Saint-Gobain Launches Combat® AX15 Hot-Pressed Solid Boron Nitride for Ceramic Manufacturing

(Amherst, NY) — Saint-Gobain Ceramic Materials, the world’s leading manufacturer of hexagonal boron nitride, has added a new product AX15 to its Combat® family of high-purity hot-pressed boron nitride products.

Combat AX products, hot-pressed 99.7+% purity hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), exhibit exceptionally high thermal shock resistance, electrical insulation over 1800°C, and high thermal conductivity. The most popular product in the family, AX05, with its highest density and strength has been the material of choice for years in kiln furniture and furnace construction. The newest addition, AX15, with its uniquely open porosity, permits flow of process gases where outgassing is required, making it particularly suitable for direct contact, high-temperature environments such as crucibles, plates, setters, supports and muffles for aluminum nitride (AlN), silicon nitride (SI₃N₄) and SiAlON ceramic sintering. Like all other Combat hot-pressed products, AX family of boron nitride products can be easily machined into intricate shapes with tight tolerances using standard machining tools.

“AX15 is a perfect complement to AX05” said Dr. Eugene Pruss, Technical Manager, Boron Nitride Products, Saint-Gobain Ceramic Materials. “Combat AX products do not react with graphite or other ceramics, and their strength is unmatched for temperatures up to 1800°C and beyond in inert and vacuum environments. Together, AX15 and AX05 now offer a complete solution for both non-contact kiln furniture and direct-contact sintering media for high temperature ceramic processes” added Dr. Pruss.

In addition to pure hot-pressed solid boron nitride, Saint-Gobain also offers composites of zirconia and silica as well as grades using boric oxide and calcium borate binders. Combat hot-pressed solid BN is used in a wide variety of applications such as high temperature insulators for PVD coaters and ion implanters, nozzles for powder metal manufacturing, side dams for molten metals, and many more.