Ceramic Manufacturing Materials

Alumina can be produced in a range of purities with additives designed to enhance properties. It can be formed using a wide variety of ceramic processing methods and can be machined or net shaped formed to produce a wide variety of sizes and shapes of component. In addition it can be readily joined to metals or other ceramics using metallizing and brazing techniques.

Typical characteristics include:

• Good strength and stiffness
• Good hardness and wear resistance
• Good corrosion resistance
• Good thermal stability
• Excellent dielectric properties (from DC to GHz frequencies)
• Low dielectric constant and loss tangent

Typical applications include:

• Seal rings
• Laser tubes
• Ballistic armor
• Electrical insulators
• Thread guides
• Medical prostheses
• Electronic substrates
• Thermocouple tubes
• Grinding media
• Wear components

Zirconia ceramics materials provide excellent erosion, corrosion and abrasion resistance along with temperature resistance, fracture toughness and strength. These ceramic components are used in extreme service applications that take advantage of their superior wear and corrosion resistance.

In its pure form crystal structure changes limit mechanical applications; however stabilized Zirconias produced by addition of Yttrium Oxides can produce very high strength, hardness and particularly toughness. With its biocompatibility and resistance to wear, is ideally suited for a wide variety of medical implant applications, from artificial joints to implantable electronic sensors, stimulators and drug delivery devices. For well over a decade, Zirconia and other ceramics have successfully proven their ability to withstand the harsh environment of the human body.

Yttria Partially Stabilized Zirconia exhibits crack resistance properties due to the metastable nature of the tetragonal phase. An applied stress causes the tetragonal phase to convert to monoclinic with the associated volume expansion. This phase transformation can then put the crack into compression, retarding its growth, and enhancing the fracture toughness. This mechanism is known as transformation toughening, and significantly extends the reliability and lifetime of products made with Stabilized Zirconia.

Typical Zirconia characteristics include:

• Ultra fine grain
• High density
• Very high mechanical strength
• High strength and fracture toughness
• High hardness and wear resistance
• Low thermal conductivity (20% that of Alumina)
• Good chemical resistance
• Ionic conductivity
• Ceramic-to-metal brazed assemblies

Typical Zirconia applications include:

• Ablation tips
• Neurostimulation housings
• Dental abutments
• Cutting blades