Silicon carbide ceramics offer superior chemical and mechanical properties at high end-use temperatures, such as corrosion resistance and fracture toughness. Furthermore, their hard and very strong composition gives them excellent wear resistance – all hallmarks of excellence for any end-use material.
Sialons feature needle-like particles that intertwine to resist impact from cutting, providing superior abrasion resistance over other ceramics and thermal shock resistance.
High Temperature Strength
Silicon carbide is one of the most versatile fine ceramics on the market, boasting high temperatures as well as possessing exceptional chemical resistance, hardness and wear resistance properties. Thanks to its high temperature strength properties it can be used in an array of industrial applications from mechanical seals and downhole drilling components through semiconductor processing equipment and machine parts – not forgetting its electrical semiconductivity!
Tungsten Carbide (WC) is another tough and durable fine ceramic material commonly found in tools for machining hard materials. Due to its excellent temperature tolerance, stiffness, flexural strength and thermal conductivity properties, Tungsten Carbide makes an excellent material choice for harsh applications like cutting tool inserts.
Tungsten carbide can also serve as an excellent alternative to PCD, the synthetic diamond material. However, PCD should not be used when machining ferrous metals due to its potential to react with them at high temperatures and form iron carbide.
High Temperature Resistance
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is one of the lightest, hardest, and strongest advanced ceramic materials available today. Additionally, SiC boasts exceptional high-temperature mechanical strength, chemical resistance, acid resistance, low thermal expansion coefficient properties that make it perfect for 3D printing, ballistics and energy technology applications.
Carbide ceramics can withstand temperatures as high as 2200c, which is significantly higher than standard clay-based materials which only operate up to 650c. Ceramics that work at such temperatures are known as UTC and can be found in numerous critical applications like aerospace engine heaters and semiconductor heater plates.
These materials are easily machined using traditional tools provided care is taken not to damage the alumina crystals within the ceramic. A wedge or top clamp method on an insert holder should be employed so as not to eject pieces of ceramic when cutting occurs, while turning tools specifically tailored for ceramic cutting are available as an extra way of maximising data and increasing insert life. Tungsten carbide inserts featuring ceramic coating are also designed specifically for these environments.
High Hardness
Carbide ceramics are much harder than their metal counterparts, which accounts for their superior wear resistance. Carbide ceramics can also serve as hardfacing coatings on metal components for extended lifespan and improved performance in harsh environments.
Tungsten carbide is a hard, dense ceramic used in harsh applications like mechanical seals and downhole drilling components. Due to its excellent strength, stiffness, hardness and flexural strengths as well as resistance against thermal shocks, oxidation, wear, etc. it makes an excellent candidate for high-performance cemented carbides.
Sintered silicon carbide ceramics are extremely hard and durable materials with a Vickers hardness of up to 135 MPa. Their extreme hardness results from multiple effects including the concentration and lattice strain of electrons within their lattice strain structures; higher values result in harder materials.
Low Friction Coefficient
Silicon carbide ceramics are composed of carbon and no oxygen atoms and exhibit remarkable hardness. Their temperature strength ranges up to 1600 degC when exposed to non-oxidizing atmospheres; furthermore, these ceramic materials also exhibit among the highest thermal conductivities among technical ceramic materials.
Ceramic inserts are often lubricated with liquid or grease to reduce friction, however this traditional approach has several drawbacks: its liquids can quickly degrade in high temperature environments; contact surfaces may become contaminated by metal contaminants and add to operational costs; plus the use of lubricants may increase operating costs further.
Biomass materials like wood, bamboo and orange citrus have been explored as sources of carbon for making silicon carbide ceramics. This technology offers an eco-friendly and cost-effective route for creating structural and functional ceramic materials using this method, such as carbide ceramics. They possess damage tolerance, toughness and a short growth cycle – ideal qualities in green manufacturing applications where damage tolerance, toughness and growth cycle time are crucial elements. They have even found applications as replacements for steel in automotive, mechanical and electrical industries as well as corrosion-resistant containers/pipelines used by gas turbines and rocket nozzles.
Excellent Wear Resistance
Carbide ceramics offer exceptional wear resistance against coarse particle abrasion, chemical corrosion and erosion. As such, they’re frequently employed in material handling applications to extend equipment service lives by protecting it against wear.
CoorsTek provides silicon carbide (SiC) formulations designed to address specific application challenges. Reaction bonded silicon carbide ceramics (RBSiC) are ideal for applications requiring an extremely hard, close-packed abrasion resistant ceramic with superior wear and corrosion resistance – it boasts an Moh’s hardness of 9.5 and 5-7 times stronger strength compared to nitride-bonded SiC while still having a small thermal expansion coefficient.
CoorsTek provides Belzona 1812, a two-part epoxy composite material designed to repair and protect equipment against fine particle abrasion in cement production environments. If corrosion and erosion is an issue, Belzona 1812 can also be applied directly onto stainless steel components to increase their corrosion resistance. As an alternative to ceramic abrasion resistant solutions, titanium carbonitride (TiC) formulations from CoorsTek offer exceptional toughness, wear resistance, corrosion protection and fatigue resistance – all the key characteristics for success!
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