Effectiveness of wick-debinding inside powder bed for ceramic laminates made by tape casting

Laminated Al2O3 samples were prepared by tape casting and warm pressing of multiple layers into compact parts. The effect of a highly porous powder bed on the debinding process has been investigated by performing different debinding cycles with or without the powder bed. The effectiveness of the powder bed was analyzed using the concept of master decomposition curve. Results show that the activation energy of the binder removal process is significantly lowered when the debinding takes place inside the powder bed due to capillary extraction effects. Critical defects such as bloating and cracking are also avoided. In order to further exploit the capillary extraction phenomenon for the debinding a modification to the binder system was made, where a low-melting point component was added, which resulted in improved effectiveness of the capillary extraction. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.