Zirconium ceramics

Zirconium ceramics

Zirconium is a highly durable industrial ceramic with excellent properties in terms of hardness, fracture toughness, and corrosion resistance. This overcomes the most common problem with ceramics—high brittleness. Its unique resistance to crack propagation and high thermal expansion make it an excellent material for joining ceramics and metals such as steel. Due to its unique properties, zirconium is sometimes referred to as "ceramic steel."

Zirconium (ZrO2 ) ceramics possess the highest impact toughness and room-temperature strength of all modern ceramic materials. Currently, it is widely used in grinding balls, dispersion and grinding media, nozzles, ball valve seats, zirconium dioxide molds, microfan shafts, optical fiber pins, optical fiber sleeves, drawing dies and cutting tools, wear-resistant knives, and other room-temperature-resistant grinding parts. Zirconium is widely used in thermal barrier layers, catalyst housings, medical devices, healthcare, textiles, and other applications.

This dense, modern ceramic material is typically precision ground using conventional diamond burs and wheels. Machines used for precision grinding include:

• Surface grinding machines

• CNC milling machines

• Jig grinders

• Centerless grinding machines

• CNC lathes

• ID grinding machines

Types of dense modern ceramic components include:

• Ceramic valve components
• Ceramic pump liners
• Ceramic roller
• Ceramic plugs
• Ceramic sleeves
• Ceramic pistons
• Ceramic nozzle
• Precision ceramic balls
• Ceramic coils
• Ceramic shaft
• Ceramic pressing tool