Method of preparing an aqueous inorganic powder slurry which is extruded and dried to form an inorganic article

摘要

A method of making an inorganic slurry, forming the inorganic slurry into a useful article and method of removing the solvent medium from the formed article. The slurry contains an inorganic powder, water, dispersant, thermally gelable polymeric binder and optionally a plasticizer. The method comprises admixing the inorganic powder, water and dispersant to form a blend. The blend is a ball milled, heated, and admixed with a thermally gelable polymeric binder to form a slurry mixture, then the mixture is cooled. The slurry mixture can be extruded to form useful articles, such as metal or ceramic tapes. Additionally, the invention is also a method of final shaping and removing solvents from the formed article. A heated calendar roll stack assembly is used to rapidly remove the solvent from the article. When sintered, the resulting article is very dense and exhibits substantially no voids.