The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) defines a ceramic as “an article having a glazed or unglazed body of crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or of glass, which body is produced from essentially inorganic, non-metallic substances and either is formed from a molten mass which solidifies on cooling, or is formed and simultaneously or subsequently matured by the action of the heat.”
The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word κεραμικός (keramikos), meaning inorganic, non-metallic materials formed by the action of heat. Until the middle of the last century the most commonly known ceramics were traditional clays, bricks, tiles, cements and glass. Many ceramic materials are hard, porous and brittle. The study and development of advanced ceramics over recent decades has involved ways to alleviate problems that rise from these characteristics. Morgan Technical Ceramics has played an important role in this development and today has a portfolio of Oxide, Nitride and Carbide ceramics which, using applications engineering, promotes their key properties enabling these materials to be used in a broad range of applications involving:
High Temperature Environments
Extreme Cold (Cryogenic) Environments
Highly Corrosive Environments
High Pressure Environments
High Vacuum Environments
High Frequency Applications
Hermetic sealing Applications
Advanced Ceramic raw materials as below
Alumina (Al2O3)
Aluminium Nitride (AlN)
Aluminium Silicate
Boron Carbide (B4C)
Boron Nitride (BN)
CVD Silicon Carbide
Fused Silica
Machineable Glass Ceramic
Magnesium Oxide (MgO)
Pyrolytic Boron Nitride (PBN)
Silicon Carbide (SiC)
Silicon Nitride (Si3N4)
Steatite
Zirconia (TZP)
Zirconia Toughened Alumina (ZTA)