Discover the Power and Versatility of Alumina Ceramic
Alumina ceramics are highly sought-after refractory materials due to their excellent strength, hardness, chemical resistance and thermal stability. Furthermore, these dense nonporous ceramics exhibit no cracking issues during firing.
These properties make them an excellent material to use when producing components such as insulators, spark plugs and circuit shells. High purity aluminas can also have excellent dielectric properties at elevated temperatures.
High strength
Alumina ceramic is one of the strongest technical ceramics on the market with extremely high mechanical strength (compressive strengths can reach 250,000 psi). This makes it suitable for demanding engineering applications.
Ceramic-to-metal feedthroughs, X-ray component feedthroughs, electrical insulators and bushings, body armour applications are just some of the uses that ceramic can serve. Thanks to its superior abrasion resistance and unreactive qualities with most acids or alkalis, ceramic is an excellent material choice. These qualities make it suitable for use as ceramic-to-metal feedthroughs, electrical insulators and bushings, even being moulded into double or single curvature monolithic tiles to produce body armour applications.
Alumina ceramic comes in various purity levels with additives designed to optimize specific desirable material properties, such as chrome oxide or manganese oxide for improved hardness or color, while altering its coefficient of thermal expansion can mitigate temperature-change effects on dimensional stability; this feature is especially valuable if the part will be brazed or soldered onto metals.
Excellent thermal conductivity
Alumina ceramics offer outstanding thermal conductivity, which varies inversely with density of material. When there are fewer voids within the material, its density and thus thermal conductivity increase accordingly.
Alumina ceramics are often chosen for various applications due to their superior resistance against high temperatures and mechanical strain, and chemical degradation from different types of chemicals.
Sintox CL alumina ceramics are well suited for military equipment due to their ability to stop small arms fire and medium caliber projectiles, while also being metalised for use as insulators, sensors and flow measurement instruments, X-ray equipment, chemical pumps, laser components or telecom devices.
Low friction coefficient
Alumina ceramic (Al2O3) is one of the hardest engineering materials available. It’s very hard, durable, abrasion resistant and exhibits high strength at both room and elevated temperatures – not to mention chemically inert with excellent corrosion resistance properties.
Injection molding is the go-to manufacturing method for alumina ceramics because of its wide array of component designs. Experts create injection mold tooling specific to their product before injecting alumina powder into its cavity for sintering into dense bodies.
3D-printed alumina has been found to possess extremely low residual stresses, achieved via using a multi-material approach which layers different materials in layers within the print bed. This allows tailored residual stresses and higher strengths than monolithic alumina, as well as densities significantly greater than typical ceramic powders.
Self-lubricating properties
One of the most remarkable qualities of alumina ceramic is its self-lubricating properties. They create an in situ lubrication film during use that can significantly reduce friction and wear – ideal for applications that demand strength, corrosion resistance and chemical inertness.
Enhancing the lubricating properties of an alumina ceramic material can be done in various ways. Solid lubricants may be added directly into its matrix; however, this method is both costly and time consuming. An alternative strategy would be creating composite alumina ceramic materials with tailor-made lubricants built right in.
Under this method, alumina ceramic is filled with microcapsules filled with lubricating polymers which are then vacuum impregnated into porous alumina ceramics to form porous structures containing them. Macroscopic frictional experiments revealed excellent lubrication properties. Furthermore, higher strength could be obtained without needing solid lubricants. Moisture content also plays a significant role in performance of alumina ceramics; LECO Corporation offers an accurate moisture determination analyzer which accurately tests moisture content levels in materials like these alumina ceramics and others.
Excellent dimensional stability
Alumina ceramics offer exceptional dimensional stability, making it easier for electronics manufacturers to produce quality performance in challenging environments – this makes alumina ceramics the ideal material choice for IGBT modules with higher power requirements.
Alumina ceramics are known for their exceptional abrasion and wear resistance, making them suitable for products exposed to heavy wear such as high vacuum equipment and scientific instruments like transducer probe insulators, as well as crucibles used for glass drawing or furnace tubes.
Alumina ceramics can be manufactured through various processes, but injection molding stands out as the optimal way for high-performance electronics applications. It entails tool designing and manufacturing before injection molding takes place before de-binding feedstock binder before firing to form final product. With this flexible production method manufacturers are able to produce customized substrates tailored specifically to client needs.
Extremely versatile
ACE Ceramic’s alumina ceramic products can be tailored to meet the exact requirements of your application with various bonding and forming techniques. Additives may also be added to moderate certain properties like hardness, thermal stability, electrical conductivity or fracture toughness; manganese oxide, silicon dioxide or zirconia are some commonly used additives.
Alumina ceramics use high-purity aluminum oxide as their primary raw material, extracted from bauxite ore and refined through sintering, where aluminum oxide particles fuse together into a solid mass that can then be used for applications like slip casting, extrusion molding or injection molding to form your product’s shape.
PSZTA (Porcelain-Silicate-Zirconia), one of the most versatile forms of alumina ceramics, consists of at least 90% pure aluminum oxide with zirconia particles added to increase strength and fracture toughness – making this material suitable for high temperature applications like manufacturing tubes or semiconductor components.