The development of porous ceramic substrates with thickness less than 1 mm presents a great technology interesting for electro-electronic or catalytic applications. Among all the techniques of ceramic conformation, the viscoplastic processing shows great advantages decreasing the amount of liquids and the particles agglomeration from an intensive shearing of the ceramic paste. This process allows the conformation of ceramic samples in a simple way and without toxic additives, the opposite of tape casting, which is the method often applied. The substrates were conformed by cold roll pressing in a thickness between 400 and 700 µm, and with the rotation of rollers of 15 rpm. Theses were dried before the firing at 1600 ºC for 1 h. As a pore-forming agent it was studied the graphite powder which was added to the alumina plastic paste in two different concentrations, 9 and 18 wt%, which results in an apparent porosity of 21 and 52%, respectively.
plastic conformation; porous ceramic substrate; graphite
