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RulerOfSometh
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I am trying to design a low cost solar/steam engine for deployment where clean water and electricity are scarce. The prototyping I am currently doing is being done using plywood and a CNC router (mainly because that is what I have at my disposal). This will almost certainty not work as an end product (wood+steam+time is not a good combination… plus the lack of CNC routers in rural Africa). Ideally I would like to use minimally processed ground clay, as this would mean that much of the design could be made with local materials. While in Zambia with the U.S. Peace Corps, I designed a number of biomass gasification cookstoves out of clay as clay can be molded into almost any form, is free and withstands heat. What I'm a little unsure of is whether and/or how clay can be made to work in a moving system with a bit of friction and withstand relatively high pressures without using expensive machinery or materials. As the fundamentals of ceramics have been around for millennia (ex., pottery) it seems like it should be possible. Is there any easy way to make, albeit impure, Silicon nitride using sand, air and heat and can it be molded? I do not have a background in material science, ceramics or pottery so I'm seeking help from those who do.