Mike Thomas, Chief Technology Officer, Morgan Technical Ceramics, gives designers and manufacturers an insight into advanced ceramic materials and their properties.
Today's advanced ceramics offer powerful physical, thermal and electrical properties that make them highly resistant to melting, bending, stretching, corrosion, wear, high voltages and currents.
This has opened up development opportunities for manufacturers in a wide range of industries such as aerospace, defence, automotive, medical, electronics, telecommunications, scientific equipment and semiconductor processing.
Advanced ceramics such as alumina, zirconia, silicon carbide, silicon nitride and titania based materials, each with their own specific characteristics, provide a cost-effective, high performance alternative to traditional materials such as metals, plastics and glass.
The demand posed by new and changing applications is to improve operation at a reduced cost.
New materials are constantly being developed to address this need for individual applications.
There are two factors that designers should consider when choosing a material - the desired properties for the application and the available materials.
By fully understanding the materials, designers can then make well-informed choices.
Ceramic components are increasingly being used by electrical systems designers.