Manufacturing line, process, and sintered article

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016375607-A1
Application number	US-201615218689-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 25, 2016
Priority date	Jun 29, 2015
Publication date	Dec 29, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A manufacturing line includes a tape of green material that is directed through a furnace so that the furnace burns off organic binder material and then partially sinters the tape without the use of a setter board. Sintered articles resulting from the manufacturing line may be thin with relatively large surface areas; and, while substantially unpolished, have few sintering-induced surface defects. Tension may be applied to the partially sintered tape as it passes through a second furnace on the manufacturing line to shape resulting sintered articles.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A manufacturing line, comprising:
a tape including a green section thereof comprising grains of an inorganic material bound by an organic binder; and a furnace comprising:
a guide that defines a passage, wherein the passage includes a binder burn-off location and a sintering location, and
a heater that achieves temperature of at least three-hundred degrees Celsius in the sintering location of the passage;
wherein the binder burn-off location chars or burns the organic binder from the green section to form an unbound section of the tape that is not yet sintered but has charred or no binder;
wherein the sintering location at least partially sinters the inorganic material to form an at least partially sintered section of the tape; and
wherein the unbound section supports weight of the tape physically connected and adjacent thereto.

2 . The manufacturing line of claim 1 , wherein the furnace is a first furnace, the manufacturing line further comprising:
a second furnace, wherein the second furnace further sinters the inorganic material of the at least partially-sintered tape to form a fully sintered article; and a tension regulator, wherein the tension regulator influences tension in the tape to facilitate shaping of the at least partially-sintered section during the further sintering of the second furnace.

3 . The manufacturing line of claim 1 , wherein the passage of the furnace is oriented such that the tape passes generally vertically through the furnace.

4 . The manufacturing line of claim 1 , wherein the passage extends in a straight path.

5 . The manufacturing line of claim 4 , wherein the passage has depth dimension that extends through the furnace, a width dimension orthogonal to the depth dimension, and a gap dimension orthogonal to both the depth dimension and the width dimension, wherein the depth dimension is greater than the width dimension, and wherein the width dimension is greater than the gap dimension.

6 . The manufacturing line of claim 5 , wherein the gap dimension is at least one millimeter.

7 . The manufacturing line of claim 1 , wherein the heater heats both the binder burn- off location and the sintering location of the furnace.

8 . The manufacturing line of claim 7 , wherein the heater is positioned adjacent to and at least partially surrounds the sintering location, yet is spaced vertically apart from the binder burn-off location.

9 . A process of sintering a tape, comprising steps of:
(a) moving a green section of the tape through a first furnace location of a furnace, the green section comprising inorganic grains supported by an organic binder; (b) burning off or charring the organic binder from the green section as the green section passes through the first furnace location to form an unbound section of the tape; (c) moving the unbound section through a second furnace location; and (d) at least partially sintering the inorganic grains as the unbound section passes through the second furnace location to form an at least partially sintered section of the tape, wherein the step of moving the unbound section through the second furnace location occurs without a setter board supporting the unbound section of the tape.

10 . The process of claim 9 , wherein the green section of the tape is free of contact with surfaces of the furnace as the green section passes through the first furnace location during the step of burning off or charring the organic binder from the green section.

11 . The process of claim 10 , wherein the unbound section of the tape is free of contact with surfaces of the furnace as the unbound section passes through the second furnace location during the step of at least partially sintering the inorganic grains.

12 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the inorganic grains are grains of a material selected from the group consisting of polycrystalline ceramic and synthetic mineral.

13 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the tape is unitary such that the green section, the unbound section, and the at least partially sintered section are contiguous with one another during steps (a) to (d) of the process.

14 . A sintered article, comprising:
a first surface, a second surface, and a body of material extending therebetween, wherein the second surface is on an opposite side of the sintered article from the first surface such that a thickness of the sintered article is defined as a distance between the first and second surfaces, a width of the sintered article is defined as a first dimension of one of the first or second surfaces orthogonal to the thickness, and a length of the sintered article is defined as a second dimension of one of the first or second surfaces orthogonal to both the thickness and the width of the sintered article, wherein the body of material comprises an inorganic material; wherein the length of the sintered article is greater than or equal to the width of the sintered article, and wherein the sintered article is thin such that the width of the sintered article is greater than five times the thickness of the sintered article, the thickness of the sintered article being no more than one millimeter; wherein the sintered article is substantially unpolished such that the first and second surfaces each have a granular profile; wherein the sintered article has high surface quality such that the first and second surfaces both have at least a square centimeter of area having fewer than ten surface defects from adhesion or abrasion with a dimension greater than five micrometers, the high surface quality facilitating strength of the sintered article; and wherein the sintered article has consistent surface quality on both the first and second surfaces such that an average area per square centimeter of the first surface of surface defects from adhesion or abrasion having a dimension greater than 5 micrometers is within plus or minus fifty percent of an average area per square centimeter of the second surface of surface defects from adhesion or abrasion having a dimension greater than 5 micrometers.

15 . The sintered article of claim 14 , wherein the granular profile includes grains with a height in a range from twenty-five nanometers to one-hundred-and-fifty micrometers relative to recessed portions of the first and second surfaces at boundaries between the respective grains.

16 . The sintered article of claim 14 , wherein the article has a flatness in the range of one hundred nanometers to fifty micrometers over a distance of one centimeter in a lengthwise direction along either the first or second surface.

17 . The sintered article of claim 14 , wherein, while being substantially unpolished, at least one of the first and second surfaces has a roughness in the range of one nanometer to ten micrometers over a distance of one centimeter measured along a profile in a lengthwise direction along either the first or second surface.

18 . The sintered article of claim 14 , wherein the article is both particularly thin and elongate such that the length of the article is greater than five times the width of the article and the width of the article is greater than ten times the thickness of the article.

19 . The sintered article of claim 18 , wherein the thickness of the body is less than half a millimeter and the area of one of the first and second surfaces is greater than thirty square centimeters.

20 . The sintered article of claim 19 , wherein the area of one of the first and second surfaces is greater than on

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Badding Michael Edward
• Bouton William Joseph
• Brown Jacqueline Leslie
• Curry Timothy Joseph
• Hurny Roman E
• Kester Lanrik Wayne
• Ketcham Thomas Dale
• Olenick John Albert
• Olenick Kathleen Ritter
• Paananen Jeremy
• Silverblatt Thomas
• St Julien Dell Joseph
• Venkateswaran Viswanathan
• Zink Nathan Michael

Classifications

• B28B17/0009

  Shaping of preshaped articles (shaping the surface of articles B28B11/08) · CPC title

• B28B11/243 Primary

  Setting, e.g. drying, dehydrating or firing ceramic articles (B28B11/242 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B28B1/14

  by simple casting, the material being neither forcibly fed nor positively compacted (for molten material B28B1/54) · CPC title

• C04B2235/95

  Products characterised by their size, e.g. microceramics · CPC title

• C04B2235/963

  Surface properties, e.g. surface roughness · CPC title