How A Ceramic Part Is Made

A ceramic part cannot be machined from stock the way a metal part can. Almost everything that decides the final size happens before the part is hard, and everything that happens after it is hard is slow. Understanding that order is what keeps a drawing quotable.

Raw Material Preparation

• The powder is prepared for dispersion, particle size and particle size distribution before anything is formed.
• For zirconia this means an ultra-fine powder with a narrow particle size distribution; the crystal size in the finished part is around 0.5um.
• For steatite it means talc mixed with clay, BaTiO3 and other ingredients, then ground.

Forming

• Dry pressing and hot pressing for beads, strips, discs and simple sections.
• Injection moulding for parts such as 99% alumina sheet and blank plate.
• The forming route is chosen by the shape and the wall thickness, and it sets how much stock is left for grinding.

High Temperature Sintering

• The part densifies and shrinks. Finished density is 3.85 g/cm3 for 99% alumina and 6.0 g/cm3 for zirconia, with zero water absorption and zero gas permeability in both.
• Shrinkage is why a sintered blank is not yet a finished part.

Grinding Polishing And CNC

• Surface grinding for flats, plates and substrates.
• Internal and external diameter grinding for rings, rods, tubes and plungers.
• Precision CNC machining for features that could not be formed green.
• Polishing where the part has to run against a seal or a fibre.
• All of these are carried out in house under strict quality control.

Laser Work On Thin Substrates

• Cutting to outline, tolerance plus or minus 0.02mm on 0.1 to 2.0mm thickness.
• Drilling microvias down to 100um, minimum 0.1mm.
• Scribing a defined break line, pulse depth 0.1 to 0.5mm.
• Marking by colour change, charring, foaming, melting or ablation.