Fabrication of ceramic core used in the investment casting of turbine blades

The work investigates the processing of ceramic core by injection moulding process. The core was per pared by suspending a mixture of vitreous silica and zircon powder having a relatively wide particle size distribution (1-63μm) together with a thermoplastics type of binder. The mixture was injected into a metallic mould at a temperature of 80deg C. The binder removal from the injected piece was done by applying a suitable heat treatment cycle. The binder ing was followed by sintering samples at various conditions. Based on the property evaluation and microstructural investigation a heat treatment at 1200deg C for 3 hours is considered an appropriate sintering condition