MODERN APPROACHES FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CERAMIC COMPONENTS

New materials are vitally important in industrial development. They ar e mostly the start of a technology chain leading to the final product via a number of value-added stages. Application experience often produ ces feedback for improvement and optimization of the production proces s and the material itself. Machining ceramics makes high demands in te rms of component quality and process economics. 'Ceramic-adapted machi ning' is therefore essential for production of advanced ceramic compon ents. This includes both optimization of existing processes and develo pment and testing of new machining technologies. This article presents material-adapted machining technologies and their potential for advan ced ceramic components. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Limited.