrogen were applied to manufacture translucent alumina ceramics. Excellent rheological properties of the feedstocks for injection moulding were obtained through a method of powder pretreatment with stearic acid induced by ball milling. Optimum solid loading was confirmed in terms of rheological data and porous properties. The average grain size of the sintered body is 30–50 μm, with no significant pores and abnormal grain growth observed. The real inline transmission is higher and more stable than those via other forming technologies and pressureless sintering reported in previous literatures. As a result, translucent alumina components with small size and high precision were fabricated in such a stable, efficient and low cost route.