Joining of ceramics and ceramic matrix composites via reactive metal penetration

The processing and properties of ceramic and ceramic matrix composite components have improved to the point that they are now candidates for use in a variety of structural applications at high temperature. However, the lack of effective joining techniques limits further application of these materials. In an effort to remove this limitation a joining process based on the reactive metal penetration process used to make bulk metal/ceramic composites has been developed to join ceramics. This joining technique offers the potential to bond refractory components at reduced temperature, thus alleviating some of the limitations of traditional ceramic joining processes. Several experiments joining alumina and SiC_f/SiC composite have been carried out at temperatures of 1100–1200°C. The results of these experiments show that processing ceramic joints with composite interlayers at these temperatures is possible, and may be technologically significant if a number of interesting processing and microstructural difficulties can be successfully overcome.