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Why do alumina ceramic components have spots and how to prevent?

alumina ceramic tube

Alumina ceramic is a kind of ceramic material with a-al2o3 as the main crystal phase, because of its own high melting point, high hardness, heat resistance, corrosion resistance, and electrical insulation characteristics, it can be used in more stringent conditions. Alumina ceramics, with low price and mature production process, is one of the largest and most widely used ceramic materials, mainly used in the field of cutting tools, wear-resistant parts, and bioceramics. In addition, it is also widely used in energy, aerospace, chemical electronics, and other aspects. Especially 95% alumina and 99% aluminas, whether in structural ceramics or electronic ceramics are one of the most widely used ceramic materials.

In the production process of alumina ceramic parts, such as alumina ceramic tubes, alumina plates, and alumina rods there are often black, brown, and pink spots on the surface of the ceramic part, as well as on the inside. This spot is one of the main reasons for the unqualified alumina ceramic products.

The main impurities of black and brown spots are Fe, and the main impurities of pink spots are Fe, Cr, and Ni. By analyzing the composition of the spots and tracing the production process, it can be preliminary determined that the black and brown spots are mainly caused by mixing mechanical iron particles in advanced ceramic production. And pink spots from the composition analysis can be judged to be caused by stainless steel material fine particles.

Now we know the reason why alumina ceramic components have spots, how do we prevent and solve it?

Raw materials: choose raw materials with good quality and low iron content as far as possible, and remove iron by magnetic separation when necessary.
Grinding: pay attention to observing whether the ball mill lining brick falls off and timely repair.
Granulation: slurry conveying with magnetic separation to remove iron, hot blast furnace, and hot air filtration to avoid hot air system rust into the material. The granulated powder is magnetically separated to remove iron before final product packaging.
Piping: All piping should be lined with polyurethane whenever possible.

Signs You Need to Replace 3D Printer Nozzle

3D printing can be enjoyable when everything is going right. However, it can rack your brains when something goes wrong. 3D printing issues can usually be fixed by adjusting the settings or the parts. But if you’ve tried everything and it’s still not working, it could be that you need to replace a part in your 3D printer, particularly the nozzle.

What could wear out your nozzle? Here are the following reasons:

Nozzle Damaging Practises
Using abrasive filaments

Some 3D printer filaments are tough on regular nozzles. These are usually “composites” or filaments that have been reinforced by fibers to improve their mechanical properties. These filaments are:

Carbon fiber
Fiberglass
Nylon
Metal-filled filaments
Glow-in-the-dark filaments

Use tougher nozzles made of hardened steel, ruby, tungsten, and stainless steel when using these filaments. They are much more capable of withstanding the abrasiveness of these filaments and lasting longer than the regular brass ones.

Aggressive nozzle unclogging methods

While unclogging your nozzle can be good for your nozzle and the quality of your print outcome, doing it often and aggressively can wear out your nozzle. You have to be careful of clearing it, using gentle methods and materials to clean it with. Follow our nozzle unclogging and cleaning tips that won’t harm your nozzles.

3D Printing Issues that may be caused by nozzle damage

You may encounter a reduction in print quality when your nozzle is worn out. You’ll notice some of these issues crop up:

Under-extrusion
Poor layer adhesion
Print blobs
Uneven or rough print surface

However, it can be tricky to attribute these issues to nozzle wear. These issues can also be caused by the following:

Clogged nozzle
Setting the bed too high
Incorrect nozzle diameter setting in the slicer

Check your 3D printer to make sure that you’re not committing any of the mistakes above. If you’re still experiencing the same print quality issues after checking your 3D printer, then it means it’s time to replace your nozzle.

Signs of Nozzle Damage

To the untrained eye, a worn-out 3D printer nozzle looks just like any. However, if you look closely, you’ll see the signs of wear and tear. Here’s what you need to look out for:

Marks and grooves in the inner walls near the opening
Bigger nozzle diameter than usual
Nozzle tip has become dulled down or shortened

Take care of your 3D printer nozzle before it’s too late!

It’s not the end of the world if you have to replace your 3D printer nozzle. They are usually reasonably priced and easy to replace. In fact, it could be smart to stock up on nozzles of different diameters and make since you need to change them depending on the filament you’ll be using and the model you’ll be creating.

INNOVACERA supplies custom Ceramic heating elements for 3D Printer Extruder Hot Ends.

Contact us today with your requirements and our sales engineers will work with you to provide the correct product to meet your application.

Innovacera Ceramic Metallization Process

Our ceramic metallization process uses proprietary thick film manganese/molybdenum and tungsten coating as the base layer on ceramic components. This unique technology provides a wettable ceramic surface to metal bond in a brazed assembly.

To prevent oxidation and to improve wettability after the metallization layer is sintered into the ceramic at high temperature, it is plated using electrolytic plating. Metallization and nickel thickness is measured using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) technology to ensure desired thickness specifications are met.

With more than ten years of industry experience, the INNOVACERA team has expertise in a variety of application methods, capable of metallizing on Alumina Ceramic Components, AlN Ceramic Substrate, BeO Ceramic Substrate, from prototyping to production.

The main applications of metallization:

Feed-through insulators
Headers
High-power receptacles
Insulating discs
Insulating rings and cylinders
Precipitator products
Power Switches
Vacuum Interrupters
SCR Housing
Windows
X-Ray tubes
Optical
Photonics
Energy storage/batteries

Boron Nitride Ceramics Sintered Setter Plate For Sintering AlN Si3N4 Substrates

The boron nitride setter plate is made of high purity 99.7% boron nitride ceramics and has a high operating temperature in an inert gas (2100°C) and vacuum (1900°C) environment. It has excellent thermal shock resistance which can be used for applications having sudden temperature changes. It will not react or wet with a wide range of molten metals and glass. It is also a good electrical insulator.

Boron nitride setter plate for high-temperature sintering furnace. The maximum size to produce is 500mm x 500mm, plain holes, thread holes, grooves or shoulders could be machined on the plate. In this field, we can offer precision machined components.

ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) safe microporous ceramic vacuum Chuck

INNOVACERA ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) safe microporous ceramic vacuum chuck (black and dark brown) can be customized to provide high-performance suction and clamping for automated processing of film materials or visual inspection. It can meet the requirements of semiconductor lithography technology and flat display OLED cutting.

The advantages of anti-static microporous ceramic vacuum chuck:

They can realize full-area precise adsorption and clamp under a high vacuum atmosphere; little pollution and no damage to wafers;
The adsorption force is uniform, and there will be no local force during adsorption so that the wafer will not be warped and deformed, and the adsorption force will continue to be stable, which can ensure the processing accuracy of the wafer;
They are widely used in semiconductor lithography and other processes;
They can absorb conductors, semiconductors, and insulators such as metal foils, wafers, glass, resin films, etc.

Is hexagonal boron nitride (HBN) a conductor or an insulator?

Hexagonal boron nitride is a boron product with a wide range of applications. For it, the question that many people are very concerned about is whether hexagonal boron nitride is a conductor or an insulator?

In fact, hexagonal boron nitride (HBN) is a typical insulator, and the resistivity at room temperature can reach 1016-1018Ω.cm, even at 1000°C, the resistivity is still 104-106Ω.cm.

The insulating properties of hexagonal boron nitride (HBN) are very good, and the thermal conductivity is very good. Therefore, it is widely used in various electronic materials and plays the role of thermal conductivity and insulation.

The boron nitride ceramic crystal belongs to the hexagonal crystal system, its structure is similar to graphite, and its properties have many similarities, so it is also called “white graphite”.

It has good heat resistance, thermal stability, thermal conductivity, high temperature dielectric strength, and is an ideal heat dissipation material and high temperature insulating material.

Typical applications include the following:
Electrode insulation parts and protective tubes for high temperature furnaces; boron nitride insulation components for polysilicon ingot furnaces, semiconductor heat dissipation insulation parts, high temperature bearings, thermowells and glass forming molds, crucibles for melting semiconductors, high purity boron nitride for molten metals Crucibles; Nitride phosphors, silicon nitride, aluminum nitride and other ceramics and crucibles for powder sintering, setter plates, etc.

Alumina (Al2O3) Ceramic Substrates for Resistors

Alumina is the most commonly used technical ceramic material. Thanks to its very good electrical insulation, dielectric strength, and high-temperature resistance up to 1500 °C, Alumina Ceramic is ideal for electrical applications and high-temperature applications.

Alumina ceramics feature:

Good mechanical strength
Good heat conductivity and fire resistance
Good corrosion and wear resistance
Very good electric insulation

The alumina substrates also possess several unique features:

Good surface with high smoothness/flatness and less porosity
High resistance to heat shock
Low warpage and camber
Stable in very high temperature and corrosive chemical
Very stable breaking strength and shape/dimension variance

Applications:
Network resistor, Chip resistor, Chip resistor array, Thick-film hybrid IC, Thin-film hybrid IC, General isolator

Ceramic heating element for 3D Printer Extruder Hot Ends

In September 2021, the 3D manufacturing accessories manufacturer E3D Online and the new phase successively released the 3D hot end in the current season, and the application of the Tusi semiconductor printing tube has been completed instead of the traditional single-head heat pipe. The hot new releases originate from the end of November 2021 and the month of December 2012.

The hot end is the first heating element of the hot end of the heating tube made of ceramic material, and the heating end is redesigned according to the unique characteristics of the ceramic heating tube. A new type of design hot end can provide 3D design convenience.

The two new hot ends are briefly described below.

E3D’s new hot end: Revo
Revo integrates a heating tube and thermistor. This design effectively solves the problem that the traditional hot end cannot accurately control the temperature.

Can quickly replace the nozzle, and can resume printing in the shortest time. Nozzle and throat are integrated with one unit, so there is no possibility of material leakage.
Weight reduction, the Revo™ Micro is half the weight of the E3D V6. Also in volume, it is smaller than the V6. Therefore, the space occupied by the print head is reduced, thereby improving the printing accuracy and speed.
The heating element is smaller and quicker than traditional heating blocks and has a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) that reduces power as heat increases, preventing overheating and fire problems.

Phaetus’ new hot end: Rapido

Larger heating area, which can meet the high temperature printing and faster printing speed.
Cylinder type ceramic heater for more uniform heating
Interchangeable design of different types of nozzles to meet the needs of high temperature and fiber silk printing.

What is the difference between ceramic heating and traditional heating?

Traditional Hot End: Includes a nozzle screwed into an aluminum heating block, which in turn is heated by an inserted cylindrical single-ended heating tube. The module also houses a removable thermistor for temperature measurement. Finally, a separate throat thermally isolates the hot end from the wire feed path, preventing it from melting on its way to the hot end. This heating method is very inefficient and has many problems:

The traditional hot end is bulky and heavy, which affects the printing accuracy and speed. If it is a direct extrusion system, it will also increase the frequency of motor vibration, further reducing the accuracy and speed.
There is an air gap between the heater block and the thermistor and the heating tube, so effective heat transfer and accurate temperature control cannot be performed. This leads to the problem of printing at different speeds and extrusion volumes without being able to quickly change the nozzle temperature to accommodate the changing filament feed speed. This is something that all consumer-grade printers have not addressed so far

Ceramic heating end: According to the current design, the inner aluminum tube is heated, thereby heating the wire passing through the aluminum tube. The hot end of this design solves several problems compared to the traditional hot end:

The application of ceramic heating makes the Revo hot end half lighter in weight and smaller than the V6 model. That is to say, the replacement of the traditional heating tube with ceramic heating can make the hot end design lighter and more compact than the traditional one, thereby improving the printing accuracy and speed.
Ceramic heating has the property of a positive temperature coefficient (PTC), specifically, reducing power as the temperature increases, thereby reducing the associated risk of temperature runaway when the maximum temperature is reached. At the same time, since ceramic heating can be integrated with the thermistor, the purpose of precise temperature control can be achieved.

Finally, the ceramic heating core has a more uniform heating performance and thermal efficiency. To achieve the same heating performance as traditional heating tubes, ceramic heating cores may only require lower power.

The iteration from single head tube to ceramic heating reflects the charm of technological innovation. Ceramic heating can indeed bring many benefits to 3D printing, at least from the research and development efforts of E3D and Phaetus. Technological innovation is generally led by the industry leader, and then the follow-up followers make the market bigger. Therefore, I personally think that after the launch of these two new hot ends, if the market responds well, there will be more and more 3D printers using ceramic heating elements in the future.

INNOVACERA supplies custom Ceramic heating elements for 3D Printer Extruder Hot Ends.

Contact us today with your requirements and our sales engineers will work with you to provide the correct product to meet your application.

Boron Nitride Ceramics for PVD equipment

Hexagonal Boron Nitride has a microstructure similar to that of Graphite. In both materials, this structure, made up of layers of tiny platelets, is responsible for excellent machinability and low-friction properties. we called hexagonal boron nitride (HBN) or white graphite. Boron Nitride is very often machined to isolate components that work in PVD equipment. They are being installed as replacement parts in PVD Magnetron sputtering systems.

How to choose the ceramic ring for the fiber laser cutting machine?

The ceramic ring is an important part of the cutting head of the laser cutting machine. Its main function is to transmit the electrical signals collected by the laser head nozzle, which plays an important role in the normal and stable operation of the laser cutting machine.

We often encounter equipment shutdowns for no reason, laser heads hitting the working surface and other failures that are actually caused by instability because of poor laser ceramic rings. So it is very important to choose a high-quality laser ceramic ring for the laser cutting machine.

Here is how to choose a high-quality laser ceramic ring.

The laser ceramic ring composes of a ceramic body, stainless steel parts, and copper needles. The ceramic body is mainly used to maintain the insulation of the laser head body. The stainless steel part is used to ensure sufficient contact with the nozzle, so transmitting electrical signals to the copper needles. After a certain period of use, the old laser ceramic rings in the market often have poor contact between the stainless steel parts and the copper needles, and the copper needles may break in severe cases, resulting in unstable signals, or even no signals, so the laser cutting machine stops for no reason cause losses to the user. High-quality stainless steel parts, after being assembled with ceramic bodies of appropriate size, can ensure good concentricity. So the laser cutting machine can reduce the concentricity error between the two when replacing the nozzle. It can greatly reduce the loss of working hours and greatly improve the working efficiency of the laser cutting machine! If you are interested in our laser welding machine. Please free feel to contact us.