A ceramic structure and methods for making the ceramic structure are disclosed. Multiple parts may be molded; the parts may be molded from the same or different ceramic materials. The parts may be formed in the same mold and may be adjacent to and/or attached to one another as a result of molding. The parts may be placed in a sintering furnace and sintered simultaneously. Simultaneously sintering the parts forms a unitary structure from the parts.

In one aspect, particle powder compositions are provided for article manufacture by various additive manufacturing techniques. A powder composition comprises a particle component comprising sintered cemented carbide particles having apparent density of at least 6 g/cm.sup.3.

A method of producing a component of a composite of diamond and a binder, wherein a Hot Isostatic gas Pressure process (HIP) is used, includes the step of enclosing a de-bound green body having compacted diamond particles in an infiltrant. The method includes the further steps of enclosing the de-bound green body and the infiltrant in a Zr-capsule that has Zirconium as a main constituent and sealing the Zr-capsule, and applying a predetermined pressure-temperature cycle on the unit formed by the de-bound green body, infiltrant and capsule in which the infiltrant infiltrates the de-bound green body and the de-bound green body is further densified in the sense that the volume thereof is decreased.

A method for treating a super-hard structure, the method including heating the super-hard structure to a treatment temperature of at least 500 degrees centigrade and cooling the super-hard structure from the treatment temperature to a temperature of less than 200 degrees centigrade at a mean cooling rate of at least 1 degree centigrade per second and at most 100 degrees centigrade per second to provide a treated super-hard structure. A PCBN structure produced by the method may have flexural strength of at least 650 MPa.

A dental block for producing a dental prosthesis comprises a green body including zirconia and having a chemical composition comprising between 6.0 wt % to 20 wt % of yttria (Y.sub.2O.sub.3). The green body is subsequently sinterable, with regular sintering in air and with no post HIP processing, to product a translucent sintered body with a total light transmittance of at least 36% to light with a wavelength of 400 nm at a thickness of 0.6 mm.

A method for producing a dielectric ceramic includes: shaping mixed powdery particles including a cordierite material (2MgO.2Al.sub.2O.sub.3.5SiO.sub.2) and a low-temperature-sintering material including Al, Si and Sr, the Si being partially vitrified; and firing the resultant shaped body. The method includes the step of wet-pulverizing the low-temperature-sintering material together with at least the cordierite material to prepare mixed powder particles having a median diameter D50 less than 1 m; and, in a process until a time of the preparation of the mixed powder particles, the low-temperature-sintering material undergoes no step of wet-pulverizing only the low-temperature-sintering material, and drying the resultant pulverized material.

A method of coloring pre-sintered dental restoration, comprises: securing a pre-sintered dental restoration; applying a preceding liquid on the dental restoration; dipping the dental restoration, with the preceding liquid thereon, into a subsequent liquid for coloring; and sintering the dental restoration to acquire a fully sintered dental restoration. The subsequent liquid is different from the preceding liquid. The preceding liquid at least partly blocks or interferes with an infiltration of the subsequent liquid into an area where the preceding liquid was applied. The fully sintered dental restoration has less color/chroma in the area where the preceding liquid was applied.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to light-curable ceramic slurries, and more specifically, to hybrid binders for light-curable ceramic slurries. A light-curable ceramic slurry includes a hybrid binder having an organic resin component and a multi-functional reactive siloxane component that is miscible with the organic resin component. The slurry also includes a photoinitiator having a corresponding photoactivation wavelength range and ceramic particles. The slurry is cured via exposure to light in the photoactivation wavelength range of the photoinitiator such that both the organic resin component and the multi-functional reactive siloxane component of the hybrid binder polymerize.

A dental block for producing a dental prosthesis comprises a green body including zirconia and having a chemical composition including containing between 6.0 wt % or 7.5 wt % to 20 wt % of yttria (Y.sub.2O.sub.3). The green body has multiple different layers having a different chemical composition between adjacent layers. The green body has a pre-sintered translucency that is substantially the same across the multiple different layers, and subsequently has a post-sintered translucency and a post-sintered color intensity/chroma with an inverse relationship with the post-sintered translucency increasing in one direction across the multiple different layers and the post-sintered color intensity/chromes decreasing in the same direction across the multiple different layers. The green body can have a color component and a diameter of at least 90 mm and thickness of 10-25 mm.

The present invention is related to the development of a new formulation of electrical grade porcelain having improved mechanical and dielectric characteristics, and whose primary application is in electrical components, such as electric insulators. This invention has as its main object to provide a new alternative to increase the final properties of an electrical grade porcelain, which is related to the incorporation of suitable concentrations of nanosized ceramic oxides, as part of the initial composition of porcelain paste. This new nanotechnology alternative favors an increase in the final properties of electrical grade porcelain, such as flexural strength or cold rupture modulus, as well as dielectric strength, which is due to the incorporation of ceramic oxides such as alumina (-Al.sub.2O.sub.3) and zirconia (ZrO.sub.2), in micrometer scale (i.e., less than 100 nanometers), favorably modify the microstructure of the base porcelain. Mechanical strength, specifically the flexural strength at three points, of the porcelain compositions of the present invention is up to 38% greater than a silica based conventional porcelain composition. Furthermore, the insulating ability of the composition of this invention is up to 30% above the value of the reference siliceous porcelain. Another important aspect of this invention is based on the concept that the ceramic nano-oxides of (-Al.sub.2O.sub.3) and zirconia (ZrO.sub.2) strengthen the microstructure of siliceous porcelain, since the amount of crystalline phase increases and therefore the amorphous phase is reduced. Furthermore, the ceramic nano-oxides favor the increase in the concentration of the crystalline mullite phase (3Al.sub.2O.sub.3.2SiO.sub.2) in the microstructure, which is known to benefit the mechanical performance of triaxial porcelains.