Economic Analysis of Alternative Fabrication Approaches for Advanced Structural Silicon Nitride Ceramics

摘要

Economic analyses were conducted on variousstructural silicon nitride components, includingstators, rotors, and cam followers. A variety of formingoperations were considered, including slip casting,gelcasting, injection molding, and dry pressing. Theeconomic analyses involved the development andrefinement of process-based technical cost models usingspreadsheet software. These TCMs were used to estimatethe costs of fabrication under a wide variety ofproduction scenarios and annual production volumes.Cost drivers were identified from various perspectives,for example, by cost element such as direct labor andby unit operation such as forming. Comparisons were madeof the costs and cost drivers for the differentcomponents, for different shape forming operations, fordifferent production volumes, for different siliconnitride materials, and for different operation reject rates.