Investigation the Effects of Firing Temperature on Preparation of Crucible Materials from Evaporation Boat Waste

The plastic metallization industry generates evaporation boat waste, which is a mixture of Boron Nitride (BN) and Titanium Diboride (TiB2). However, the utilization of this waste is still very limited. Therefore, this study aims to determine the effect of firing on the characterization of crucible materials and explore the potential use of evaporation boat waste. In this study, evaporation boat waste powder, kaolin, castable, and rice husk charcoal with a weight percentage (wt.%) of 50, 20, 20, and 10 were mixed homogeneously using a mixer machine with the addition of water as much as 15% of the total mixture of materials used. The compaction process was performed using a 20 MPa hydraulic machine to produce a green body. The resulting green body was dried for 16 hours at 100°C. The firing process was carried out on green body specimens for 3 hours with temperature settings of 800, 900, and 1000°C. Various analytical techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and hardness tests were utilized to examine the outcomes. The results of this study show that firing temperature significantly affects the weight percentage of crystals, hardness, and morphology in crucible specimens. The higher firing temperature resulted in an increase in the weight percentage of BN and TiN crystals. This leads to an increase in the hardness of the crucible specimen when the firing temperature is increased. Specimen 1000 exhibited the highest hardness of 36.08 HV. SEM images clearly show the presence of BN, TiB2, and TiN.