Inhomogeneity of powder packing in compacts and strength of the ceramics obtained

Results of studying the effect of the packing inhomogeneity of the powder compact on the strength of sintered corundum ceramics are presented. In the powders used for molding powder compacts, agglomerates of various sizes were formed artificially. Under the same sintering conditions no substantial difference in the density or grain size of materials that initially differed in the inhomogeneity of particle packing were observed. Strength measurements revealed an inverse dependence of the strength on the degree of powder inhomogeneity in the starting compact. Translated from Ogneupory i Tekhnicheskaya Keramika, No. 5, pp. 14–19, May, 1997.