Ceramic Manufacturing Types and Terms

Industrial Ceramics Types

  • Ceramic armor is an extremely hard nonmetal body having good fracture toughness, extreme wear and corrosion resistance and a high capacity to absorb ballistic impacts.
  • Ceramic ball bearings are smooth, lightweight and high tolerance, leading to an increased maximum rotational speed.
  • Ceramic bushings are extremely reliable and hardy, and are often made from alumina ceramics or Steatite.
  • Ceramic coatings are, although expensive, able to give coated objects a life of up to 10 times longer.
  • Ceramic composites are raw ceramics mixed with other materials to achieve desired properties. Ceramic composites can be significantly stronger and more resistant to damage.
  • Ceramic insulators are used for a wide variety of applications, because of very good electrical conductivity.
  • Ceramic machining involves the design and manufacture of ceramic precision components.
  • Ceramic manufacturers are companies that make ceramic materials.
  • Ceramic rods are solid, cylindrical ceramic products.
  • Ceramic spacers provide equal and constant spacing between materials or objects.
  • Ceramic tubes are hollow, cylindrical ceramic products, often available with single or multiple bores.
  • Ceramic washers are used for their high abrasion, temperature and corrosion resistance.

Industrial Ceramics Types

Adsorption - The act of one material adhering to another. In the case of clay and water, water is held on the surface of clay by a loose bonding force.

Amorphous - A property meaning that something does not have a regular structure. Glass (www.glass-fabricators.com) is an example of an amorphous material, as a result of its being cooled too rapidly to form a crystalline structure.

Attribute - A characteristic of an object.

Bisque - Unglazed, fired clay.

Bloating - A distortion caused by moving gases when the firing process occurs too rapidly.

Blunging
- A term for the mechanical mixing of clay slurry.

Ceramic Change - The point at which, during firing, the clay becomes ceramic.

Coefficient of Thermal Expansion
- The measurement of the length change of ceramic materials under temperature change. Ceramics expand while heating and contract while cooling.

Deflocculation
- The process of changing a thick clay slurry into a thinner, pourable substance by adding small amounts of liquid or powder to the mixture.

Devitrification - The crystallizing of a ceramic melt during cooling, which results in a "matte" finish.

Dunting - The cracking that results from a fired object being cooled too quickly.

Eutetic - The lowest temperature at which two materials will melt together.

Firing - The act of maturing the clay by heating inside a kiln.

Flocculation - A process that thickens liquid slurry into a gel in order to avoid drips and improve suspension.

Flux - A material that is added to a mix in order to lower the melting temperature of the whole.

Glaze - The liquid covering that is applied to bisque or greenware, which produces a hard, glassy surface.

Greenware - Clay objects that have not yet been fired.

Kiln - A high temperature furnace or oven, which is used to fire ceramics.

Maturity - The point at which ceramics have had the correct amount of firing.

Mold - A permanent form that is used to press clay into a shape in preparation for firing.

Porosity - A term for the amount of pores, or empty spaces, within a material.

Refractory
- A material's ability to endure heat without deforming.

Sintering
- Heating clay to the point at which it will no longer break down when exposed to water.

Thermal Shock - The volume change in a material that results from a sudden shift in temperature.

Vitrification
- The point during firing at which clay particles will turn into glassy melts, forming glass.