An assessment of the cost of microwave sintering ceramic tiles for armor applications: Phase 2 report
This report documents the findings of the second phase of work to assess the costs of microwave sintering ceramic tiles for armor applications. In the first phase of work, the cost of microwave sintering and preliminary estimates of the total cost of microwave-sintered tiles under two microwave frequencies (i.e., 2.45 GHz and 28 GHz) for alumina and silicon carbide materials were reported. The second phase of work extends to the previous work to include all pre- and post-sintering manufacturing steps and considers process and cost variations in these steps that may result from the adoption of microwave sintering. Two separate models were developed for two different materials. As before, a process-cost approach was utilized within a spreadsheet environment. When compared to conventional sintering, the manufacturing of microwave-sintered alumina armor tiles will require an additional binder removal step prior to microwave sintering. The base-case cost of microwave-sintered alumina tiles is estimated to be $46.80/part and $50.50/part, given the use of 2.45 GHz and 28 GHz microwave power sources, respectively. In the case of microwave sintering of silicon carbide armor tiles, the material preparation step will be significantly different from conventional sintering. Instead of a binder removal step, there will be a green machining step. The base-case cost of microwave-sintered silicon carbide tiles is estimated to be $324.50/part and $327.50/part for 2.45 GHz and 28 GHz microwave power sources, respectively--compared to $235/part for conventionally-sintered tiles. Several sensitivity analyses of the impacts of variations in key economic and technical parameters on the costs of microwave-sintered tiles were conducted. Those analyses indicate that costs are quite sensitive to changes in the quantity of energy required during sintering.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Department of the Army, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 52834
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/TM-12896; ON: DE95010000; CNN: Agreement IAG 1969-C101-A1; TRN: AHC29515%%105
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Mar 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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