Ceramic processing of template-induced microstructure textured ceramics PI008

The target of this work is to develop an advanced manufacturing process that results in a bulk polycrystalline electroceramic component through a texture induced forming method. The technique produces a bulk ceramic component that exhibits enhanced macroscopic properties when compared to a traditional electroceramic material that has electrically induced ferroelectric texture or crystallographic texture. Templated texturing can involve the ??laying down?? of seed crystals with planar morphology to induce preferential grain growth within a pre-designed orientation of the bulk ceramic. Through well-controlled slurry processing of ceramic powders and the addition of templated crystals it is possible to induce this preferential grain orientation for sintered ceramics. This work will present the results of a comparison between three separate advanced ceramic forming techniques; tape casting, thick film screen printing, and extrusion, examining the degree of microstructure texture developed by these methods.