Development of Tite Impeller‐Dry‐Blendmg Process for the Fabrication of Metal‐Ceramic Functionally Graded Materials

Metal-Ceramic functionally graded tiles could be an ideal space plane cladding, as they combine the refractoriness of an oxide ceramic on one side, slowly graded to the ductility and strength of a metal on the other side. Fabrication methods of such continuous bulk FGMs are still proving to be a challenge. The authors have made various improvements into a low cost process known as the Impeller-Dry-Blending process, which has the ability to produce broad based gradients independent of material powder flow characteristics and density. The controlled blending appears to have worked well, as the results indicate a very even and gradual change from one material to the other. The screeding technique employed seems to have ensured that for each lateral sub-layer particles are evenly distributed across the broad area of the tile. From the results obtained in this study, the IDB process would be an ideal choice for the fabrication of continuous bulk FGMs for use as heat shield tiles.