Patented technical ceramics exceed the hardness of steel

The new Technical ceramics Metal-like Ceramic by Global Precursor Ceramics (GPC) combines for the first time the advantageous material properties of Ceramics and Steel. The start-up company's patented high-performance ceramics offer new perspectives for many areas of application from Rolling elements to Linear System.

“The steel-like ceramic material is an absolute novelty on the market. This opens up completely new possibilities in industrial production, ”says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stephen Sommer from the University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.

The material Metal-like ceramic (MLC) combines the low weight and high hardness of ceramic with the mechanical parameters such as the modulus of elasticity and thermal expansion coefficient of steel. The manufacturing process also enables a significantly higher geometry variance and reduces the effort for subsequent machining.

Technical ceramics lighter than steel

Compared to steel, the technical ceramic MLC saves up to 50% in weight. Nevertheless, the material has a Hardness of 1000 HV on. The ceramic material is very malleable, temperature resistant up to 800 ° C, has a high load-bearing capacity and can slide without lubricants. Metal-like ceramic is produced pore-free and shaped to near net shape. Small series production is possible using these technical ceramics.

Near net shape shaping 

First of all, the high-performance ceramics become one polymer base material made, which is enriched with active and passive fillers. This allows precise and near-net-shape shaping in, for example, extrusion processes or injection molding processes.

Then the material is at over 800 ° C temperatures ceramized or pyrolyzed. Chemical reactions with the fillers transform the polymer matrix into a ceramic product. A slight decrease in volume of 5 to 8% is already factored in. If the ceramic materials are intended for high-precision components, they can be reworked quickly. This guarantees mechanical properties such as a moderate hardness of 1000 HV.

Different applications for the MLC ceramics

Users in a wide variety of industrial sectors benefit from the advantageous properties of the new ceramic material. MLC is suitable for components in Clean room and vacuum or in corrosive or polluted environments. Even poor lubrication conditions do not affect the performance of technical ceramics.

Matching other applications technical ceramics are also those PCB and semiconductor manufacturing, Electronics, Mechatronics as well Measuring and testing technology, In addition come the Food industry, Textile industry, Welding technology, Lightweight construction as well Medical Technology, Extruders and injection molding machines.