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Technical Ceramic Parts by Application
The grade, the critical property and the paperwork follow from what the part does. Find the application closest to yours, check the typical grade, then see what to put on the RFQ so a shop can price it without a round of questions.
Applications at a glance
Typical combinations, not a rule. Full property data is on the materials page and the processes behind each part on the processes page.
| Application | Typical parts | Usual grades | Property that decides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semiconductor equipment | Wafer handling end effectors, lift pins, chuck plates, etch and deposition chamber rings, gas distribution plates | Alumina 99.5 to 99.8%, SiC, AlN, yttria for plasma-facing parts | Purity, particle generation, flatness, plasma resistance |
| Medical and dental | Instrument tips, dosing plungers and valve seats, implant component blanks, dental frameworks | Zirconia 3Y-TZP, ZTA, high-purity alumina | Toughness, biocompatible grade, surface finish, traceability |
| Wear parts | Nozzles, wire and thread guides, bushings, forming dies, cutting edges, valve balls | Alumina, ZTA, zirconia, sintered SiC, silicon nitride | Hardness against the abrasive, toughness against impact |
| Electrical and vacuum insulators | Feedthrough insulators, standoffs, bushings, thermocouple tubes, heater supports | Alumina 96 to 99.5%, steatite, Macor, boron nitride | Dielectric strength, metallising, vacuum compatibility |
| Pump seals and plungers | Mechanical seal faces, pump plungers, bearings and sleeves, dosing pistons | Sintered or reaction-bonded SiC, alumina, zirconia | Flatness in light bands, Ra, chemical resistance, dry-run tolerance |
| Thermal management | Heat spreaders, power module substrates, heater plates, kiln furniture, burner parts | Aluminium nitride, SiC, cordierite, Shapal | Thermal conductivity, expansion match, thermal shock |
Semiconductor equipment
The largest buyer group for ground ceramic parts, and the strictest on cleanliness.
Wafer handling end effectors and lift pins need stiffness, flatness and low particle generation, so high-purity alumina and silicon carbide dominate. Electrostatic and vacuum chucks use alumina or aluminium nitride, the latter where the chuck must also move heat. Etch and deposition chambers use 99.5 to 99.8% alumina, and yttria or yttria-coated parts where fluorine plasma attacks alumina.
Flatness and parallelism of wafer contact faces are lapped. Cleaning, packing and particle limits belong on the RFQ, because shop clean is not cleanroom clean. Detail in ceramic parts in semiconductor equipment.
Medical and dental
Toughness first, then surface finish and traceability.
Zirconia 3Y-TZP is the default for surgical instrument tips, dosing plungers and dental frameworks because it is the toughest common oxide ceramic and polishes to a fine finish. ZTA and high-purity alumina are used for wear couples and implant-related parts. In humid heat, 3Y-TZP can age at the surface, which is why sterilisation cycles belong in the spec; see zirconia ageing.
Material standards such as ISO 13356 for zirconia and ISO 6474 for alumina define the blank. Device approval and the quality system stay with the buyer. More in zirconia parts for medical and dental use.
Wear parts
Pick by what the part rubs against and whether it gets hit.
Sand-blast and spray nozzles, wire and textile guides, bushings, forming dies and valve balls last many times longer in ceramic than in steel when the wear is abrasive. Silicon carbide and alumina are the hardest choices; zirconia and ZTA trade some hardness for much better resistance to chipping and impact; silicon nitride handles rolling contact and thermal shock.
Ceramic is not always the answer. Under impact or bending, carbide or hardened steel can win; see ceramic, carbide or hardened steel.
Electrical and vacuum insulators
Dielectric strength, temperature and a joint to metal.
Alumina 94 to 99.5% is the standard insulator for vacuum feedthroughs, standoffs and high-voltage bushings, because it can be metallised and brazed to metal for a hermetic joint. Steatite is cheaper where the electrical demand is lower. Macor and boron nitride are machined directly with no firing for prototypes, fixtures and high-temperature insulators in inert atmosphere.
The metallised areas, the braze alloy and the leak-test requirement change the quote more than the ceramic does. See metallising and brazing.
Pump seals and plungers
Flatness measured in light bands, finish in hundredths of a micrometre.
Mechanical seal faces run in pairs, often silicon carbide against carbon or silicon carbide against itself. Sintered SiC resists chemicals best; reaction-bonded SiC is cheaper but its free silicon limits chemical resistance. Faces are lapped flat to a few helium light bands. Plungers and dosing pistons in alumina or zirconia are ground and polished round and straight to run against a seal without wear.
State the fluid, the mating material and whether the seal may run dry. See lapping and flatness for how faces are measured.
Thermal management
Moving heat while insulating, or surviving thermal shock.
Aluminium nitride conducts heat about six times better than 99.5% alumina and expands close to silicon, so it carries power modules, laser diodes and heated chucks. Silicon carbide conducts heat well but is not a good insulator in most grades. Cordierite and mullite survive repeated thermal cycling in kiln furniture and burner parts. Read aluminium nitride against alumina for heat paths.
Typical properties behind the choices
Thermal conductivity (W/mK), thermal expansion (ppm/K) and fracture toughness (MPa m0.5) from the materials table. Typical published values for common commercial grades, not a guarantee for a specific blank. Background: technical ceramics.
| Grade | Conductivity | Expansion | Toughness | Typical application |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alumina 99.5% | 30 | 8.0 | 4.0 | Insulators, chamber parts, wear parts |
| Zirconia 3Y-TZP | 2.5 | 10.5 | 10 | Plungers, blades, medical tips |
| Silicon carbide, sintered | 120 | 4.0 | 3.5 | Seal faces, nozzles, chamber parts |
| Silicon nitride | 28 | 3.2 | 6.5 | Bearing balls, thermal shock parts |
| Aluminium nitride | 180 | 4.5 | 3.0 | Heat spreaders, chucks, substrates |
What to put on the RFQ by application
The drawing, grade and quantity come first on every request. These lines let us match shops already set up for your kind of part. The full list is in the RFQ checklist.
- SemiconductorGrade with minimum purity, particle and cleaning requirement, flatness and parallelism of the wafer contact face, packing (double bag, cleanroom), and whether the part faces plasma.
- MedicalGrade and the material standard it must meet (for example ISO 13356 for Y-TZP zirconia or ISO 6474 for alumina), surface finish of functional faces, lot traceability and cleaning.
- Wear partsWhat the part wears against (slurry, fibre, wire, metal), impact or not, and which surface sees the wear. That decides between hardness and toughness.
- InsulatorsVoltage and temperature, vacuum level, metallised areas and the braze or seal process that follows.
- Pump sealsFlatness in helium light bands, Ra on the sealing face, the mating face material, the fluid and whether the seal may run dry.
- ThermalHeat load and path, the mating material for expansion match, flatness of the contact face and metallisation if a die or module is attached.
Questions about ceramic applications
Which ceramic should I start from if I do not know?
Alumina 96% or 99.5%. It is the cheapest dense technical ceramic, insulates, resists wear and is available from almost every shop. Move to zirconia when the part breaks, to silicon carbide when it wears or must conduct heat and stay stiff, and to aluminium nitride when it must insulate and move heat at the same time.
Are ceramic medical parts made to a standard?
The material usually is. ISO 13356 covers yttria-stabilised zirconia for surgical implants and ISO 6474 covers alumina and alumina composites. The finished device and its quality system are the buyer's responsibility. State the standard on the drawing and ask the shop for the blank maker's certificate.
When is ceramic the wrong choice for a wear part?
When the part sees heavy impact, bending or point loads, or when the volume is too low to justify grinding. Hardened steel, carbide or a coated metal part often wins there. Our guide on ceramic against coated metal covers the cases.
Why does a seal face specify light bands instead of millimetres?
Seal faces are flat to well under a micrometre, which is measured with an optical flat and a monochromatic light. Each interference band of helium light is about 0.3 µm, so a spec of two or three bands is a flatness of under 1 µm. Lapping is the process that gets there.
Have a part for one of these applications?
Send the drawing and say what the part does. We match you with up to 3 shops set up for that grade and application. Free for buyers, reply within 24 business hours.