Bingham plastic fluid flow model in tape casting of ceramics using two doctor blades – analytical approach

One of the most common processes used in manufacturing of multilayer ceramic packages, multilayer capacitors and large scale integration circuits is tape casting. In this process, the wet tape thickness is one of the single most determining parameters affecting the final properties of the product, and it is therefore of great interest to be able to control it.

One way to control the tape thickness is to use a two doctor blade configuration in the tape casting machine. In this case, it becomes important to fix the height of the slurry in front of both doctor blades according to the desired tape thickness and casting speed (belt velocity). In the present work, the flow in both doctor blade regions of a slurry is described with a steady state momentum equation in combination with a Bingham plastic constitutive equation, and this is integrated to a closed form analytical solution for both reservoirs based on the desired wet tape thickness and casting speed.

The developed model is used to investigate the impact of different material parameters and machine designs on the required slurry height. The solution is compared with experimental findings from the literature, and good agreement is found.