Honeycomb has long been known for use in structural elements which require a combination of lightness and strength. The use of ceramics for the honeycomb walls provides the further advantage of high temperature performance.
One existing method of forming ceramic honeycomb is by extrusion of ceramic precursor materials through dies which form the cellular array. The structures produced by this method are monolithic (single-phase) structures, which are brittle and thereby limited in the ease and degree with which they can be handled and further processed for use. The extrusion process also limits the size and shape of the piece.
Ceramic honeycomb of increased toughness has been formed by the use of a ceramic fiber tape embedded in ceramic material to form the honeycomb walls. The existing procedure to form such a structure involves incorporating a ceramic frit into the fiber tape, then forming the combination into the corrugated shape required for the honeycomb walls, then hot pressing this corrugated form to consolidate the frit into a matrix. This is all done prior to assembling the corrugated strips into the honeycomb structure. Unfortunately, the hot press limits the size of the part which can be formed in this manner and adds greatly to the cost.