Colored Composite Material for Vibrant Ceramic Sintering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for producing colored ceramics struggle to achieve vibrant colors, particularly bright red, due to pigment diffusion issues and interactions during sintering, resulting in pale and aesthetically uninteresting colors.
Innovation Solution
A composite material comprising discrete inorganic pigment particles with colored cores and transparent coatings, combined with a transparent or translucent metal oxide matrix, allows light to pass through and prevents core interactions during sintering, enabling a wide range of colors including bright red.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If pigment is mixed with ceramic powder and sintered at high temperature, then ceramic densification is achieved, but pigment diffusion occurs causing color loss and aesthetic degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The pigment is segmented into discrete particles with protective coatings, separating the colored core from direct contact with the ceramic matrix during sintering. This segmentation prevents pigment diffusion while allowing light transmission through the transparent coating and matrix to maintain color intensity.
Solution Approach 2:
A transparent coating is introduced as an intermediary layer between the pigment core and the ceramic matrix. This coating acts as a barrier that prevents harmful interactions and diffusion during sintering, while still allowing light to pass through to maintain the pigment's color properties.
2Illumination intensity
If high concentration of pigment is used to achieve vibrant color, then color intensity improves, but pigment interactions during sintering increase causing random color results
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the pigment into individually coated particles, the invention enables higher pigment concentrations without harmful interactions. Each coated particle acts independently, maintaining color consistency even at high concentrations that would otherwise cause random color results.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent coating serves as a protective intermediary that prevents direct interactions between pigment particles during sintering. This allows high pigment concentrations to be used while maintaining color consistency, as the coating barriers prevent the random interactions that would otherwise occur.
3Stability of the object's composition
If pigment particles are located deep in the matrix, then material homogeneity improves, but color diffusion to outside the material decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The transparent coating acts as an optical intermediary that enables light to pass through from the pigment core to the external environment. This allows pigment particles located deep within the matrix to still contribute to the overall color, maintaining both homogeneity and color visibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention utilizes optical properties of transparent materials to change the effective visibility of color. By making the coating and matrix transparent to visible light, the color of deeply embedded pigment particles can diffuse to the outside, maintaining color intensity throughout the material volume.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The composite material achieves intense and stable colors by increasing pigmentation surface area and maintaining color intensity throughout the material, even when pigment is deep within the matrix, with applications in watchmaking and jewelry.
Implementation Method 1
said coating being adapted to allow light to pass through
Implementation Method 2
Coating the pigment particles prevents interactions between the colored cores, particularly during sintering
Implementation Method 3
a matrix based on metalloid or metal oxide, said matrix being adapted to allow light to pass through
Implementation Method 4
The matrix, which is adapted to allow light to pass through, allows the color of the pigment to diffuse to outside the material
Implementation Method 5
The green body is finally sintered at a temperature close to the melting point of ceramic, thereby causing its densification
Implementation Method 6
heating to 600° C., the binder polymer then being sublimated
Data Source
AI summary
A solid composite material (16) combining:an inorganic pigment (10) in the form of discrete particles each comprising a colored core and a coating adapted to allow light to pass through;and a matrix (12) based on metalloid or metal oxide, said matrix being adapted to allow light to pass through.