A waveguide includes a body of material having a width, a thickness, and a length, where the width is orthogonal to the thickness, and the length is orthogonal to the thickness and the width. The material includes polycrystalline ceramic that is transmissive such that the body is configured as a waveguide. The thickness is no more than 5 millimeters and at least 20 nanometers, the width is greater than or equal to the thickness, and the length is at least 100 times greater than the width. The body of material has a granular profile such that grains of the material protrude generally outward from a surface of the body with a height of at least 25 nanometers and no more than 100 micrometers relative to recessed portions of the surface of the body at boundaries between the grains.

Methods, processes, systems, devices and apparatus are provided for additive manufacture resulting in the 3D printing of ceramic materials and components with a thickness greater than three millimeters (3 mm). A sulfur-free 3D printable formulation comprises a liquid inorganic polymer resin using Stereolithograpy (SLA) printers and Digital Light Processing (DLP) curing of the polymer resin via the chemical bonding of the materials rather than sintering. Thus, the process has shorter manufacturing intervals, significantly lower energy use and produces larger scale ceramic components having less linear shrinkage, less mass loss and high ceramic yield with no corrosive sulfur compounds present in the ceramic component.

Articles of manufacture such as ceramic cores and cast metal turbomachinery components are disclosed herein, as well as methods of preparing such articles of manufacture. The articles and methods of manufacture are directed to improving the production and performance of internal combustion engines.

A dental zirconia system to produce translucent zirconia sintered bodies comprises at least two separate zirconia green bodies. At least one zirconia green body comprises zirconium oxide and a lower content of at least one other oxide summing to between 6.5 wt % to 20 wt % based on a total weight percent of the zirconia green body. At least another zirconia green body comprises zirconium oxide and a higher content of at least one other oxide summing to between 7.5 wt % to 20 wt % based on a total weight percent of the zirconia green body. The at least two zirconia green bodies each have at least some particles with a diameter of 100 nanometers to 1000 nanometers. The at least two zirconia green bodies have different amounts of the at least one other oxide with respect to one another.

A method of forming one or more high temperature co-fired ceramic articles, comprising the steps of:— a) forming a plurality of green compacts, by a process comprising dry pressing a powder comprising ceramic and organic binder to form a green compact; b) disposing a conductor or conductor precursor to at least one surface of at least one of the plurality of green compacts to form at least one patterned green compact; c) assembling the at least one patterned green compact with one or more of the plurality of green compacts or patterned green compacts or both to form a laminated assembly; d) isostatically pressing the laminated assembly to form a pressed laminated assembly; e) firing the pressed laminated assembly at a temperature sufficient to sinter the ceramic layers together.

Disclosed are a low-shrinkage, high-strength, and large ceramic plate and a manufacturing method thereof. The method comprises the following steps: (1) preparing a ceramic raw material powder; (2) subjecting an acicular wollastonite to surface coating with a silane coupling agent and to pre-dispersion with a fumed silica to obtain a pre-treated acicular wollastonite; and (3) thoroughly mixing the ceramic raw material powder and the pre-treated acicular wollastonite and granulating the resulting mixture, the amount of the pre-treated acicular wollastonite added being 10 wt % to 30 wt % of the ceramic raw material powder, and subjecting the resulting granules to dry pressing and sintering to obtain the large ceramic plate. The acicular wollastonite is incorporated into the manufacturing of the large ceramic plate to take full advantage of the reinforcing effect and low sintering shrinkage characteristics of the acicular wollastonite. The invention reduces sintering shrinkage and increases product strength.

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.

Disclosed is a sanitary ware compatibly satisfying both low water absorption and weight reduction. The sanitary ware has a pottery substrate of a vitreous body and a glaze layer, in which part of the substrate is exposed to outside thereof without the glaze layer; the substrate has (A) an anorthite and (B) an alkali metal component; and an amount of the alkali metal component is in the range of 5 to 10% by weight in terms of an oxide conversion (A.sub.2O) relative to the substrate. This sanitary ware has the properties of low water absorption and light weight.

A method of forming one or more high temperature co-fired ceramic articles, comprising the steps of:— a) forming a plurality of green compacts, by a process comprising dry pressing a powder comprising ceramic and organic binder to form a green compact; b) disposing a conductor or conductor precursor to at least one surface of at least one of the plurality of green compacts to form at least one patterned green compact; c) assembling the at least one patterned green compact with one or more of the plurality of green compacts or patterned green compacts or both to form a laminated assembly; d) isostatically pressing the laminated assembly to form a pressed laminated assembly; e) firing the pressed laminated assembly at a temperature sufficient to sinter the ceramic layers together.

A non-dense sintered ceramic molded body having at least two layers, wherein a first powdery ceramic material forming a layer is contacted with at least a second powdery material forming at least a second layer. The body has a color gradient and maintains dimensional stability during sintering and forming. An admixing component and a common sintering temperature are used to control the volume decrease of the layers during sintering.