Original Paper(Vol.57 No.10 pp.1049-1053)

Application of Si3N4/SiC Composites for Electrostatic Rotating Paint Atomizer

Katsunori Yamada, Takayuki Kato and Hiroyuki Nakakita

Abstract:Si3N4/SiC composites in which discontinuous network structure was formed using SiC particles of nanometer size are able to perform both of the electric conductivity and high fracture strength at room temperature. We tried to apply the network Si3N4/SiC composite for paint atomizer (named bell head) of electrostatic rotation paint spraying. If the distance from the bell head edge to ground body could be reduced from 500mm to 10mm distance at the speed of 10mm/s, the ceramics bell head which applied voltage of -60kV was able to restrain spark discharge, which break out at the top edge of current metal bell heads. Moreover, even if Si3N4/SiC bell head was used for electrostatic rotation paint spraying, paint coating efficiency equivalent to a metal atomizer could be able to acquire.

Key Words:Si3N4/SiC composite, Network, Volume resistivity, Electrostatic rotation paint spraying, Spark, Atomizer, Bell head