A novel process for fully automatic mass-production of Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles with uniform structure and size

As an excellent promising tritium breeding material, Li₂TiO₃ ceramic pebbles will be required in large quantities in the future. For this reason, a fully automatic pneumatic eject device based on an improved wet process was employed in the mass-preparation of Li₂TiO₃ ceramic pebbles. The operating principle of the equipment, the preparation process parameters and the performance of the Li₂TiO₃ ceramic pebbles have been studied. The results showed that the spheroidization and solidification process of slurries droplets in the molding medium were critical to the sphericity of pebbles, and the size of the green pebbles was related to the droplet dropping speed、the control pressure and the nozzle inner diameter. It is revealed that more than 90% of the pebbles had an eccentricity of less than 1.1, and the diameter distribution was concentrated between 0.98 mm and 1.03 mm. The Li₂TiO₃ ceramic pebbles with the average grain size of 3.7 μm, the crushing load of 67 N, the relative density of 85.6%, and the porosity of 19.96% can be obtained after sintered at 1100 °C for 2 h. Also, the average pore size was 1.3 μm and the distribution was relatively concentrated. Therefore, this method is expected to meet the future demands of Li₂TiO₃ ceramic pebbles with excellent performance in bulk quantity.