EVALUATION OF LATEX BINDER IN THE PROCESSING OF ELECTRONIC CERAMIC POWDER

Spray-dried zinc oxide ceramic granules can be viewed macroscopically as agglomerates consisting of mixed oxides, organic additives and intr a-particle pores. The green properties of a compact produced by dry pr essing are dependent largely on the input-granule characteristics. The organic additives in the form of binder, plasticizer, deflocculant an d lubricant added to the slurry are critical in the production of powd er with desired properties such as flowability, compressibility, green strength and density, etc. Several commercial latex binders and their blends have been studied and compared with plasticized polyvinyl alco hol for processing zinc-oxide varistor powder. It has been found that powder with improved characteristics is achievable through this new bi nder system. A lower viscosity of the slurry with latex binder contain ing the standard percent of solid content indicates the possibility of increasing the solid content, thereby enhancing the spray dryer effic iency. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.