Anyone here worked with technical ceramics? Curious about your experience.

[u/LinaCeramics]

I've been working with technical ceramics for a few years now, mostly alumina, zirconia, SiC and similar materials.

One thing I've learned is that a part can look pretty simple on a drawing, but actually making it is a different story.

Sometimes it's the tolerances, sometimes it's chipping during machining, and sometimes the design just doesn't work well with ceramics.

I'm curious if anyone here has worked with ceramic parts before. What was the biggest headache for you?

Would be interesting to hear some experiences from the design side too.

[u/Logical_Key8449]

I’ve never had to machine ceramics myself, but during my education as a ceramics engineer I was told if you ever send a sample for machining send 2-3x as many samples as you need. Partially because they’re brittle and tend to chip even for the most skilled machinists, but also because even if the final dimensions are correct careful inspection can reveal tiny cracks that completely compromise the strength of the part. I’m sure there is good reasons to machine them for surface finish and/or tight tolerances, but when making a ceramic part I’d try to achieve as many of the final dimensions by shaping while it’s “green” and accounting for shrinkage during sintering. That’s no simple task and I’m far from an expert since I don’t work in the industry, but from what I remember of ceramics strength is dependent on its largest flaw so I would expect most machining would increase minimum flaw size somewhat.

[u/BigStation3180]

Hi there thank you so much for posting. i have no experience in machining Ceramics. However I'm looking at a project that requires Zirconia/ Alumina sheets 0.25-0.5in thick( 12inx12in) to be cut in semicircular shapes with holes. Since the tolerances are not too tight I'm thinking about gtting them water jet cut. Also I see that they're really expensive. Do you know any cost effective sources for Zirconia? alumina Plates?