In the world of high-end manufacturing, breakthroughs in materials technology often mean industrial innovation. As the “invisible pillar” of modern industry, industrial ceramics have evolved from traditional ceramics to high-performance engineering materials, which are widely used in aerospace, semiconductor, energy, electronics and automotive fields. So, industrial ceramics is what material? Why it can occupy such an important position in the modern industrial system? This article will be to good ceramics for your comprehensive analysis.

Originally derived from natural minerals, ceramics are inorganic, non-metallic materials that are sintered at high temperatures. Early ceramics were made from kaolin, feldspar, and quartz, and were used for household utensils and architectural decoration. These ceramics are called “traditional ceramics”.

In modern industry, the definition of ceramics has been extended to include engineering ceramics or advanced ceramics, where the raw materials are highly purified and modified to provide a dense structure and excellent performance.
The main components of modern industrial ceramics include:

• Aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃): High hardness and wear resistance for mechanical parts and seals;

• Zirconium oxide (ZrO₂): Strong and tough, commonly used in cutting tools, valve seats, and medical implants;

• Silicon Nitride (Si₃N₄)High strength and high temperature resistance, widely used in engine parts and bearings;

• Silicon Carbide (SiC): Extremely hard, acid and alkali resistant, suitable for use in corrosive environments;

• Aluminum Nitride (AlN): Excellent thermal conductivity, a key member of new electronic ceramic materials.

The combination of these high-purity materials makes industrial ceramics not only “hard” but also “smart”.

Ceramics belong to the inorganic non-metallic materials, along with metals and polymers as one of the three basic material systems.
Its distinguishing features include:

• Strong interatomic bonding (covalent and ionic bonds), resulting in high hardness and high temperature resistance;

• Not electrically or thermally conductive, most have insulating properties;

• Chemically stable, with much higher corrosion resistance than metal materials.

In recent years, the “rigidity” of ceramics is being broken with the development of materials engineering.
Some research directions have begun to explore “ceramic alloys” or “ceramic matrix composites”, by adding metal particles or carbon fibers to ceramics, to achieve a balance of strength and toughness, and applied to cutting tools, armor, turbine blades, and other extreme working conditions.

The three main raw materials of traditional ceramics - kaolin, feldspar and quartz - form the basic framework of ceramics.
And modern industrial ceramics on this basis added precision powder preparation and sintering control technology, to achieve a higher level of physical and chemical properties.

ZhiHao Ceramics' fine powder treatment + isostatic molding + precision sintering control ensure that the ceramic products still have high strength and stability under high temperature environment.
Example:

• Alumina ceramic parts exhibit excellent insulation and wear resistance in electronic packages and pump and valve structures;

• Aluminum nitride ceramic substrate has high thermal conductivity and is an important material for heat dissipation in power modules.

This is the key leap from “traditional” to “industrial” ceramic materials.

Industrial ceramics, with its unique properties, has become an important engineering material to replace metal and plastic. Its main characteristics are as follows:

These properties are fully utilized in high-end applications such as alumina ceramic parts, silicon nitride bearings, zirconia valve seats, aluminum nitride heat sinks, etc. in the ZhiHao Ceramics product line.

Main categories and basic characteristics of industrial ceramics

With the rapid development of 5G communications, semiconductor packaging, new energy vehicles, new electronic ceramic materials have become a key support for the science and technology industry.
Main Inclusions:

• Dielectric ceramics: used in electronic components such as filters and capacitors;

• Piezoelectric ceramics: converts mechanical energy into electrical energy, used in transducers and ultrasonic devices;

• Conductive ceramics: used in electrodes, sensors, heating elements;

• Thermally conductive ceramics (e.g. Aluminum Nitride): used for efficient heat dissipation in power devices.

Relying on precision processing and sintering technology, ZhiHao Ceramics has formed a complete electronic ceramics product series, covering from substrates, brackets to customized structural components, providing reliable electronic material solutions for global customers.

“Soft ceramics” are new ceramic materials with plasticity that can be molded and cured at low temperatures by introducing flexible organic components into conventional ceramic powders.
It is commonly used in the fields of artistic crafts, flexible electronic packaging and specialty protective materials.

Soft ceramics are more malleable and flexible than traditional “hard ceramics”.
The direction of research and development of such materials is reflecting the trend of ceramic materials from rigid to flexible, from static structures to functional materials.

China is a major force in the global ceramics industry. From the ancient blue and white porcelain of Jingdezhen to the innovative production of modern advanced ceramics, the Chinese ceramic industry has experienced a leap from craft aesthetics to material science.

Today, to good ceramics as one of the backbone of China's industrial ceramics manufacturing.
The company focuses on the research, development and production of advanced ceramic parts such as alumina, zirconia, aluminum nitride, silicon nitride, etc. The products are widely used:

• Semiconductor Packaging and Heat Dissipation

• Precision mechanical components

• Automotive sensing systems

• Chemical corrosion resistant equipment

• Electrical and electronic insulating components

ZhiHao Ceramics insists on material innovation as the core to create highly reliable and high precision industrial ceramic solutions to help China's manufacturing industry to achieve high-end and internationalization.

Structural ceramics mainly use industrial ceramics of high strength, high hardness, high temperature and corrosion resistance and other mechanical properties, applied to a variety of bear loads and harsh environments in the components. Among them, alumina ceramics is the earliest realization of industrial application of one of the structural ceramics, its constituents for Al₂O₃, general content is greater than 45%, can be in 1600 ℃ high temperature for long-term use, the strength of ordinary ceramics 2 ~ 3 times, the high one can reach 5 ~ 6 times. However, alumina ceramics also exist brittle, can not accept sudden changes in ambient temperature shortcomings.

Silicon nitride ceramics, on the other hand, is a high-temperature strength, high hardness, wear-resistant, corrosion-resistant and can be self-lubricating high-temperature ceramics, its coefficient of linear expansion is the smallest among all kinds of ceramics, the use of the temperature as high as 1,400 ℃, with excellent corrosion resistance. The shock resistance of silicon nitride ceramics is incomparable to alumina ceramics and any other ceramic materials.

Silicon carbide ceramics is currently the highest high temperature strength ceramics, in 1200 ℃ ~ 1400 ℃ use can still maintain a high bending strength, at the same time has a good thermal conductivity, oxidation resistance, electrical conductivity and high impact toughness. Because of its high thermal conductivity, it is often used in the manufacture of nozzles for rocket tail nozzles, throat nozzles for pouring metal and high temperature parts such as thermocouple casing and furnace tubes.

Functional ceramics, on the other hand, focuses on the use of industrial ceramics with special functions such as electrical properties, magnetic properties, biological properties, thermal sensitivity and optical properties. For example, the main crystalline phases of lithium oxide ceramic products are lithium chalcopyrite (Li₂O-Al₂O₃-2SiO₂) and lithium pyroxene (Li₂O-Al₂O₃-4SiO₂), which are characterized by a low coefficient of thermal expansion and a good resistance to thermal shocks.As a kind of network ectoform oxides, Li₂O has a role in reinforcing the network of the glass, and it can effectively improve the chemical stability of glass.

Hexagonal boron nitride ceramics are mainly composed of BN, the crystal structure of the hexagonal crystal system, its structure and properties are similar to graphite, so it is called ”white graphite”. Its hardness is low, can be cut and processed, with self-lubricating, can be made of self-lubricating high-temperature bearings, glass forming molds and so on.

New electronic ceramic materials is a branch of rapid development in recent years, mainly including dielectric ceramics, piezoelectric ceramics, semiconductor ceramics and so on. These ceramics are used as capacitors, resonators, filters, sensors, etc. in the electronics industry, and are indispensable basic materials for the modern electronic information industry. With the rapid development of 5G technology, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, the performance requirements for electronic ceramic materials are getting higher and higher, which drives the continuous innovation in this field.

The ceramic materials of the future will be more intelligent and multifunctional.

• In terms of performance: high thermal conductivity, super toughness, transparent ceramics and other new materials continue to emerge;

• In manufacturing: CNC precision machining, 3D printed ceramics, pressureless sintering, and other technologies drive mass production accuracy;

• In the industry: ceramics will be deeply integrated with new energy, chip manufacturing and aerospace fields.

To good ceramics continue to invest in material innovation and equipment upgrading, is committed to becoming the world's leading industrial ceramics solutions provider, materials technology to empower the future of intelligent manufacturing.

With the progress of science and technology and industrial upgrading, industrial ceramics as an important advanced material, its application prospects are very broad. In the field of aerospace, industrial ceramics will continue to play its advantages in high-temperature structural components; in the field of electronic information, new electronic ceramic materials will provide support for the development of 5G, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technology; in the field of new energy, ceramic materials in fuel cells, solar energy utilization and energy storage technology will have more applications.

At the same time, China's industrial ceramics industry will continue to promote technological innovation and industrial upgrading, strengthen the synergy between industry, academia and research, and enhance the added value of products and competitiveness in the international market. With the improvement of environmental protection requirements and energy saving and emission reduction needs increase, industrial ceramics as a way to improve equipment life, reduce the number of maintenance, reduce energy consumption of materials, will play a more important role in sustainable development.

In general, industrial ceramic materials with its unique performance advantages, will play an increasingly important role in the future development of science and technology and industry. With the advancement of material design and manufacturing technology, industrial ceramics performance will be further enhanced, the cost will be further reduced, the field of application will continue to expand, for human technological progress and industrial development to make greater contributions.