SCALING TECHNOGY FOR PRODUCTION OF CONTINUOUS CERAMIC FIBER

摘要

The methodology used to scale-up a process for making continuous alpha-silicon carbide (alpha-SiC) fiber from laboratory-bench-scale to demonstration-scale pilot capacity is presented. Scale-up of ceramic material processes is typically complex due to the nature of the process environment, material and machine interactions. In the case of ceramic fiber processing, machine/material interactions are critical to successful implementation. The process involves the attenuated melt extrusion of plastic suspensions of fine SiC powder. Green fiber is pretreated to extract plasticizers. The green fiber is then calcined to remove binder and sintered continuously to produce finished ceramic fiber tow. The many steps in translating batch process date into a full-scale demonstration line are presented. Considerations critical to plastic extrusion, furnace atmosphere control, handling of delicate ceramic fiber, and machine control and process automation are included. The process unit operations and methodology described are generally applicable to production of similar continuous ceramic fibers.