CERAMICS post by Tan Huynh

Many materials perform extraordinarily well for a specific task, but few have the ability to perform exceptionally well for many tasks. One such example of a material is ceramics. Traditionally, one might think of applications for ceramics that simply include containers like pots and bowls, but the versatility of this material goes far beyond that. One such use for ceramics includes construction material for buildings, such as brickwork. In fact, ceramics have been used in buildings for thousands of years by people such as the Egyptians and even the indigenous people of southwestern America. The type of ceramic material used in this situation is referred to as adobe. It is primarily used in areas of extremes, like deserts, where limited building materials are available. In addition, ceramics have high resistance to the conduction of thermal energy, which make them great internal environment regulators for the structures built in the areas of great temperature fluctuation. It is this same property of insulation that makes ceramics perfect for use in applications such as smelting, furnaces and other heat intensive operations. Also, ceramics are effective at withstanding sustaining compressive loads and are often used in foundations for buildings; an example of one common ceramic is concrete. This material can also endure high thermal energy created by the presence of friction which makes it excellent for devices like brakes and ball bearings where metal, which is more conductive of heat, is typically used.

Unfortunately, application of ceramics in these areas is less widespread because of the inherent brittleness within its crystalline structures. This means ceramics are unable to support severe shock loads without fracturing. Also, the production of ceramic parts in place of traditional metal parts, while often more task effective, often proves too expensive in comparison to its cheaper counterpart. This is because the process for creating ceramics is either complex, in the case of crystalline ceramics, or energy intensive, in the case of non-crystalline ceramics. Crystalline ceramics are made from mixture of dry materials, mainly minerals, and mixed with water. The ceramics product must be formed and allowed to dry slowly to prevent fracturing, which is time consuming. Still, though, the product is extremely brittle and must be cured, often in an oven named a kiln, to strengthen its crystalline structure. The other type of ceramic is non-crystalline ceramic. This type of material is formed by heating minerals to their melting point and forming them into a material also known as glass. Unfortunately, the minerals which give ceramics there high heat resistance make them difficult to melt to form these non-crystalline ceramics, which leads to greater energy consumption, and thus cost in production.

While it is true that metal is cheaper to produce than ceramics, ceramics still holds an edge, quite literally, over its competitor.  Although ceramics are indeed brittle, it is this same quality that makes them superior to metal when it comes to cutting applications. This is mainly due to the malleability of the two materials, which is the ability of a material to deform in shape. Most metals are quite malleable, which is good in manipulating them into required shapes, but bad in cutting applications. This is because as the cutting device is applied, the edge, or blade, will slowly deform and become dull after a short time when it is made of metal. Ceramic on the other hand, has almost no malleability and therefore will not dull.

Ceramic, despite its few drawbacks, proves to be quite the useful material. It is a sufficient building material because of its ability to insulate and support significant standing loads. Ceramic’s properties of insulation also prove useful in steady friction loads and heat intensive applications as well, and fair far better than metal. Also, their low malleability makes ceramics effective for cutting applications as well. It should also be noted that the properties of ceramics were also not lost to early humanity, and have been taken advantage of for thousands of years, and will be applied for thousands of years more.