Microwave joining of alumina - using sodium silicate glass as a bonding agent

Ceramics are finding wider high technology applications owing to their excellent properties such as corrosion resistance, high temperature strength and relatively smaller density. The poor workability of ceramics restricts them to be formed into complicated shapes. To get intricate shaped components, joining of ceramics to themselves is very much needed. In this paper, Microwave Hybrid Heating (MHH) had been used to get joints of alumina. The joints were studied through metallurgical investigations such as SEM, EPMA and microhardness survey. During the joining, the temperature was observed using the Infra-red Radiation Pyrometer. Joints of ceramics by microwaves observed to be diffusion dominated process.