Production of large-size CCM plates

Carbide-carbon materials (CCM) are a novel family of composites with high thermal conductivity and low density, of important interest for applications in high-energy particle physics (HEP) and in industrial applications that include, for example, thermal management systems, nuclear energy and aerospace. However, the high production costs are limiting, so far, their application for big series productions.

There are two ways, investigated within WP4, for an effective cost reduction: the first one is related to the increase of the material volume produced in each machine cycle. The second way involves a decrease of the production temperature, thus reducing the energy consumed during the cycle, as well as decreasing the consumption of elements such as moulds and electrodes.

This deliverable addresses the first way of cost reduction, targeting the increase of the volume of sintered material in a single machine cycle, to be achieved by doubling the sintered disk cross‑section area (up to ~400 cm²). However, in the first 24 months of the project, as documented in the internal I.FAST milestone MS14, the team also worked, in parallel, on the second aspect of cost reduction, lowering the sintering temperature. The composites sintered in big dimensions in the scope of D4.4 thus combine both aspects: they are increased in size, and produced at a lowered temperature.