Ceramic Uses In Engineering

Given below are some other important uses of ceramics.

Ceramic uses in engineering.

Ceramic products are hard porous and brittle. Ceramic engineering like many sciences evolved from a different discipline by today s standards. It has for many years been used for cutting tools dies rock drills and as an abrasive. Its specific electrical resistance reaches 10 16 ω cm at room temperature while at 1600 c it still reaches a level of 10 6 ω cm.

A ceramic material is an inorganic non metallic often crystalline oxide nitride or carbide material. Silicon nitride si 3 n 4 and aluminium nitride aln are the main advanced engineering ceramics in this category there is a wide range of grades and types of these materials. The thermal stability wear resistance and resistance to corrosion of ceramic components make the application of ceramic the ideal choice for many industrial uses. They withstand chemical erosion that occurs in other materials subjected to acidic or caustic environments.

Alumina aluminium oxide al 2 o 3. Engineering ceramics are those which have been specially produced to create ceramic components to provide solutions for engineering conditions with specialist requirements. Bio ceramics are used as dental implants and synthetic bones. Aluminium oxide al 2 o 3 and zirconia zro 2 are the most commonly used engineering grade oxide ceramics with alumina being the most used ceramic by far in terms of both tonnage and value.

As a result they are used to make pottery bricks tiles cements and glass. The strength of a ceramic is largely determined by two characteristics. If aerospace is an extraordinary use for extraordinary ceramics construction is one of the best known uses for ordinary everyday ceramics. Some elements such as carbon or silicon may be considered ceramics ceramic materials are brittle hard strong in compression and weak in shearing and tension.

Ceramics is the making of things out of ceramic materials. The characteristics of some of the more common are given below. Diamond the synthetic variety is the ultimate engineering ceramic. Ceramics can be organised into types or categories in terms of composition oxide carbide and so on.

But it is extremely expensive. Ceramic may be used as a noun in the singular to refer to a ceramic material or the product of ceramic manufacture or as an adjective. Ceramic materials can be identified by their general properties like high hardness brittleness chemical stability and low thermal conductivity. Ceramic tiles helped to protect the space shuttle from heat when it came back into earth s atmosphere.

Advanced ceramics and traditional ceramics are the main categories of ceramic materials. These material properties are utilized to produce number of commercial and domestic products such as pottery bricks advanced functional items etc. Its toughness k c and the size distribution of microcracks it contains. Ceramics are also used at many places in gas turbine engines.

Picture courtesy of nasa on the commons.