Ceramic bearing materials mainly include alumina, silicon nitride, zirconia, etc. Among them, alumina and silicon nitride are widely used materials.
1. Aluminum oxide
Aluminum oxide has excellent insulation performance, good mechanical strength, and chemical stability. It has high strength at room and high temperatures, and low coefficient of thermal expansion. Meanwhile, the surface hardness of alumina is relatively high, which can meet the requirements of high-speed and high-precision use. Therefore, alumina is commonly used in conical bearings, rolling bearings, and other applications in high-temperature and high-speed environments.
2. Silicon nitride
Silicon nitride is an emerging ceramic material with excellent heat resistance, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and mechanical strength. Silicon nitride has high hardness, low friction coefficient, and is not easy to wear. Silicon nitride bearings have stable performance in high-temperature and high-speed environments, without generating lubricating oil residue or cleaning problems. Therefore, silicon nitride bearings are suitable for high temperature, high speed (above 10000rpm), high vacuum and other environments, such as semiconductor production equipment, vacuum extractors, catalytic reactors, pneumatic transmission equipment, etc.
3. Zirconia
Zirconia has strong chemical stability and mechanical properties, with a higher surface hardness than alumina and a certain degree of toughness. Zirconia bearings have better wear resistance and wear performance than silicon nitride, making them suitable for higher demand wear environments such as pharmaceuticals, food, mechanical seals, and other fields.
Overall, ceramic bearing materials have advantages such as good wear resistance, corrosion resistance, and impact resistance, and can exhibit better performance in appropriate application fields. However, due to the high cost of materials, their popularization in some application fields still requires time.
