Cutting it with Fire & Water

Cutting it with Fire & Water

Over the years there have been many great movies involving fire and water and the fantasy drama television series ‘Game of Thrones’ has done much to take two of the earth’s most natural elements to a whole new level.

Behind the scenes, fire and water provide a slightly less glamorous […]

Chicken & Egg – A Strange Parallel with Technical Ceramics

Chicken & Egg – A Strange Parallel with Technical Ceramics

Throughout history, philosophers and scientists have confronted the dilemma “which came first, the chicken or the egg”? To ancient philosophers, this problem was at the center of their questions as to how the universe and life on planet earth began. Even more recently, scientists […]

Ceramics Provide Perfect Cover in Ballistic Armor

Ceramics Provide Perfect Cover in Ballistic Armor

Over the years, ceramics have found their way into many specialized fields. But ballistic armor has to be one of the strangest.

In the aftermath of World War II, the search to find new methods of reducing casualties became paramount, especially as the increasing development in rifles […]

Ultra High Vacuum – Invaluable To Science & Research

Ultra High Vacuum – Invaluable To Science & Research

The first time I heard the expression “ultra-high vacuum”, I was sitting in a meeting in the 1970’s, looking at drawings, and was asked if the parts in the drawing complied. Luckily my colleague was on the ball and I did not need to confess that I wasn’t sure what they meant.

Ultra-high vacuum […]

Ceramic Balls – The Answer to an Engineer’s Prayers!

Ceramic Balls – The Answer to an Engineer’s Prayers!

I first came across a ceramic ball race many years ago when I was handed one which had broken into several pieces. The failure of this assembly should have pointed to limitations in the material. But as it came from a Formula One racing car which had been driven by a certain Michael […]

What are Machinable Ceramics?

What are Machinable Ceramics?

For most people, ceramics are hard, brittle materials, mostly associated with tiles, bricks, and pottery. These functional and mostly clay-based materials are the most common ceramics in daily use.  The more specialist technical ceramics used in extreme environments and demanding […]

ALN Comes of Age

ALN Comes of Age

Aluminum Nitride (ALN) has long been regarded as the material of choice when Alumina substrates cannot meet the demands of high thermal conductance for electronics. The vast majority of the world’s production of Aluminum Nitride is consumed in 0.040” and 0.025” thick […]

New USA Representation for Barat

New USA Representation for Barat

Barat Ceramics, the German specialist ceramic-to-metal seal company has appointed China Ceramic Parts to represent them in the USA. The full range of metalized ceramics, active alloy-brazed and brazed ceramic-to-metal seals, glazed and metalized, will be covered. Barat has a […]