silicon carbide a versatile material for high performance applications

Silicon carbide, commonly referred to as carborundum, is one of the hardest materials on Earth and boasts excellent abrasion resistance, thermal shock tolerance, and chemical corrosion resistance properties.

SiC is known for its high density and grain growth factor, making it an excellent material for industrial uses. Common applications for SiC include burner nozzles, jet and flame tubes and thermocouple protection tubes.

High-temperature refractory applications

Silicon carbide ceramic offers exceptional resistance to abrasion, corrosion and thermal shock. Furthermore, its chemical inertness and low oxidation rate make it suitable for high temperature applications like mechanical seals and bearings; its high modulus of elasticity makes it a good alternative to metals for industrial environments.

Sintered silicon carbide’s unique properties can be brought out through various additives and production processes. Silicon dioxide may be added to raw material to increase hardness and wear resistance while adding boron can increase thermal conductivity – thus significantly improving product performance.

Silicon carbide ceramic is widely utilized within the petrochemical industry for creating pipes, burner nozzles and other corrosion-resistant equipment, thanks to its ability to withstand temperatures up to 1400degC without losing strength. Furthermore, this material can also be utilized in mechanical seals and pumps as it’s highly resistant to abrasion.

Silicon carbide stands out due to its low coefficient of expansion, high heat tolerance and abrasion resistance; therefore it is ideal for numerous refractory applications, including boiler furnace walls, checker bricks, muffles and kiln furniture. Furthermore, silicon carbide’s electrical conductivity makes it useful in creating heating elements in the metallurgical industry.

Reactive sintering is the preferred process for producing silicon carbide ceramics and produces ceramic parts with compact structures. Reactive sintering produces high-quality products at lower temperatures while still remaining easily controllable; production begins by creating SiC particles mixed with compound additives into a green body, which is then sintered at high temperatures.

Reactive sintering is an economical method for producing large and complex silicon carbide ceramics, while it can also be used to produce refractory metal disilicides containing MoSi2, NbSi2 and TaSi2, which have lower melting points than pure carbides and nitrides and thus are effective thermal insulation materials for use at higher temperatures.

High-temperature abrasive applications

Silicon carbide is one of the hardest refractory materials on earth, occupying an intermediate place on Mohs’ scale between alumina and diamond in terms of hardness. It retains its hardness even at high temperatures while boasting great sliding abrasion resistance as well as exceptional chemical inertness and low coefficient of thermal expansion; making it an invaluable choice for use in high temperature applications.

Production methods vary, including chemically precipitating silicon dioxide from waste silicon and carbonaceous waste, using combustion synthesis (which utilizes energy from combustion of combustible gases to react with SiO2), decrystallization using hydrogen or vacuum, or decrystallization via hydrogen-assisted decrystallization. Each of these methods produces various polytypes with unique crystal structures and physical-chemical properties – for instance low coefficient of thermal expansion and strong strength properties.

Silicon carbide ceramic’s abrasion-resistant properties make it a valuable material in plant and process engineering applications, such as corrosion-proof containers and pipelines in petrochemical plants, as well as mechanical seal parts for pumps and bearings in mechanical engineering plants.

Silicon carbide ceramic stands out as an exceptional material due to its superior tribological properties, withstanding harsh environments from light soils with many fine particles to heavy soils containing abundant sand grains. Furthermore, this ceramic can easily be shaped to meet any application.

Silicon carbide ceramic is also an ideal material choice for use with abrasives, thanks to their relatively high tensile strength and hard surface, making it perfect for grinding and cutting materials with aggressive surface textures. Their sliding abrasion resistance stands out even further.

Note that ceramic wear behavior depends heavily on their application and usage. Therefore, selecting an abrasive that best meets your intended abrasion process is ideal. Nitride-bonded silicon carbide when subjected to friction in light soils wears away its surface in two distinct ways: microcutting and furrowing.

High-temperature mechanical applications

Silicon Carbide’s high-temperature mechanical properties make it an ideal material for various demanding applications, from seals and bearings to pump components and chemical resistance applications. It can withstand very challenging sliding friction conditions in seals, bearings and pump components as well as resist acids corrosion erosion borehole fluids with its Mohs hardness rating of 9 making for lighter stronger bulletproof vest designs.

Sintered SiC (SSiC) exhibits exceptional chemical and physical stability, making it a highly durable engineering ceramic for structural components. SSiC’s insensitivity to oxidation makes it suitable for precise machine work with tight tolerances; its precision also makes it suitable for mechanical seal applications in challenging environments like oil and gas production or power generation. Furthermore, dynamic sealing technology such as pumps or drive systems also benefit greatly from using it as dynamic sealing material.

Silicon carbide stands out among ceramic materials for its exceptional creep resistance at elevated temperatures, even under repeated loading cycles. Its thermal shock resistance of 1600oC without significant strength loss also make it a highly sought-after material in high performance applications like automotive manufacturing, chemical machinery production, aerospace design, energy technology development and semiconductor production.

Silicon carbide stands out among materials due to its outstanding wear- and abrasion-resistance as one of the few that can be utilized as extremely strong, resilient refractories. Used in blast furnace linings to shield metals against wear-induced erosion as well as coatings for rotary kilns, silicon carbide has found widespread application as a reliable material that offers both protection against abrasion and corrosion as well as being used as an extremely tough coating material for blast furnace refractories.

Saint-Gobain offers high-grade SiC grades to meet the demands of various industries. Available as powder, sinter and sintered material. Elkem Processing Services (EPS), our state-of-the-art facility located near Pittsburgh offers customer support and technical assistance while custom mixing to your exact specifications – fully automated line allows mixing, classifying and packaging as required – as well as testing equipment allowing customers to verify quality before shipping it out for use in applications of their own choosing.

High-temperature thermally conductive applications

Silicon carbide is an advanced nonoxide ceramic material, performing admirably in thermally and mechanically demanding applications. As one of the hardest materials known, only second to diamond and boron carbide, silicon carbide finds widespread application: in wear-resistant parts for its hardness; as heat resistance in refractories/ceramics/refractories/ceramtics for its low coefficient of thermal expansion/chemical inertness properties; electrical components such as thermistors and varistors because it offers high electrical conductivity; electrical components.

Fabrication methods that produce silicon carbide ceramic parts with exceptional properties for extremely high temperatures include sintered SiC such as Saint-Gobain’s Hexoloy brand from extreme temperatures of 2,000degC can include dry pressing and extrusion; while reaction bonded silicon carbide (aka siliconized sic) can be made using additive forming, casting or extrusion, reacting porous carbon feedstock with molten silicon through additive forming or casting techniques and extrusion; this fully densified SiC demonstrates excellent chemical and mechanical properties suitable for end use applications of end use temperatures up to 1,400degC.

SiC is used in consumer automobile brake linings to prevent wear from friction. Recrystallized SiC can also be found as brake pad material to minimize wear caused by friction. Recrystallized SiC can also be found as recrystallized ceramic insulators for construction and sanitary ware, zinc purification plants as well as construction skid rails and muffles for furnaces. Furthermore, sintered SiC offers exceptional thermal expansion control as well as low electrical conductivity making it a prime candidate for use as sintered sintered ceramic insulation material which makes kiln furniture setsters insulators construction materials as well as recrystallized ceramic insulators construction materials used throughout its various applications. Recrystallized SiC can also be found used extensively as sintered ceramic insulation materials in electronics industry applications like this and zinc purification plants where zinc purification plants use it extensively in their plants as well. Additionally its low coefficient thermal expansion properties make sintered SiC an excellent material which makes sintered SiC batts setsters tubes as well as furnace skid rails and muffles which allows its use within its production processes for further use within manufacturing plants using zinc purification plants using zinc purification plants with its low coefficient thermal expansion coefficient making sintered SiC an excellent material choice making sintered SiC an excellent material to make furnace skid rails muffles making sintered material making sintered SiC an excellent material.

Silicon carbide ceramic’s high-temperature capability enables it to withstand the intense temperatures generated by plasma-arc welding. As it offers exceptional resistance to chemical corrosion such as phosphoric, sulfuric and nitric acids, ceramic is often chosen for jet engine nozzles and coatings due to its versatility in use. High temperature bearings, bulletproof plates and nozzles made of silicone rubber are widely used across aerospace, mechanical engineering, automotive and chemical industries. Silicon carbide ceramic has seen increased use as the basis for multi-chip modules in power semiconductor devices due to its superior electrical properties. Ceramic yarn guides and deflecting elements used in textile equipment boast high tensile strength and wear resistance to ensure long service lives under high-speed applications. Their robust nature also enables SiC ceramics to be utilized in applications like rotary pumps, electrical components that withstand wear-and-tear resistance and nuclear reactor liners.