The Advantages of Having Ceramic Fiber Paper in Your Corner
Ceramic fiber paper is a must-have for those who work in the manufacturing industry. It’s a type of the high temperature insulated paper that’s integral to many manufacturing functions. For one thing, ceramic fiber paper has a huge variety of applications — whether it’s protecting gaskets (like rope gaskets) from high temperatures or providing insulation — and there’s a range of grades and thermal conductivity, depending on what’s needed. If you’re looking to purchase ceramic fiber paper, we’re your best bet — we’ll discuss some of the benefits and applications that you might not have expected out of this material and what you should expect when ordering and handling it.
The Basics of Ceramic Fiber Paper
The primary hallmarks of the paper are that it’s white and odorless, made from alumnio-silicate fiber and put through a fiber washing process. It’s perfect for high temperature applications up to about 2300 degrees Fahrenheit, though some grades can withstand 2600 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some paper is also made with the use of organic binders — this is typically done when a greater strength is needed or organic burnout won’t work well for the application the paper is needed in.
What are Some of the Benefits of Using Ceramic Fiber Paper?
One of the major benefits of using ceramic fiber paper is that it has a low thermal conductivity and doesn’t store much heat. It’s also thermal shock resistant and is resistant to most chemicals, which means it has a low corrosion rate. It’s great if you’re looking to die-cut or use automatic stamping and has a high dielectric strength as well.
Another benefit to this type of paper is that it’s lightweight and uniform in its structure, which makes it a great type of insulation. It’s also flexible and fire-resistant!
What Can Ceramic Fiber Paper Be Used For?
This type of paper is most often used in insulation, heat seals, gaskets, lining, and stamping applications.
Insulation
It’s excellent in providing thermal and electrical insulation, refractory backup insulation, or insulating mufflers in vehicles. For high temperature or pressure applications, like ceramic or glass melting, furnaces, kilns, boilers, electrical insulation, and so forth, as well as aerospace purposes, ceramic fiber paper is integral to providing insulation, linings, gaskets, and seals.
Linings
This paper can be used as a backup lining, hot top lining, or parting plane in a refractory lining, or be used as a lining for slumping.
Heat Shielding
For automotive and aerospace purposes, it can provide heat shielding functions and protect against fire, spark, or molten metal.
Gaskets
Ceramic fiber paper can also help with metal clad brick gaskets or for any high temperature applications.
Miscellaneous
As mentioned above, it’s also useful for die-cuts and automatic stamping, filtering high temperatures, or wrapping pipes or metal castings that are at a high temperature.
As demonstrated above, it’s a very versatile material and one that’s excellent to have on hand, regardless of the industry.
How Can I Order It?
Just like with about anything these days, there are a couple different ways to order. If you’d prefer to go in person and consult with a sales representative, there’s likely local distributors in your area who carry it and can assist you. However, it’s also possible to order it online — this can be especially useful if you need regular shipments or you’re placing a particularly large order. Some manufacturers may also offer a discount if you get a large amount.
Most companies will also have a website where you can see what types of ceramic paper fiber they’re offering, its specs and properties, and the price, ahead of time.
It is worth noting, however, that handling ceramic fiber paper does require protective gear. Gloves, cloths, and a mask should all be engaged when handling it and you should think about dust control measures as well.
Don’t be without this versatile and important material today — find out what type of
ceramic fiber products you need!
A Summary of Aluminum Titanate
At temperatures greater than 1350 °C, solid-state reaction of titania and alumina leads to the synthesis of
aluminum titanate. Depending on its reactivity, the synthesized powder can be sintered at temperatures of 1400 °C–1600 °C in air. The crystal structure of aluminum titanate is pseudobrookite.
Ceramics that are made from aluminum titanate exhibit excellent thermal shock resistance. This is mostly due to its extremely low thermal expansion coefficient caused by the substantial anisotropy in the material’s properties.
Expansion along the a- and b-axes direction is positive, while the same in the c-axis direction is negative. Apart from producing almost zero thermal expansion, this causes microcracks in the sintered material, leading to moderately low material strength. SiO2 and MgO are additives used to prevent strength degradation. Strengths up to 100 MP have been specified for experimental materials.
Applications
The material has excellent thermal shock resistance, low thermal conductivity, and optimal chemical resistance to molten metals. These properties enable the material (mainly aluminum) to satisfy several metal-contact applications in the foundry sector such as crucibles, plugs, riser tubes, ladles, launders, and pouring spouts.
When compared to competing materials like calcium silicate and fused silica, components manufactured using
aluminum titanate products have significantly longer service life.
Moreover, aluminum titanate is utilized as an insulating liner in the automotive sector for exhaust manifolds, where there is a need to reduce heat loss before a turbocharger. In this article, the metal exhaust manifold is cast over the molded aluminum titanate liner. The difference in the thermal expansion between the steel and aluminum titanate manifold during cooling maintains the ceramic in compressed state. This helps in resolving the problems associated with its low strength.
MICA TUBES
When ordering
mica tubes, don’t envision a standard cylindrical tube. Mica tubes can be customized in terms of shape, thickness, length, diameter, and material. Since mica tubes are formed by multiple layers of mica paper, customizing mica tubes is very manageable.
Silicon Nitride (Si3N4) Properties and Applications
Silicon nitride (Si3N4) was developed in the 1960s and '70s in a search for fully dense, high strength and high toughness materials. A prime driver for its development was to replace metals with ceramics in advanced turbine and reciprocating engines to give higher operating temperatures and efficiencies. Although the ultimate goal of a ceramic engine has never been achieved, silicon nitride has been used in a number of industrial applications, such as engine components, bearings and cutting tools.
Silicon nitride has better high temperature capabilities than most metals combining retention of high strength and creep resistance with oxidation resistance. In addition, its low thermal expansion coefficient gives good thermal shock resistance compared with most ceramic materials.
Production
Pure silicon nitride is difficult to produce as a fully dense material. This covalently bonded material does not readily sinter and cannot be heated over 1850oC as it dissociates into silicon and nitrogen. Dense silicon nitride can only be made using methods that give bonding through indirect methods, such as small chemical additions to aid densification. These chemicals are known as sintering aids, which commonly induce a degree of liquid phase sintering.
Alumina ceramic (Aluminum Oxide or Al2O3) is an excellent electrical insulator and one of the most widely used advanced ceramic materials. Additionally, it is extremely resistant to wear and corrosion. Alumina components are used in a wide range of applications such as electronics, pump components and automotive sensors.
Elan Technology offers a variety of alumina compositions, including 94% Alumina Low CaO, 94% Alumina High CaO2, and 85% Alumina 14% SiO2, but the 96%
Alumina Ceramic is one of the most widely used materials.
Alumina components can be formed by a variety of manufacturing techniques such as uniaxial pressing, isostatic pressing, injection molding and extrusion. Finishing can be accomplished by precision grinding and lapping, laser machining and a variety of other processes.
The alumina ceramic
components produced by Elan Technology are suitable for metallization in order to create a component that is easily brazed with many materials in subsequent operations. Elan Technology offers a range of alumina compositions to meet your most demanding applications.