Ceramic domes fabricated by a combination of tape casting and vacuum forming

Tape casting is a low cost fabrication process for flat ceramic sheet and this paper demonstrates how it can be combined with vacuum forming to make α-alumina domes of 250-300 μm sintered thickness. The suspension formulation makes use of systems of double plasticizers and double solvents in a poly(methyl methacrylate) binder to provide plastic ceramic films by tape casting from which preforms for vacuum forming were cut. In order to retain the shape of vacuum formed domes during debinding and sintering, an initial low temperature anneal is needed. The study indicates that the ratio of plasticizers to binder and the particle size are two dominant parameters in influencing the elongational flow. The whole process provides a novel method to make thin ceramic domes.