Manufacture of sintered silicon alloy

摘要

Dehydration and drying of a silicon alloy argil which uses water as a principal binder are carried out by a freeze-drying process, a microwave irradiation process, or a combination thereof. In the freeze-drying process, the shaped compact is put into a cooling medium within 5 minutes after completion of shape forming, retained therein for at least 5 minutes to quick-freeze water within the compact while the water is still in a finely-dispersed condition. The compact is exposed to a pressure below the triple point pressure of water. In the microwave irradiation process, the shaped compact is put into a container exposed to continuous microwave irradiation at 2.450GHz for at least 5 minutes while under a reduced pressure below atmospheric pressure.