Silicon carbide is an extremely versatile engineering ceramic, used across a range of industrial applications. Thanks to its high temperature strength, wear resistance, small thermal expansion coefficient, corrosion and oxidation resistance capabilities and chemical corrosion/oxidation resistance properties it makes this material an attractive option.
Common applications include wear-resistant components like bearings, mechanical seals and pumps in plant engineering as well as chemical engineering and petrochemical production. Furthermore, they excel at resisting abrasion, erosion and frictional wear.
High Temperature Resistance
Silicon carbide is an ideal material choice for applications where temperature resistance is key, such as aerospace components such as gas turbines and rocket nozzles. Furthermore, metallurgical industries frequently use silicon carbide to form abrasives and deoxidizers.
Silicon carbide’s superior strength, hardness and chemical stability at elevated temperatures make it an ideal material for load-bearing applications such as bearings and mechanical seals. Furthermore, silicon carbide boasts low density with good wear-abrasion resistance; furthermore it stands up well in harsh environments including acidic solutions or oxidizing environments.
Silicon carbide is widely utilized within the semiconductor industry for high-temperature applications like vacuum chucks and wafer carriers, where its ability to withstand extreme conditions enables faster production speeds and greater efficiency. As well, its dimensional stability and corrosion resistance help lower maintenance costs associated with wafer handling equipment. Furthermore, its low thermal expansion coefficient matches that of silicon, and it can withstand thermal shock. Silicon carbide lining materials make an excellent choice for use in furnaces and other industrial processing equipment, such as in furnace lining material or other lining applications. Available as both reaction bonded silicon carbide (RBSiC) and sintered silicon carbide (SSIC), both types offer long-term durability; RBSiC exhibits more resistance to wear-and-tear than SSIC.
Corrosion Resistance
Sintered silicon carbide wear tiles offer exceptional corrosion and wear resistance compared to all fine ceramics, giving you peace of mind in chemically demanding environments without fearing premature failure due to wear or corrosion damage. This provides peace of mind while simultaneously decreasing maintenance costs associated with such applications.
Corrosion resistance is an essential property of materials used in harsh chemical environments, determining its stability over an extended period of exposure to acidic and alkaline environments without becoming significantly degraded. Silicon carbide has proven highly corrosion resistant in this regard and makes an ideal material choice for applications such as slurry flashing and handling HF acid solutions.
Under harsh corrosive conditions, silicon carbide ceramic can form an oxide barrier on its surface which prevents direct contact between it and attacking species. This protective layer may be replenished either passively or actively oxidized depending on chemical species present in the attacking atmosphere as well as impurities, sintering aids or grain boundary phases in its substrate material influencing which reaction sequence predominates at any one time.
Silicon carbide offers more than corrosion and wear resistance; its heat stability also makes it an excellent material choice for applications that involve fast temperature changes like burner nozzles, jet tubes and flame tubes. Furthermore, its exceptional resistance to abrasion and impact make it the ideal material choice for semiconductor manufacturing equipment components like vacuum chucks and wafer handling blocks.
High Strength
Silicon Carbide (SiC) is one of the hardest technical ceramic materials, boasting high strength, chemical resistance and low thermal expansion rates – qualities which make it popular as components that must perform in thermally challenging and mechanically rigorous environments. Only diamond and boron carbide ceramics are harder than SiC; due to these characteristics it has applications up to 1400degC temperatures with RBSiC being an option as an nitride-bonded RBSiC solution.
RBSiC (RBSC or SiSiC) is an ideal material for thermocouple protection tubes that must withstand harsh operating conditions, including extreme temperature and flow rates. Other applications of this high-performance SiC material include burner nozzles, jet and flame tubes, process equipment parts and even armor applications.
SiC stands out from ceramics by having superior impact and abrasion resistance as well as shock load capacity, making it ideal for mechanical seals and pump parts subject to severe wear conditions such as high-pressure wear. Furthermore, SiC’s corrosion-resistance properties allow it to work reliably for extended periods without degradation over time.
High Wear Resistance
Silicon carbide ceramic provides superior wear resistance in applications that demand abrasive and impact resistance, while possessing low coefficient of friction and being resistant to acids (phosphoric, sulfuric, nitric and hydrofluoric acids).
Silicon carbide ceramics have proven their worth in high temperature and chemical environments, making them popular choices in national defense applications, aviation, aerospace, mechanical and industrial manufacturing, environmental protection measures, space technology applications and energy production.
Silicon carbide ceramic is composed of SiC granular material and reaction bonded powder. Once sintered in a furnace, these raw materials form dense ceramic product which can then be molded or shaped as desired before eventually reaching final form – boasting high hardness, elastic modulus and low coefficient of expansion at higher temperatures.
Material designed specifically to withstand high-temperature silicon wafer handling components is ideal due to its low density, mechanical strength and thermal shock resistance. Ceramic is also an excellent abrasion-resistant choice making it suitable for applications such as sandblasting nozzles, ceramic tubing and cyclone components.
Silicon carbide ceramics have become an invaluable addition to applications that involve heat exchangers and fuel cells, helping reduce power generation losses by recovering waste heat, improving overall engine efficiency and speeding up start times.