New lightweight kiln furniture made by combination of ceramic green tapes and extrudates

Manufacturing technology for new kiln furniture with a significantly lower density and thermal capacity are presented. Extrusion and tape casting are used as two highly productive technologies to produce different green ceramic pre-products, which are combined and co-sintered to realize kiln furniture. Planar green tapes are laminated with an extruded supporting structure including macroscopic cavities to allow passage of the kiln atmosphere and additionally reduce the density and heat capacity of the structure. With such kiln furniture high heating and cooling rates up to 10 K/min can be realized without any defects resulting from thermal stresses. The improved temperature distribution achieved allows a reduction of necessary dwell times. Both make it possible to save energy and time.