Casting processes basic principle

Slip casting is a well known ceramic-making technique and although parts of the industrial process have been mechanised the basic principles and methods of manufacture have changed little over the years. 

Fig. 1.2 The basic principle of the tape casting process as it exists in most modern factories.

The basic principles of the tape casting process are included in most of these machines whether they are laboratory casters or production-scale models. The major components needed for tape casting include a solid, level casting surface, a drying chamber with a built-in means for controlling the airflow over the drying tape, an adjustable speed carrier drive control with a constant speed regulation mechanism, an air heater to control the temperature of the filtered feed air to the... 

Although the basic features of tiiis process are the same as those of the spherical cavity (Fickian diffusion through a variable area), we use it to cast a somewhat wider net by considering a composite cylinder made up of different materials witii different dijfusivities. This leads us to the concept of resistances in series, and the principle that flows from it, the additivity of resistances. Botii the concept and the principle are so pervasive in mass (and heat) transfer tirat tiiey deserve an early introduction. 

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