Process for the low-deformation diffusion welding of ceramic components

1. A process for joining ceramic components, wherein the components which are to be joined comprise sintered nonoxide ceramic, and the components are brought into contact with one another in a diffusion-welding process in the presence of a shielding gas atmosphere and are joined, under the application of a temperature of at least 1600° C., to form a monolith, the joined components experiencing plastic deformation in the direction in which force is introduced of less than 5%.

2. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the diffusion welding used is a hot-pressing process.

3. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least one of the components to be joined comprises a nonoxide ceramic which during the joining process has a creep rate which is always lower than 2·10 −4 1/s.

4. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein at least one of the components to be joined of comprises titanium diboride, boron carbide, silicon nitride, silicon carbide or mixtures thereof.

5. The process as claimed in claim 4 , wherein at least one of the components to be joined comprises coarse-grained sintered silicon carbide with a bimodal grain size distribution and a mean grain size of greater than 5 μm, which may contain up to 35% by volume of other material components, including graphite, boron carbide or other ceramic particles.

6. The process as claimed in claim 1 , which is carried out at a temperature of >1600° C., and a load of >10 kPa.

7. A method of using a structural component or a functional component, including as a container, tube, reactor, lining, valve, heat exchanger, heating element, plating, a wearing component, a clutch, a nozzle or a deformation tool which comprises utilizing the component produced by the process of claim 1 .

8. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the components are joined under application of a temperature exceeding 1800° C.

9. The process as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the components are joined under application of a temperature exceeding 2000° C.

10. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the components are joined under the application of a load.

11. The process as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the plastic deformation experienced is less than 1%.

12. The process as claimed in claim 3 , wherein the creep rate is always lower than 8·10 −5 1/s.

13. The process as claimed in claim 12 , wherein the creep rate is always lower than 2·10 −5 1/s.

14. The process as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the components to be joined consist of silicon carbide and at least one of titanium diboride, boron carbide, and silicon nitride or mixtures thereof.

15. The process as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the mean grain size is greater than 20 μm.

16. The process as claimed in claim 15 , wherein the mean grain size is greater than 50 μm.

17. The process as claimed in claim 6 , which is carried out at a temperature exceeding 1800° C.

18. The process as claimed in claim 17 , which is carried out at a temperature exceeding 2000° C.

19. The process as claimed in claim 6 , which is carried out at a load exceeding 1 MPa.

20. The process as claimed in claim 19 , which is carried out at a load exceeding 10 MPa.

21. The process as claimed in claim 6 , which is carried out with the temperature-holding time exceeding a duration of 10 minutes.

22. The process as claimed in claim 21 , which is carried out with the temperature-holding time exceeding a duration of 30 minutes.

23. The process as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the wearing component is a sliding-contact bearing or axial face seal.