Silicon carbide is one of the hardest materials on Earth, making it an excellent choice for armor plates protecting military and law enforcement personnel from high velocity projectiles.
Reaction bonded silicon carbide (RBSiC) is produced by infiltrating liquid silicon into carbon or graphite porous ceramic bodies to fill any open pores that remain. Although RBSiC offers lower hardness than its SSiC counterpart, its thermal shock resistance makes it a valuable material.
High Temperature
Silicon carbide is produced through an intricate manufacturing process involving powder preparation, mixing with binder, shaping into desired forms (for instance through extrusion for tubes or cold isostatic pressing for plates and blocks), machining, sintering and finishing. GAB Neumann’s Hexoloy SA sintered silicon carbide is highly resistant to corrosion in oxidizing environments while its hard surface resists wear caused by rotation or sliding forces.
Reaction sintering produces silicon carbide ceramics with superior rigidity, thermal conductivity and density. The process uses an organosilicon binder to form a pastey mixture that can then be compacted by extrusion or cold isostatic pressing, or extruded directly. Reaction sintering may be divided into solid-phase and liquid phase sintering processes depending on which sintering aid is employed – solid phase typically uses B or C additives that promote particle movement diffusion mass transfer in dense sintering processes whereas solid phase can produce silicon carbides with enhanced bending strength compared to its counterpart.
High Pressure
Sintered silicon carbide, best known for its use in aircraft turbines, has found widespread application across a range of industries due to its outstanding durability. Able to withstand both high temperatures and extreme pressure without degradation, sintered silicon carbide makes an excellent material choice in applications where stability is essential.
Reactive sintering is a popular technique used for producing silicon carbide. This process entails mixing fine powder with non-oxide sintering additives into a paste, which is then formed into tubes or plates using cold isostatic pressing or extrusion.
This process employs a lower eutectic point than traditional solid-phase sintering to generate a liquid phase and facilitate movement, diffusion and mass transfer of SiC crystals during densification of material. Furthermore, this method has the added benefits of providing higher purity crystals with narrower distribution that enhance mechanical properties such as bending strength and fracture toughness; all achieved using YAG as a sintering aid to increase interaction among SiC crystals.
High Velocity
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is one of the hardest ceramics, with high strength, thermal conductivity and resistance to corrosion making it ideal for use in harsh environments such as mining. Morgan’s Purebide Sintered SiC grades excel at this application due to their hardness, wear resistance, abrasion resistance heat stability and chemical resistance – qualities which Morgan Purebide Sintered SiC grades also possess.
Reaction sintering is the go-to technique for producing large and complex-shaped silicon carbide ceramics. This technique involves mixing base precursor material with boron and carbon sintering aids, then shaping this mass into green bodies through slip casting, dry pressing or cold isostatic pressing before heating to high temperatures for silicon infiltration.
This process often results in uneven density and cracking of sintered products as well as insufficient silicon penetration during sintering, as well as high production costs and energy usage. Other methods for producing silicon carbide ceramics include hot pressing sintering and pressureless sintering; with latter producing more dense and uniform products suitable for various forming methods.
High Wear
Silicon carbide’s resistance to wear and corrosion makes it an excellent material for mechanical seals in demanding applications, including ballistic armour plates that meet military specifications to protect against high-velocity projectiles. Sintered silicon carbide can even be made into pump parts to withstand fluid flow pressure in extreme environments.
Reaction-sintered silicon carbide ceramics are produced using high temperature reaction sintering of infiltrating SiC powder with liquid silicon at high temperatures. Unfortunately, this sintering process is difficult to scale up, requires long sintering times, consumes lots of energy, and results in lower-quality ceramic products.
Pressureless sintered silicon carbide ceramic products feature a denser structure than traditional reaction-sintered ceramics, enabling more raw material to be utilized, decreased production time and energy use, better quality parts produced, easier machinability and greater heat tolerance – these qualities make pressureless sintered silicon carbide the go-to choice when creating larger-sized or complex-shaped pieces of silicon carbide ceramic products.
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