Method of making ceramics and product thereof

• US 2,920,971 A
• Filed: 06/04/1956
• Issued: 01/12/1960
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/1956
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Stanley D. Stookey
• Original Assignee: Stanley D. Stookey
• Inventors: Stookey, Stanley D.
• Application Number:
  US03/588,994
• Time in Patent Office: 1,317 Days
• US Class Current: 501/2
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 10/00 Devitrified glass ceramics, i.e. glass ceramics having a crystalline phase dispersed in a glassy phase and constituting at least 50% by weight of the total composition

Claims

1. THE METHOD OF MAKING A CERAMIC PRODUCT WHICH COMPRISES MELTING A GLASS-MAKING COMPOSITION CONTAINING FROM 2-20% BY WEIGHT TIO2 AND AT LEAST 50% BY WEIGHT, EXCLUSIVE OF SAID TIO2, OF CRYSTALLIZABLE GLASSMAKING INGREDIENTS, COOLING THE MELT TO FORM A GLASS, EXPOSING THE GLASS TO A TEMPERATURE BETWEEN THE MAXIMUM NUCLEATION TEMPERATURE AND THE ANNEALING TEMPERATURE OF THE GLASS FOR A TIME OF BETWEEN 1 MINUTE AND 100 HOURS, AND FINALLY INCREASING THE TEMPERATURE OF THE GLASS TO A LEVEL AT WHICH GLASS-MAKING INGREDIENTS CRYSTALLIZE BUT BELOW THE TEMPERATURE AT WHICH THE PREDOMINANT CRYSTALLINE PHASE WILL REDISSOLVE, AND MAINTAINING SAID GLASS WITHIN SAID TEMPERATURE RANGE UNTIL A PRODUCT, AT LEAST 50% OF WHICH IS CRYSTALLINE, IS OBTAINED.

12. A CERAMIC BODY CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF A MULTIPLICITY OF INTERLOCKED INORGANIC CRYSTALS DISPERSED IN A GLASSY MATRIX, SAID CRYSTALLS BEING ON THE ORDER OF 0.1-20 MICRONS IN DIAMETER AND CONSTITUTING AT LEAST 50% OF THE BODY AND FORMED BY CRYSTALLIZATION IN SITU FROM A GLASS CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF INORGANIC CONSTITUENTS, SAND GLASSY MATRIX CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF THE UNCRYSTALLIZED PORTION OF THE GLASS.