Fabrication of Novel Fibrous Monolithic Architectures through Coextrusion

Novel fibrous monolithic architectures were fabricated through a coextrusion process. The purpose of this fabrication is to provide parts for mechanical testing in hopes of developing a material with unique mechanical properties. An alumina and zirconia system was used to make two different architectures. The first architecture is a quadrant structure, alternating quadrants of alumina and zirconia. The second structure is a spiral, with alternating layers of alumina and zirconia. The raw materials were incorporated with various plastics for fabrication. The parts were made by extruding filaments through two passes, packing them into a die, and pressing them into bars. The bars were put through a burnout schedule to remove the plastics, and then sintered at 1550 °C for one hour. SEM analysis was done on green and sintered parts, and mechanical testing will be done