Sintered Silicon Carbide

Sintered silicon carbide is an outstanding ceramic material, boasting high strength and hardness as well as great oxidation resistance and thermal shock resistance. To produce it, heat and pressure must be used to sinter a powdered raw material into solid form.

Sintering uses atomic diffusion to densify a green body, producing sintered silicon carbide with minimal shape shrinkage and an extremely dense microstructure.

Aerospace

Sintered silicon carbide is an ideal material for aerospace applications due to its combination of strength, hardness and temperature resistance – qualities which make it great for use in jet engine components and other technologies. Furthermore, its lightweight properties save weight while improving performance.

Silicon Carbide is one of the hardest ceramic materials, retaining its hardness even at high temperatures while offering exceptional corrosion resistance. Morgan’s Purebide PGS-100 is a superior material choice for hardface pair seals and other mechanical seals as it offers excellent abrasion and chemical resistance with increased temperature capability, enhanced lubricity, increased PV capacity between mating hardface pairs, as well as free graphite inclusion that improves lubricity for smooth operation and greater PV capability between hardface pairs.

Reaction bonded and direct sintered silicon carbide are the two primary grades used for industrial applications. Reaction bonded SiC is produced by mixing fine silicon carbide powder with non-oxide sintering additives in an inert atmosphere and then sintering at high temperatures to produce dense products with coarse grains and lower hardness levels; production costs tend to be less when producing reaction bonded silicon carbide as opposed to sintered alpha SiC.

Direct sintered alpha SiC is created by mixing fine silicon carbide powder with sintering additives, and then sintering at low temperatures to produce dense product. Direct sintered alpha silicon carbide features fine grains with strong structures – making it the go-to grade for applications requiring superior hardness and wear resistance.

Automotive

Sintered silicon carbide’s unique tribological properties make it an excellent material choice for applications such as automotive components that rely heavily on friction between component surfaces, such as automotive brakes. Hexoloy SP SiC in particular stands out, performing exceptionally well across a wide range of mechanical seal and product lubricated bearing environments due to its spherical pores acting as fluid reservoirs for product lubricant or seal fluid reservoirs.

Silicon carbide ceramics have proven themselves an attractive material choice for mold making applications, such as 3D printing, ballistics production and paper manufacturing. Their excellent thermal stability and high dimensional accuracy makes them the ideal material choice for structural elements undergoing temperature variations and complex loads.

Sintering is a high-temperature process that utilizes atomic diffusion to densely compact powdered metal and nonmetallic materials into stiff, dense solids without melting, producing ceramic and metallic products with particular strengths, hardness, thermal conductivity and tribological properties. Sintering can be accomplished using various techniques including pressureless sintering, gas pressure sintering, hot pressing and hot isostatic pressing.

Reaction bonded silicon carbide can be produced by infiltrating compacts made up of mixtures of a-SiC powder mixed with carbon and vapor phase silicon into porous steel billets to produce b-SiC particles and rebond them with existing a-SiC particles, producing reaction sintered silicon carbide with an extremely low self-diffusion coefficient and no shrinkage or size reduction during processing, creating an extremely strong yet durable material with excellent ductility and an extremely low self-diffusion coefficient value that produces extremely strong sintered material with no shrinkage or shrinkage during processing, producing reaction sintered silicon carbide with no self-diffusion coefficient values under control.

Medical

Sintered silicon carbide’s low thermal expansion and rigidity enable it to retain its shape even at extremely high temperatures, making it the ideal material for acoustic transducers used in medical applications. Such devices must withstand the intense heat generated when pushing soundwaves through tissue; sintered silicon carbide also has the capability of handling frequencies beyond human hearing.

Morgan’s Purebide SSiC products are ideal for use in demanding industrial applications, including 3D printing, ballistic protection and chemical production. Their durability and strength enable them to withstand hostile conditions like extreme temperatures, corrosion, abrasion and impact without succumbing to degradation.

Sintering is a ceramic forming process that uses heat and pressure to convert powdered materials into solids through atomic diffusion, without melting. This results in solid structures with precise characteristics. Sintering is one of the primary methods of producing sintered silicon carbide.

Sintering techniques include hot pressing sintering, non-pressing sintering and reaction sintering; each method depends on its respective product requirements for sintering. Sintering is commonly used for creating compacts of mixtures of SiC and carbon that have been infiltrated with liquid silicon; subsequent compacts bonded together by this a-SiC then undergo sintered together to form sintered silicon carbide.

Oil & Gas

Sintered silicon carbide (SiC) is an adaptable material used in numerous industrial applications. As it resists high temperatures and chemical corrosion, SiC drill bits made from SiC are popular among oil drilling companies as they can withstand deep well pressures without shattering.

Silicon carbide has many other applications in tribological components like sliding bearings and pump impellers that are subjected to harsh environments, requiring materials that can function reliably even under extreme conditions. Silicon carbide provides such materials, boasting resistance against abrasion, corrosion, thermal shock, and thermal expansion/contraction better than metals.

Silicon carbide is known for being nontoxicologically safe, making it suitable for many food industry applications. Furthermore, its tolerance of chemical vapors makes it highly versatile as an extremely durable material that can withstand both mechanical and thermal strain.

To produce silicon carbide material, fine silicon carbide particles are compressed into blanks before being sintered in a vacuum furnace. The final product, commonly referred to as SSiC or SKiC, boasts an average density of 99 percent. Sintering aids containing 0.5% carbon or 0.5% boron can help accelerate densification; these additives aid the sintering process and decrease energy usage requirements while leading to higher densification and stronger final products.