Feasibility of creating a 12,000 psi hydraulic pressure chamber.

I'm thinking about a project working with ceramics and in order to make the green body, I would need a silicone mold sustained under 12k psi for long periods of time. If I were working with something small, I wouldn't necessarily think this is impossible, because even a small pump can produce large psi's via concentric jars, gradually letting pressure out in order to create a pressure gradient beginning with the innermost jar.

The problem I'm facing is that I want to make ceramic panels up to one square meter in size (only a few mm thick). So the power of the pump and the strength of the storage container would have to be absurd if only a single container were used. Is this even remotely feasible for an individual to accomplish safely or am I going to need massive amounts of steel to pull something like this off?

Would ceramic molding work at lower pressures for longer periods of time, or is the 12k psi truly essential?

a reply to: Nechash

12,000 psi is the easy part,the silicone mold is the hard part.Under that pressure,the mold will be deformed.12k over a sq meter will need a massive supporting base and top to prevent it from bulging out in the center.Why the need for such high psi if your just injecting it into a mold cavity?

a reply to: blkcwbyhat

I too wonder why the need for the pressure stated. What I read about high pressure injection molding of ceramics call for pressure in the range of hundreds of psi, not thousands.
I can see the silicone mold for ease of release after molding. But it would be backed with a metal case even for low pressure molding.

a reply to: butcherguy
ceramic is a lot thicker than water,so the high pressure is needed.Plastic injection uses around 40-50k,but thats so it can fill all the details.And usually,its all small items.I made a injection mold for a round plastic widget,made 12 at a time,about 2 inch round by 1 1/2 long.The mold was steel,6 inch thick,3 ft x 3 ft,water cooled,and it was made for 40k.Most ceramic tiles are made from flat sheets,stamped with the pattern.Pottery type items are poured into molds as a slurry,then cured.

a reply to: Nechash
also,the thickness of the panel,it will probably crack too easily.

a reply to: Nechash

Since the target is thin, an electric or magnetic field could provide a lot of force across the flat surface. The electric force could also be distributed to buttress the strength the containing material.

Solar panels are less expensive every year, batteries are more expensive every year.

Maybe you could fabricate a small immobile battery, like a fishpond sized chemical capacitor, to save on battery money.

Ceramics tend to crack as they have no elasticity. Ceramics are best for heat. All ceramic mechanical strength is against compression, very little against tension. Ceramics as insulators all around the edge and in between ferrous steel plates might be an arrangement to start with.

a reply to: Semicollegiate

I was reading about isostatic pressure, but I'm totally uneducated about the subject. This is what professionals in the field I'm investigating use in practice, so it must be the optimal option. I guess they use heat and argon gas, but I doubt I'm ever going to get access to argon cost-effectively enough to even consider this method.

What would a magnetic field do? The ceramic I'm looking at is non-conductive, so would I use two steel plates to squeeze it between?

a reply to: blkcwbyhat

After pressurization it has to be heated at 3000C for several hours to set up. After that point, it has the hardness of sapphire. The only concern about cracking I've read is during the cooling period. It appears to be very susceptible to rapid changes in temperature. This compound is a ceramic truly, but it behaves more like a glass after it is heated, but it is not silicate. It is aluminum oxynitride. The reason I'm interested in it is its market value post-production has a greater percentage increase over its raw material costs than does latex or silicone. The ROI on its production assuming I can afford the initial investment should be around 1200% per year, which is absurd.

a reply to: Nechash

You can buy cylinders of arson gas at welding supply stores.

a reply to: Nechash

A magnetic field would be less likely to a have a chemical side effect in the target pressurized material.

I'm not sure but I think an electrical field would be stronger per watt of electricity used.

All chemical reactions occur in the electron cloud surrounding the atoms, so electricity might have an unwanted side effect.

I'm not an engineer, just good grades in introductory classes.

Professionals tend to use industrial mass production processes. A small scale enterprise could use whatever works. I think there is a conspiracy against science education to prevent surprises for the controllers.

Two of these close together would have some immense amount of force.

a reply to: butcherguy

Oh, these guys have thirty foot tall containers of argon gas. I'll have to look into more, but they are getting up to 45k psi using that method.

a reply to: Nechash

A solar system could help with the heating as well.

A lubricant heated by the sun injected into the space between the steel plates that would also isolate the Al(NO)x chemically.

At high pressures gases can become liquids. High temperatures counter act liquefaction though.

a reply to: Nechash
cracking isn't due to material strength,its due to the expansion and contracting due to the heating and cooling.A true ceramic will shrink 10-15 percent when dried.If it were dried and cured in a formed mold,it will shatter as it cools.Unless your just doing flat sheets.

a reply to: Semicollegiate

Cooling the entire specimen at the same rate throughout its volume is the best protection against cracking. Slow cooling related to the speed of heat transfer of the material. A thin sheet should cool relative fast, faster than a bead or cylinder shape.

The parts that cool faster contract and separate from the parts still expanded by heat.

a reply to: Semicollegiate
correct,to a degree.If its a true mold,the parts in say a groove,will be pulled as it cools.That will crack it.