Vol.2 No.2 2009

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Research paper−132−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.2 No.2 pp.132-141 (Oct. 2009) ceramic manufacturing.2 State of existing manufacturing processAlthough ceramic manufacturing is a high-variety low-production activity compared to other materials such as metals and polymers, it requires many steps including mixing and dispersion, drying, forming, debinding, and sintering. Figure 1 shows the steps for ceramic manufacturing. First step is the preparation of raw material, where the binder and the solvent are added to the starting material such as raw powder and auxiliary agents, and mixing and dispersing the mixture. Auxiliary agent is an additive that promotes densification and expression of function. Binder is an organic additive used to add shape to the green body and to maintain strength. In general, polymer materials are used since they can be broken down and removed by heating. Ceramic products is obtained after following several steps including drying where the solvent is evaporated, forming where the powder is molded into certain shape, debinding where the added binder is removed, and sintering where the body is heated to high temperatures. In addition to these steps, exhaust gas decomposition is added to the manufacturing line, because the gas produced from the binder during debinding contains harmful substances.Since ceramic manufacturing consists of multiple steps, the development of a manufacturing process involves not just the technological development of a single step, but must involve the steps before and after as well as the preliminary steps. For example, in a case where the formability of the powder is extremely low, it is necessary to investigate the material factors such as raw powder, binder, and solvent, as well as 1 IntroductionCeramics are used in the field of industrial machines, and have spread to various other fields including semiconductors and electronic parts, electronic devices, automobiles, processing, environment, energy, and biotechnology. They are recognized as important materials for supporting industry, together with metals and polymers.Looking at the ceramic manufacturing process from the perspective of environmental load reduction, there are many issues. In Japan, industries including the ceramics industry produce about 40 % of the greenhouse gas generated by energy consumption. Comparing the changes of energy consumption unit index per industrial production index by industries, the index for ceramics related industries is about 1.5 times higher than those of iron and steel, chemical, and paper and pulp industries[1]. Particularly, resource saving, energy saving, or environmental load have not been sufficiently considered in the ceramic manufacturing process, and there are many issues in practicing highly efficient manufacturing. Therefore, the development of a process technology to promote energy saving in current ceramic manufacturing as well as the development of an innovative high-efficiency manufacturing process is in immediate demand.With this social background, our research group has been engaging in R&D to develop a low environmental load manufacturing process including the development of energy-saving process for ceramics. In this paper, we shall present the results of our research and describe how we arrived at the development of the energy-saving process for the existing - Novel binders and related processing technology -Koji Watari1*, Takaaki Nagaoka2, Kimiyasu Sato2 and Yuji Hotta21. Research and Innovation Promotion Office, AIST Tsukuba Central 2, Umezono1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8568, Japan *E-mail : , 2. Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute, AIST Anagahora 2266-98, Shimo-shidami, Moriyama-ku, Nagoya 463-8560, JapanReceived original manuscript March 2, 2009, Revisions received March 25, 2009, Accepted March 27, 2009Because of serious global environmental problems, the ceramic industry has been concentrating on the reduction of energy usage during manufacturing. In this project, we have investigated low-energy processing techniques for ceramic components. Our research and development approach was carried out with the goal of realizing new ceramics that can be manufactured using conventional manufacturing processes and equipment at low-cost without significant degradation in material properties. After a careful investigation of possible technologies, we concluded that a decrease in the amount of organic binder is the most effective technique to promote low-energy processing, and have successfully developed a novel binder technology. Our technology and knowledge have contributed to greatly reduce the amount of energy required for ceramic fabrication through a collaborative research project with a private company. A strategy to reduce energy usage in ceramic fabricationKeywords : Ceramics, manufacturing, energy saving, binder, process, water[Translation from Synthesiology, Vol.2, No.2, p.137-146 (2009)]

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