Shaping ceramics by plastic processing

Ceramic products have been formed from plastically deformable bodies for many millennia. A well-formulated paste can be shaped easily but this masks the complexity of the physical process and the choices involved in designing the material. Over recent years considerable effort has been applied to understand these aspects and that progress is reported here along with some of the difficulties encountered in defining the behaviour. The ability of plastic processing to produce complex structures is reviewed, concentrating on composite and honeycomb structures in technical ceramics. Two of the difficulties in continuous processing of these materials are considered, namely the long-term stability of the paste during flow through phase migration and monitoring of these processes for control.