In the world of technical ceramics, there are two materials that are surpassed only by diamond and cubic boron nitride in terms of hardness – and both are used by Precision Ceramics USA as a base material for a wide range of technical components in an equally wide...
The use of ceramics in high thermal conductivity applications is a growing specialized market. Oxide ceramics are the most common base materials. But the majority of them are limited to 26-30 W/mK which, when compared to the two most common high thermal conductivity...
The increasing use of Aluminum Nitride (AlN) in power electronics, dissipating heat and providing electrical insulation has been an ongoing trend. The performance of Aluminum Nitride far outstrips Alumina in some critical areas. But the added cost of manufacturing AlN...
Over the years there have been many great movies involving fire and water and the fantasy drama television series ‘Game of Thrones’ has done much to take two of the earth’s most natural elements to a whole new level.
Behind the scenes, fire and water provide a slightly less glamorous […]
Throughout history, philosophers and scientists have confronted the dilemma “which came first, the chicken or the egg”? To ancient philosophers, this problem was at the center of their questions as to how the universe and life on planet earth began. Even more recently, scientists […]
Ceramic blades are a relatively new product. Developed for processes that originally required round rotating blades where down time to change them was an issue to the production line, the longer run time of ceramic blades improved efficiency.
Ceramic blades in industrial […]
Over the years, ceramics have found their way into many specialized fields. But ballistic armor has to be one of the strangest.
In the aftermath of World War II, the search to find new methods of reducing casualties became paramount, especially as the increasing development in rifles […]
The first time I heard the expression “ultra-high vacuum”, I was sitting in a meeting in the 1970’s, looking at drawings, and was asked if the parts in the drawing complied. Luckily my colleague was on the ball and I did not need to confess that I wasn’t sure what they meant.
Ultra-high vacuum […]
I first came across a ceramic ball race many years ago when I was handed one which had broken into several pieces. The failure of this assembly should have pointed to limitations in the material. But as it came from a Formula One racing car which had been driven by a certain Michael […]
For most people, ceramics are hard, brittle materials, mostly associated with tiles, bricks, and pottery. These functional and mostly clay-based materials are the most common ceramics in daily use. The more specialist technical ceramics used in extreme environments and demanding […]