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Ceramic injection moulded zirconia products enjoy success in high-value luxury applications
Feature article: PIM International, Vol.4 No.4 December 2010, pages 33-37, 2260 words
BASF SE, G-CA/MI Powder Injection Moulding, D-67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany
Coloured zirconia ceramics can be produced by the CIM process, yielding entirely dense sintered materials that are highly suited to high gloss polishing.
As Johan ter Maat and colleagues from BASF SE explain, these materials have succeeded in attracting the attention of luxury goods producers.
From watches and mobile phones to writing instruments and automotive interiors, the authors present some striking examples of the possibilities of injection moulded zirconia ceramics.
Introduction
Tetragonal zirconia is a comparatively young class of ceramic materials which was only discovered in 1975 [1]. The yttria-stabilised polycrystalline version (TZP, tetragonal zirconia polycrystalline) appeared around 1980 and the first useful powder was produced by the Japanese company Tosoh on a commercial scale in 1983.
This chemically derived powder is ultrafine and shows a very good sintering activity; with appropriate powder processing it can be readily sintered into practically theoretical density.
TZP exhibits an unusual combination of several favourable properties; it shows high strength, high toughness, high hardness, low thermal conductivity, a high volumetric density and a high refractive index (see Table 1 for typical values from several sources, notably [2, 3, 4]).
It is rewarding to explore and understand the reasons for this set of properties. The high strength of TZP is associated with the very fine crystallite size of the sintered material, usually not more than 0.3-0.5µm, allowing a four point bend strength of 1000 MP33a or more. It is essential that a high.......
Further sections of this paper include:
- History
- Formulation and processing
- Properties
- Applications
- Conclusions
- Acknowledgments
- References
Figures and Tables:
Fig. 1 Weibull plot of bend strength measurements of injection moulded black TZP bars
Fig. 2 Rado Integral watch utilising black TZP ceramic material
Fig. 3 Rado Sintra Jubilé watch utilising white TZP ceramic material
Fig. 4 Battery cover in black ceramic for an exclusive mobile phone
Fig. 5 Luxury pen with black ceramic body
Table 1 Materials properties of TZP ceramic
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